Background and career
Brian Keith Bosworth (born March 9, 1965) is an American actor and former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. Nicknamed "the Boz", he played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, earning two Dick Butkus Awards and winning the 1986 Orange Bowl. Bosworth was selected by the Seahawks in the first round of the 1987 NFL supplemental draft, but his professional career was cut short by injury. After retiring as a player, Bosworth pursued an acting career. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Brian Bosworth was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He attended MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, where he was a two-time consensus All-American for the football team. He graduated in 1983. He was recruited to play football for the University of Oklahoma.
Redshirted as a true freshman in 1983, Bosworth played linebacker for the Oklahoma Sooners for three seasons (1984–1986). 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. 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, 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.
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 his suspension due to steroid use, 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." Picked up by the television cameras, this led to much consternation among alumni and administrators at the university. Aware that Bosworth was likely to be entering the NFL draft anyway, the OU coach, Barry Switzer, dismissed Bosworth from the team. Bosworth was quoted in Sports Illustrated magazine's 1986 fall football issue as saying that at a summer job at General Motors' Oklahoma City plant, co-workers taught him how to insert bolts in hard-to-reach places to ensure 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. Bosworth reportedly retracted the statement, although he later denied the retraction. In September 1988, Bosworth wrote an autobiography, The Boz, with Sports Illustrated's Rick 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.
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.
Bosworth did not declare his eligibility in time for the 1987 NFL draft, held in late April. Six weeks later in mid-June, he was selected by the Seattle Seahawks with the first pick of the supplemental draft. Seattle was one of the teams to whom he had sent a letter of disinterest. After initially declaring he would stick to his promise that he would not sign, 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. In 2015, long after Bosworth retired, the NFL changed its rules to allow linebackers to wear jerseys in the 40s. Bosworth signed with a Seahawks team that had failed to reach the playoffs the previous two seasons. He appeared and started in 12 games as a rookie in 1987, playing well for the most part alongside fellow inside linebacker Fredd Young, but became known more for his outspoken personality and appearance than his actual play on the field. Before the season opener at Denver, 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. Later that season, prior to the Seahawks' second matchup with the Los Angeles Raiders in late November on Monday Night Football, 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, have bus fare," infuriating Bosworth. The Raiders went on to win that game, 37–14, thanks in part to Jackson's three touchdowns and 221 rushing yards. In Week 15 at Chicago, Bosworth had 4.5 tackles including a sack, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries in leading the Seahawks to a 34–21 victory, and was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week. The win helped Seattle clinch a spot in the AFC Wild Card Game. In what turned out to be the only playoff game of his NFL career, Bosworth had 17 tackles despite suffering an injury to his left shoulder in the Seahawks' 23–20 overtime loss to the Houston Oilers. Bosworth was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team following the season.
