Bosworth played linebacker for the Oklahoma Sooners for three seasons, from 1984 to 1986. He was recognized as a unanimous All-American in both his sophomore and junior years.
Bosworth was barred from playing in the Orange Bowl following his junior year after he tested positive for steroids. He claimed that his use of steroids was medically prescribed by his doctor because of injuries.[2]
A strong-side inside linebacker throughout his college career,[3] Bosworth was known for raising his level of play in big games. He was regarded as a great tackler, although he was occasionally criticized for tackling too high. The winner of the first two Butkus Awards as the nation's top college linebacker, he remains the only player ever to have won the accolade more than once. College Football News ranked him No. 30 on its list of the "100 Greatest College Players of All-Time". In October 1999, Bosworth was named to the Sports Illustrated NCAA Football All-Century Team as one of only nine linebackers on the squad.[4]
College controversies
Bosworth is known for his radical hairstyles, his on-field play, and his criticism of the NCAA. He was particularly focused on the level of control the NCAA exerted over athletes, preventing them from making money during their college careers.
Because of the steroid suspension, Bosworth was not allowed to play in the post-season 1987 Orange Bowl. During the 3rd quarter of that game, Bosworth pulled off his football jersey to reveal a t-shirt that read, "NCAA: National Communists Against Athletes". Immediately picked up by the television cameras, this led to much consternation among alumni and administrators at Oklahoma. Aware that Bosworth was likely to be entering the NFL Draft anyway, the OU coach, Barry Switzer, dismissed Bosworth from the team.[5]
Bosworth was quoted in Sports Illustrated magazine's 1986 fall football issue as saying that at a summer job at GM's Oklahoma City plant, co-workers taught him how to insert the bolts in hard-to-reach places so they would rattle. He told the magazine, "If you own a Celebrity or Century made in 1985 in Oklahoma City, that car is (messed up) if I had anything to do with it". In addition, he claimed that each bolt carried a note that said: "Aha! You found me!" and said, "I love the thought of people going absolutely crazy, saying "Where is that ... rattle coming from?"' Some of Bosworth's former co-workers who read about it disputed the story.[6] Bosworth reportedly retracted the statement, although he later denied the retraction.[7]
In September 1988, Bosworth wrote an autobiography, The Boz, with Sports Illustrated'sRick Reilly. In it, Bosworth said the Sooner football program was laden with drug use, gunplay in the athletic dorm, and other wild behavior. Although many Sooner boosters dismissed it as the rantings of a resentful ex-player, an NCAA report issued three months later confirmed many of Bosworth's claims, and ultimately led to Switzer being forced to resign.[8]
NFL Draft
Bosworth planned his college coursework so that he could graduate a year early, which would allow him the option to enter the NFL Draft a year early. In addition, it would give him some leverage over which team drafted him. Knowing he could go back to Oklahoma if he did not get chosen by a preferred NFL team, Bosworth sent letters to various NFL teams stating that, if they drafted him, he wouldn't report to their training camp and he wouldn't play for them. As a joke, the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League selected him in the 12th round in their 1987 draft, as their general manager stated, "Because we didn't receive a letter from him that he wouldn't play for us." At one point, Bosworth was interviewed by Bryant Gumbel on The Today Show and declared his desire to play for the Los Angeles Raiders saying they best fit his personality.
By getting dismissed from the football team after the Orange Bowl t-shirt incident, Bosworth lost his leverage in trying to control where he would play.[5]
Professional career
Bosworth was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the supplemental draft in June 1987. Seattle was one of the teams to whom he had sent a letter of disinterest.[9] After initially declaring he would stick to his promise that he would not sign,[10][11] he signed both the biggest contract in team history and the biggest rookie contract in NFL history at the time: ten years for $11 million. After being drafted, Bosworth sued the NFL for the right to wear number 44 (the number he wore in college) and the Seahawks petitioned for a rules change, due to an NFL rule against linebackers wearing jerseys in the 40s, but were unsuccessful. Bosworth ultimately chose to wear number 55.[12] In 2015, long after Bosworth retired, the NFL changed its rules to allow linebackers to wear jerseys in the 40s.[13]
Bosworth signed with a Seahawks team that had failed to reach the playoffs for two seasons (a 10-6 finish in 1986 was only good enough for 3rd in the AFC West as they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in head-to-head matchup). He appeared in 12 games in his rookie season, playing well for the most part, but became known more for his outspoken personality and appearance than his actual play on the field. Before the first game of the season, versus the Denver Broncos, Bosworth trash talked Denver quarterback John Elway. At the game, 10,000 Denver fans wore $15 T-shirts reading "What's a Boz Worth? Nothing", but they did not know that Bosworth's company manufactured the shirts.[12] Later that season, prior to the Seahawks' second matchup with the Los Angeles Raiders, Bosworth publicly claimed that he was going to "contain" Raiders running back Bo Jackson. During a red zone play, Jackson received a hand-off and powered through Bosworth's attempted tackle to score a touchdown. According to Jackson, when he and Bosworth got to their feet after the play was over, he told Bosworth, "Next time, make sure you have a bus fare," infuriating Bosworth.[14] The Raiders went on to win that game, 37–14, thanks in part to Jackson's 3 touchdowns and 221 rushing yards.[15]
Injury
Bosworth was forced to retire in 1989 after only two seasons, having suffered a shoulder injury in the 1988 season. Team Doctor Pierce E. Scranton Jr. explained that, "Brian was a twenty-five-year-old with the shoulders of a sixty-year-old. He flunked my physical." In 1993 Bosworth prevailed in a $7 million lawsuit against Lloyd's of London.[16] Lloyd's position was that Bosworth's shoulder was injured as a result of degenerative arthritis which was not covered in his policy. Bosworth maintained his injury was sustained during a single hit.
Legacy
On January 9, 2015, Bosworth was announced as one of the inductees to the College Football Hall of Fame class of 2015.[17]
In 2004, Bosworth was picked by voters as the third-worst flop (and by an expert panel as the sixth-worst) on the Biggest Flops of the Last 25 Years list by ESPN.[18]
Commentator and acting career
Following the end of his football career, Bosworth decided to pursue a career as an actor. He starred in the 1991 action film Stone Cold and has had an on-again/off-again film career starring in several low budget titles such as One Man's Justice that went straight to DVD. In 2005, he had a role as one of the prison-guard football players in the Adam Sandler movie remake The Longest Yard. He also starred in Lawless, a television series for Fox that was cancelled immediately after its premiere.
In 2001, Bosworth joined the XFL as a color commentator for its television broadcasts. He was assigned to the crew which called games that aired Sunday nights on UPN, which consisted of Chris Marlowe on play-by-play and Chris Wragge and Michael Barkann as the sideline reporters.
Two years later, Bosworth was hired by Turner Sports as a college football studio analyst. Bosworth worked on TBS' Saturday night game coverage, contributing to pregame, halftime, and postgame coverage alongside studio host Ernie Johnson. He left the position after the 2003 season.
Bosworth has been a guest on numerous episodes of Chopped as a judge.
He appeared on episode 1, in the 2010 season of Hell's Kitchen as a dining guest.[19]
In August 2014, Bosworth appeared in a Dish Network commercial with fellow former players Matt Leinart and Heath Shuler, depicting them pining for a chance to return to their more successful college days.
Bosworth appeared with Bo Jackson in a Tecmo Bowl-style television advertisement for the Kia Sorento in 2016, which parodied Jackson running through him in their 1987 game.[20]
Bosworth has appeared as the sheriff in the "Fansville" series of Dr Pepper commercials since 2018.[21]
On July 5, 2008, Bosworth assisted with the rescue of a woman who rolled her SUV east of Winnipeg, Manitoba.[24] In 2009, he administered CPR to a fallen man in a parking lot until medical help arrived.[25]
Brian and the Boz
In 2014, Brian and The Boz premiered as part of ESPN's 30 for 30 series,[26] chronicling Brian Bosworth's athletic journey. The film explores Bosworth's struggle with the persona he created, known as The Boz; which began to dominate his life. Participants include Barry Switzer, Bosworth's former coach, teammates like Tony Casillas, critical of Bosworth's autobiography, and Rick Reilly, co-writer of "The Boz." Close friends and family, such as childhood friend John DiPasquale, Bosworth's daughter Hayley, and Sooners fan Jim Ross, also contribute.
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↑ Telander, Rick, and Robert Sullivan. Later, when playing for the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL, he flew into practice on a helicopter. Many television news stations all over America showed footage of the stunt. You Reap What You SowArchived May 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine . Sports Illustrated, February 27, 1989.
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