Boz role call

Brian Bosworth found himself cast in different characters, and that was before he began a career in Hollywood:

Boz, the athlete

A graduate of MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, he went to Oklahoma where he played three seasons after redshirting. He won the Butkus Award as the nation's top collegiate linebacker in 1985 and 1986, the only player ever to win twice.

He entered the NFL through a supplemental draft. The league conducted a lottery to decide selection order, the odds weighted so that the teams with the poorest records had a higher likelihood of earning the first pick. The Seahawks had 37-1 odds yet "won" the lottery and went ahead and picked him.

Bosworth had four sacks as a rookie, but played successively fewer games each of his three years before suffering a career-ending shoulder injury in the second week of the 1989 season.

Boz, the actor

He has 15 acting appearances listed on the Internet Movie Database, ranging from a 2005 episode of "CSI: Miami" to a 2009 DVD called "Rock Slyde: Private Eye" in the role of the friendly pirate.

"Stone Cold" (1991)

If nothing else, Brian Bosworth can say that his feature-film debut prompted a comparison to Burt Reynolds in The New York Times review that ran May 18, 1991.

"Almost a dead ringer for the young Burt Reynolds. Mr. Bosworth has the same carved-in-granite facial bones, the same deep-set squint that seems directed toward a private, prehistoric memory, the same aura of suppressed intelligence struggling below the pumped-up macho facade."

Hmmm, in retrospect, those comparisons may have been a bit premature.

"One Man's Justice" (1996)

Also called "One Tough Bastard" the most notable thing is the cast also included MC Hammer as a character named Dexter Kane.

"The Longest Yard" (2005)

As Guard Garner, the player once billed as the modern anti-hero was on the side of the authorities.

Boz, the author

"The Boz: Confessions of a modern anti-hero" (1988)

Brian Bosworth with Rick Reilly

The jacket includes a few of the 10 Boz Commandments starting with: "Be yourself or be dead." The second chapter focuses upon his famously unique haircut. "Why do people take it upon themselves to worry about my hair? I don't worry about it." That's page 20. The next 10 pages document the origins and stylistic signatures of the haircut as well as a brutal pun about expanding your "hair-izons."

Billed as a New York Times' best-seller in 1988, Bosworth called it "a comic book, cover-to-cover" during a 1993 lawsuit involving his shoulder injury.

Danny O'Neil