Sonny Styles family tree: Meet draft-eligible brother, NFL dad, girlfriend and more from Ohio roots originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles put together one of the most impressive NFL Combine performances ever, showcasing a rare combination of size and athleticism. Will it translate to stardom in the NFL?
Plenty of physical specimens have struggled to become stars at the professional level, and as an inside linebacker, Styles already plays a position that isn't valued as highly as most others.
Between his raw talent, Ohio State's track record for developing NFL talent and his own family's history on the gridiron, Styles has the makings of a potential superstar.
Here's a look at the family behind Styles, including his NFL father.
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Styles has a brother in the 2026 draft: college teammate Lorenzo Styles Jr., who is projected to be a late-round pick.
While they are heading to the NFL at the same time, the Styles brothers are not twins. In fact, they are more than two years apart. Lorenzo, who started out at Notre Dame before transferring to Ohio State, started his college football career earlier than Sonny.
Lorenzo is more than two years older than Sonny, as he was born in September 2002 while Sonny wasn't born until November 2004. With Sonny playing like a no-doubt first-round talent, he is able to head to the NFL at only 21 with his brother by his side.
Styles' brother, Lorenzo, is a cornerback who started his college career at Notre Dame as a wide receiver. Lorenzo had 54 catches for 684 yards and two touchdowns over his first two seasons with the Fighting Irish, but he transferred to Ohio State to play alongside his brother in 2023 and became a full-time cornerback after playing sparingly in his first season with the Buckeyes.
After transferring, Lorenzo told WSYX that making the move was a "hard decision," despite getting the opportunity to play with his brother. "At the end of the day this was the best opportunity for me to excel,” Lorenzo said, adding, “[We’re] trying to bring a national championship back to Ohio.”
Lorenzo, who is from the Columbus area, fulfilled that goal winning a national championship against his former program in his second season at Ohio State before finishing up his career with three pass deflections on a loaded Buckeyes defense in 2025.
While his brother lit up the NFL Combine and is the higher-rated professional prospect, Lorenzo impressed as well with a blazing 4.27-second 40-yard dash that he hopes will make him an NFL Draft pick.
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It might be no surprise that both Sonny and Lorenzo are athletic specimens when you consider the football career of their father, Lorenzo Sr.
The elder Lorenzo reached the NFL after earning All-Big Ten honors at Ohio State, carving out a six-year career as a linebacker from 1995-2000. While he was primarily a reserve, starting only eight of 70 games, he stuck around long enough to play in a handful of meaningful games.
Lorenzo jumped into coaching in 2010 and was on the staff of Lorenzo Jr.'s high school team when it won a state championship in 2019. Today, Lorenzo is a defensive analyst at Bowling Green under former Buckeyes teammate Eddie George.
Styles split his six NFL seasons between the Falcons and Rams, spending four of six seasons in St. Louis but playing more than half of his games in Atlanta after being drafted by the Falcons as a third-round pick in 1995.
Styles recorded 94 tackles over six NFL seasons, starting eight of his 70 games and never recording an interception.
Styles won Super Bowl 34 with the Rams at the end of the 1999 season, as St. Louis stunningly made a run to the title after QB Kurt Warner emerged as an unlikely star. Styles appeared in every game for the Rams in 1999 but did not start a game; he recorded a tackle in the Super Bowl win over the Titans.