Brian Bosworth

Brian Keith Bosworth (born March 9, 1965), nicknamed "The Boz," is a former American college and professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons during the 1980s. He played college football for the University of Oklahoma, and was a two-time consensus All-American. He played professionally for the NFL's Seattle Seahawks. He also was made famous by his flamboyant personality, radical hair cuts, and risky stunts.

Early years
Bosworth was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He attended MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas.

College career
Bosworth attended the University of Oklahoma, where he played for coach Barry Switzer's Oklahoma Sooners football team from 1984 to 1986. He was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American in 1985 and again in 1986.

Known for his then radical hairstyles and criticism of the NCAA as much as his play on the field, Bosworth was never one to shy from publicity or controversy. On more than one occasion Bosworth referred to the NCAA as the "National Communists Against Athletes". He wore a shirt bearing that slogan during the 1987 Orange Bowl following the 1986 season. Banned from the game because of steroid use, Bosworth unveiled the shirt while standing on the sidelines to the shock and outrage of many, including his own coach, Barry Switzer. While Switzer was known for running a loose ship, this incident was too much even for him, and he threw Bosworth off the team.

A strong side inside linebacker throughout his college career, Bosworth was known for raising his level of play in big games. He was regarded as a great tackler, though sometimes 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 named him #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.

In addition to his athletic accomplishments, Bosworth was a very good student who graduated a year ahead of his freshman class, thus making him eligible for the NFL's supplemental draft.

In September 1988, Bosworth wrote an autobiography, The Boz, with Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly. In it, Bosworth said the Sooner 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 revealed many of the same things Bosworth had written about, and ultimately led to Switzer being forced to resign.

Brian Bosworth, the All-American linebacker, and two of his University of Oklahoma teammates were barred from playing in the Orange Bowl game against Arkansas Jan. 1, 1987 because they tested positive for anabolic steroids. The ruling was made by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which instituted tests for some championship events and some football bowl games that year in an effort to prevent the use of more than a hundred banned generic drugs.

Professional career
Prior to his entry into the NFL supplemental draft, Bosworth had 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."

Bosworth was drafted by the Seahawks in the 1987 NFL supplemental draft and signed what was both the biggest contract in team history and the biggest rookie contract in NFL history at the time: 10 years for US$11 million. After being drafted by the Seahawks, Bosworth sued the NFL for the right to wear #44 (the number he wore in college) and the Seahawks petitioned for a rules changes, due to a NFL prohibition on linebackers wearing jerseys in the 40s and were unsuccessful. Bosworth ultimately chose to wear #55.

Bosworth signed with a Seattle 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 old AFC West as they lost out to the Kansas City Chiefs in head to head match-up despite a better scoring record overall). 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. 10,000 Denver fans wore $15 T-shirts reading "BAN THE BOZ", but did not know that Bosworth's company manufactured the shirts.

Before a 1987 Monday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Raiders, the Seahawks had already beaten their divisional foe once in the season (who were floundering with a 3-7 record) when Bosworth insulted Raiders rookie running back Bo Jackson and promised in a media event before the game that he would contain the running back. Jackson had made his debut only a few weeks before and been impressive in four losses.

However, Bosworth was unable to fulfill his promise, as Jackson ended up rushing for 221 yards and scoring three touchdowns. Later in the game, Bosworth was involved in a one-on-one tackle at the goalline with Jackson and was unable to prevent the running back from getting one of his three scores.

Bosworth was forced to retire after only two games in 1989, having suffered a shoulder injury in the 1988 season (Team Doctor Pierce E. Scranton Jr. stating "Brian was a twenty-five-year-old with the shoulders of a sixty-year-old. He flunked my physical").

Remembered for his lackluster professional football career, Bosworth was named the sixth worst flop on the Biggest Flops of the Last 25 Years list by ESPN in July 2004 and number three on NFL Network's NFL Top 10 Draft Busts. In the case of the latter program, Bosworth was interviewed for the program, one of the only players who made the list interviewed. One of his contemporaries, Matt Millen, defended Bosworth, saying that he remembers an excellent linebacker who simply had injuries catch up to him and that most people remember him in the NFL for the Raiders game on Monday Night Football, during which Millen was a member of the Raiders.

Bosworth made an appearance in the booth during the Monday Night Football broadcast on which the Seattle Seahawks hosted the Oakland Raiders on November 6, 2006. During the discussion, he asserted that he had no regrets about his football career, but wished that he and Bo Jackson had longer careers. He also said that he thought he and Jackson would have developed a good rivalry, had they both been able to play longer.

Commentator and acting career
Bosworth was also a color commentator for the short-lived XFL during their only season of existence in 2001.

Bosworth 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. Brian also starred in a short lived TV show Lawless.

Most recently, he appeared on an episode of Hell's Kitchen as a dining guest.

Personal life
Bosworth married his high school girlfriend, Katherine Nicastro, in September 1993. The couple had three children, Max Bosworth, Hayley Bosworth and Chase Bosworth but have filed for divorce. Brian also has two nephews, Kyle and Korey Bosworth, who played football for the UCLA Bruins. Bosworth became a real estate agent for The Sotheby's International Realty Malibu Brokerage office. In August 2007 he was listed as the selling agent for the sale of his own Malibu home at 6375 Meadows Court.

On July 5, 2008, Bosworth assisted with the rescue of a woman who rolled her SUV east of Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2009 he administered CPR to a fallen man in a parking lot until medical help arrived.

Brian's nephews, Kyle and Korey Bosworth, were signed as undrafted free agents by the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions, respectively, in 2010.