The cattle farm that Cade Stover’s family owns — and the unorthodox workout he’s crafted while working there — captured Rich Eisen’s attention at the NFL Scouting Combine.
It might’ve helped the NFL Network host figure out his fantasy football team’s name for 2024, too.
During a segment that aired Friday, the network aired a TikTok posted by Stover where he massaged a cow with both hands, and Eisen asked Charles Davis if he had the answer for what the Ohio State tight end was doing in the clip.
the 2024 NFL Draft. Screengrab via X/@awfulannouncing
“Gentlemen, I was actually correct in my assessment: he says he’s doing it to strengthen his hands,” Davis said. “He looked me dead in the eye and he said, ‘I’m massaging the leather.’ There you go, guys.”
Eisen then replied that “massaging the leather” would be his fantasy football name — “and I have my avatar,” he added.
Stover, a fifth-year senior ranked as a top-five tight end by most 2024 NFL Draft lists, grew up working alongside his family on their farm in Mansfield, Ohio, that stretched more than 250 acres and included blank angus cows, corn and alfalfa, according to Cleveland.com.
His dream, Stover has reiterated in numerous interviews, revolves around cracking the NFL but also finding a way to keep farming, with a degree in agricultural management coinciding with 82 receptions, 1,058 yards and 10 touchdowns at Ohio State.
“I hope to be a role model for farmers,” Stover said in a September story published on the Ohio State College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences website. “It’s not very often that you see someone that does play football at a higher level and has (a farming) background.
In 2023, he helped the Buckeyes to collect an 11-1 record in the regular season with 41 catches, 576 yards and five touchdowns, including five receptions for 98 yards in the opener and another three receptions for 42 yards during a Nov. 25 loss to Michigan — which eventually won the College Football Playoff championship.
Stover started with the Buckeyes as a linebacker before transitioning to tight end, and four years later, he’s on the brink of getting a chance to stick on an NFL roster during next month’s draft.
“The work ethic from the farm translates tremendously to what I do on a football field on a day-to-day basis out there,” Stover said in a video on the Ohio Beef Council website. “The harder you work and the more stuff you put into, that’s what you’re going to get out of it. And I think that the farm really shows you that.”
NFL.com’s prospect evaluation from Lance Zierlein described Stover as an “upside prospect” who could become a “productive starter within a couple of years,” comparing him to Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson.
