Rookie pays homage to slain sibling; Esks’ Chambers switched jersey number to remember brother

Chris O’Leary
Edmonton Journal

On Monday afternoon, Shamawd Chambers will pull his jersey over his shoulder pads, look down at his No. 17 and take to the field at Rogers Centre with his friends and family watching.

The Edmonton Eskimo rookie wide receiver uses his new number – he switched from No. 88 to 17 a month ago – to remember the one family member who won’t physically be there on Monday.

Chambers’ mom will be in the stands at Monday night’s game in Toronto wearing her son’s #17 jersey.

His older brother, Jonathan, was killed in 2007 in a drug deal gone bad, the middleman in a foolish attempt by two dealers – Jonathan’s “friends” – to shortchange another with fake cash. Jonathan, 22, paid for the gamble with his life. He was held captive overnight by the shafted dealer, Lenworth (Blue) Spence, and on the morning of March 7, 2007, under Spence’s view, Andrew (Fame) Turner shot Jonathan five times on a quiet road north of Barrie, Ont.

The number bookends Jonathan’s life. He was born on March 1, 1985 and died on March 7, 2007. Chambers has the No. 1 tattooed on his left arm, the No. 7 on his right.

He has exhausted the hows and whys of the ordeal in that time. His father, Devon Chambers, told a Toronto newspaper in September 2011 that Jonathan came from a good family and that there was no need for him to delve into the dangerous world of cocaine dealing. When he went missing back in 2005, his family was stunned to find out the kind of trouble he’d gotten into.

Chambers began wearing the number when he played at Wilfrid Laurier University, telling CFL.ca last year that he sees the No. 17 everywhere and thinks of it as a sign that Jonathan’s presence is always with him.

Heading into his first trip to Toronto as a Canadian Football League player, Chambers is happy in a sense that his career has led him away from home, where the reminders hang around every corner.

“That’s why I like to stay away a little bit,” he said. “Obviously, (returning) brings up a lot of memories, good and bad. I think it was time for me.

“The best thing about me coming out (to Edmonton) was the chance for me to build my own life,” he said, pausing. “It’ll be kind of a milestone for me and my family to get to that point.”

Chambers has been away from the greater Toronto area for all of three months, his departure coinciding with a violent and deadly summer for Canada’s largest city. In a seven-day span that ended on July 13, 31 people had been shot in Toronto, four killed and one person stabbed to death. Papers called it the deadliest week in recent memory. Add to that the Eaton Centre shooting on June 2 when two people died and five others were wounded at the hands of a gunman, and a smattering of other shootings involving individual victims. The escalating body count paints a terrifying picture.

The 23-year-old has been vocal about each heinous act of violence this summer on his Twitter account, pointing out its senseless nature, calling for gun control and pleading with the city to control itself.

“It’s our justice system,” he said on Saturday, sitting in his stall in the Eskimo Locker Room.

“Our justice system in Canada, we don’t have harsher penalties against things that happen. If you look at the people that are committing these crimes, it’s the young kids, or it’s second offenders, people who went to jail, got off because of our justice system isn’t tough enough on them and they’re back on the streets doing the exact same thing.

“I think that’s the biggest problem that our country is facing, especially in Toronto. There aren’t harsh enough penalties for people who are carrying guns, not harsh enough penalties for people who are committing robberies and stuff like that. We need to do something different. We need to make sure there are penalties where people are sitting in jail.”

Five men were charged in Jonathan’s murder.

Chambers struggled to deal with how one by one, the young men sold one another out and plea-bargained their way out of jail time. He said that the trial shaped many of the views he has today.

“It did impact me because, the shooter, he got manslaughter – he’ll be out in four years – two years with good behaviour – and he pulled the trigger,” he said.

“I think our country doesn’t do enough and I think that’s something that’s going to have to change.

“It’s a tough situation. Obviously, I’m not a lawyer or a politician, so I don’t know everything about the judicial system, but from what I know from the outside looking in, it’s not good enough.”

Having lost a sibling and gotten a sliver of the justice that his family expected in the trial, Chambers said he couldn’t be bitter. Instead, he’s looking forward and trying to steer a life-altering negative into a positive.

“There’s no point. Angry and bitter people die fast,” he said, explaining his outlook.

“What I’ve noticed and what I’d really like for people to understand, when you go through a situation like this, your life becomes a lot more meaningful.

“I think that, in terms of situations like this, the most important thing to know is your life is more valuable. To retaliate or do something like that, it doesn’t make any sense.

“To do something like that, you get caught – I have two little sisters and my mom is a single parent. If I was to do something stupid like that, they would be the ones that suffer, right? I just understand that life has more to offer, there’s more to give. I’m just going to keep riding it out.”

That includes a long-term plan of reaching kids before they get to the point that Jonathan, or his killers, got to.

“I think that where I’m at right now, God puts people in certain places for certain reasons,” Chambers said, with teammate Cory Boyd throwing in an “amen” from one stall over.

“I don’t believe that I’m here to just make money. I’m here to be put on a pedestal, to speak to people,” Chambers said. “I’ve been through a lot of situations in my life that a lot of people say, ‘You shouldn’t be where you are today.’

“I’ve witnessed a lot of bad things and I think for me, I wanted to be that person that kids in Toronto and kids in different places can look at it and say, ‘If he did it, I can do it too.’

“It’s tough out here, and it’s tough being young nowadays, with our generation and how it’s gotten. I just believe that this is my calling, to be able to speak to people and touch people in different areas than just football. Football is just a small piece of your life. Being able to influence someone’s life is the most important thing.”

To that end, his family wants to spark positive change in Toronto.

His mother, Nancy, is in a group called U.M.O.V.E. (United Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere). His uncles and cousins on his mom’s side of the family are police officers.

His uncle, Keith Forde, was the deputy chief of police in Toronto before he retired in 2010.

Only seven games into his pro career, Chambers realizes that athletes are in a unique position in their ability to reach and shape children.

“I remember there was a day a year after my brother died, I said to myself that I want to make it to this level and I want to use this pedestal to allow me to speak to people so this never happens to any body else,” Chambers said. “I can’t stop everything from ever happening, but I can stop at least one kid from it happening to him.

“Murder and crimes are a domino affect,” he continued.

“It affects one person and it affects another person, it keeps hitting off people.

“If you can stop the initial (piece from falling), you can stop the big domino affect that’s happening.

“That’s what it is: You get to them while they’re young, so they don’t fall down that path and start that domino affect.”

While he’s back home for a few days, the past and present reunite. Football is a small piece of life, it’s true, but it’s front and centre on Monday and for the next 10 years or more, Chambers hopes.

No. 17 will run out onto the field on Monday and his family will cheer for him. And Jonathan will be there in his own way, as well.

“Always. I think he’s always with me,” Chambers said. “I think he’s always there with me for anything I do, not only when I play football, but every step of the way, good and bad. The things that happen, I know he’s standing there right with me.”