Vice Sports Q&A: College Football Legend Brian Bosworth

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Brian Bosworth was the All-American driving force behind the title-winning Oklahoma Sooners defense in 1985, and he finished fourth in the 1986 Heisman Trophy balloting. But this is only part of why the Boz still stands out as one of the most memorable college football players of his era.

When Bosworth tested positive for steroids in 1986, he was forced to miss the Orange Bowl. That didn't stop him from criticizing the NCAA, wearing a T-shirt on the sidelines of that game with "National Communists Against Athletes" and "Welcome to Russia!" across the front. That was his style: overstated, ultra-brash, and swaggering, even by the standards of the Reagan era.

It was also his high point as a football player. Bosworth lasted just three seasons in the NFL because of injuries and ineffective play. Eventually he became an actor. He's been in a number of films and TV shows, and was also a color commentator during the XFL's sole, ill-starred season. Today, he lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and son.

In December, Bosworth spoke with VICE Sports about this year's Sooners team, which fell to Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinal; his college career; his views on the NCAA; and his recent induction into the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame.

VICE Sports: What does it mean for you, getting inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Brian Bosworth: It's been a long time coming. During the years that it didn't come, it was frustrating. I had kind of anxiety and anger and frustration over [the question] Why can't I get in? Why can't I get in? I didn't take the time to understand where I was. The award itself is more than just honoring your accomplishments on the field; I think it is also a true testament of your character, what you do and who you are off the field. Thank God it came when it came, because it required me to change. It required me to look and be reflective about who I was and what was holding me down.

Once I realized that my biggest struggle was myself, finding myself down, it just created this void in my life. Once I gave my life to Jesus Christ and I stopped fighting with things, it changed my moral compass. All of a sudden, the things that happened, that I was carrying around—I didn't have to carry them around anymore. He picked them up and carried them away and I could just be a representative of what He wanted me to be.

I think that's what speaks to what the award is. They look at your accomplishments on the field during the years that you played, but it's also a character award about who you are as a human being afterwards. I think that's poignant that it came at a time when He wanted it to come. I needed to learn to have the patience in His time so that I could appreciate it when it did come.

Were you told why the induction didn't come earlier?

There were a lot of great players that went in that deserved to get in there before. At the end of the day, it's really God's will. I went in when I was supposed to go in. I don't question the timing of it. I just appreciate that I got a chance to get in during the time when [former Oklahoma coach Barry Switzer] was still alive, so I could share that and give him the honor. It was really him that allowed me to be in this position. Him believing in me and being able to share it with not only him but, this being the 30th anniversary of our national championship in '85, I get a chance to celebrate with the team and share it with the team. It really is more of a team award than it is an individual award.

Is it better for you to watch games alone or with some friends at home than at the stadium?

Yeah. I can yell and scream. When I'm going to the games up in Norman, I have a partner who has a suite, a box, so that I can watch it up in the suite. Every now and then, I'll go down and watch the game on the football field and hang out with the guys. That adrenaline rush starts to happen again. You just get so into the game. For football players that have played the game and are so proud of their team, when the team struggles you just get so frustrated. You want to do something, but you can't.

Sometimes when it's a big, big game, I like to isolate myself. I isolated myself [during Oklahoma's 24-17 loss to Texas on October 10]. I watched that game by myself, and I'm glad I did because it was a bad game for us. I find that even when I'm with a crowd, I end up watching the game by myself. I don't interact with anybody because I'm just seeing what's happening. I watch the players and see the mistakes they were making or what they're doing well, the tendencies of what our coaches are calling and things that might be happening. I'm still an analyst at the game. If I was impartial, it would be much easier to watch a game, but I'm not.

When you were suspended for the 1987 Orange Bowl and wore the T-shirt referring to the NCAA as National Communists Against Athletes, is that something you look back on and are proud that you took a stand against the NCAA?

It wasn't so much that. I just was a young kid. I made a poor decision and did it in the wrong time in the wrong format. Back in those days, it was just all about me. I didn't think the thing through. That was probably one of the biggest regrets, because I hurt my team, I hurt my coach, I hurt our university by taking a moment that is really about sharing the success of who we are and what we're doing and representing them in the way that they should have been represented. I disrespected that moment, especially at the Orange Bowl and especially on national TV. You can have your opinion and a place to speak your opinion, but that wasn't it.

Do you still have those feelings about the NCAA?

It's not so much the feeling. That had a specific storyline and what was going on during those years. More than anything, I think the NCAA is starting to recognize there's this space between the players and the sports and them as an entity. Now that they recognize that, they're starting to see, "How do we make it better for all parties?"

I think eventually it'll get to the point where the players, and the sacrifices that the players do make—the NCAA will come and recognize that and understand that the players deserve and need help and [ask], "What do we need to do to bridge that space and help them?"

Are you in favor of paying college players?

I think it should be just an incentive program to stay committed to the mission. It's a good honor to get a scholarship. You're given a scholarship to go to a university, play essentially a sport you love and that you'd play for free anyway. What I think would be an appropriate way to handle that would be that every year that the player is there, the NCAA sets aside a sum of money in an annuity so that once they graduate, that money is then released, so it gives them something that they can start their lives with.

There should also be some post-career therapy, because most of the players, they walk away from the game and they're injured—not physically but mentally. They're going to go through that dark period because all they've ever known is how to be a football player, how to be an athlete. Now that I'm not that anymore, what do I do? There needs to be some transition for that, and there needs to be some follow-up to make sure that, physically, their health has been taken care of. They're going to come back with knees and shoulders and necks and all kinds of stuff that could jack them up and affect their quality of life.

This intimate relationship between the NCAA and the players needs to continue after the career is over so that players have an incentive to go for being compensated for being there. Now, if a player decides he wants to leave early, then that's him breaking that commitment, that contract, that agreement that they signed to go to the university. He forfeits those rights. There need to be some consequences.

If the players that are going in, they know, "Hey, I'm going there to get an education first and if I'm blessed enough to go play on the football team, that's icing on the cake. If I'm blessed enough to be a starter on the football team, even better. And if I'm blessed enough that I can play for four years and get an education and graduate, then there's something that's waiting for me that I can start my life with both financially and the tools that I'm going to need to transition into that next life"—I think that would be a great way for the NCAA to bridge that space that exists between the players and themselves.

Have you worked with Oklahoma to get some of your ideas implemented?

That's just my opinion. There's probably a thousand other people that have got a hundred different opinions themselves of how to do it. I don't really know who I would even speak to, whether it be somebody from the NCAA or somebody from Oklahoma. We reach out to our alumni to make sure they're doing well. We take care of our family, as I know all universities do, but it's difficult because players tend to dissipate out in the real world and they don't come back. At our reunion, I was shocked to see one of the guys—like, dude, you've completely let yourself go. You're a defensive back and now you look like you're an offensive lineman.

We have to educate our guys that the physical trauma that you took when you were playing, that's going to stay with you for life, but you've got to maintain the physical part of your body by being smart and working out and eating right. We've had a few of our players pass away unexpectedly. It's avoidable. We had [former Oklahoma defensive tackle] Ricky Bryan pass away in 2009, and he was only a couple years older than I was. I played with his brother [Steve]. When I was talking to his brother about it, he goes, "Yeah, he ballooned up to 460 pounds." Football players and athletes in general, they work so hard to get into shape and stay in shape, but then after their career is over, sometimes it's injuries that keep you from working out, sometimes they don't know how to transition, they don't know how to stay in shape. I know the life expectancy of NFL players is in the mid-50s. I'm 50 now, so I do everything I can to stay alive. I've got people that are depending on me.

You mentioned everyone who plays football goes through hard times afterward. For you, was it after Oklahoma or after your NFL career ended?

There were two sets of it. All through the 90s was a very dark decade for me. A lot of it had to do with the sense of loss—of losing a career because of my impatience and my pride and my arrogance, not addressing my injury when I should have. I just thought that I was invincible and could just play through the pain. I just made a poor choice when I was young, but the debilitating pain ensued after that.

I was angry that I lost my career. I was angry at God for taking it all away from me. I was angry at everybody. I essentially thought everything I wanted in life was now gone, and then I had the physical pain of my shoulders being destroyed. I couldn't do anything. It wasn't until I finally got [both shoulders] replaced that the pain started to go away and I could start to feel normal again. But the depression of losing a career, that really has never gone away. I've accepted it, and the only reason I've accepted it is because I've given it away, back to Jesus Christ. It's not mine to hold. I know why it happened. As long as I remember if I put me before Him, bad things are going to happen. If I keep Him before me, then I know that I'm going to be fine and on the path I'm supposed to be on.

When did your religious awakening begin?

I came home on March 3, 2013. It's not been long, but it's been wonderful because for 20-some odd years, this grudge I had against God held me in a prison. You can walk around and you can be out with people, but if you're lost inside, you might as well just be alone at home in the dark because there's really no purpose in your life.

Was there anything about that day that triggered it?

It actually started when I got invited to do a movie [2013's Revelation Road], and the movie happened to be a Christian movie, and the role happened to be a role that He put in my lap for the right purpose, which was to remind me that He loved me and that He wasn't going to give up on me. That role was really me. It was mean, hateful, spiteful, vengeful—everything that I was as a human being was that role. The movie was about the rapture.

The thing that bothered me about it was I was the only one that was keeping myself from having a relationship with Him. It's a wonderful journey if you allow that journey to happen because it opens up your eyes to what it is that you've put it front of Him that keeps you from Him. You start to realize, I don't need any of that. I just need Him and then all the things that are supposed to happen will happen because it's His plan. It's not my plan.

There was a buildup. I took the movie on tour in Oklahoma and went to 17, 18 different cities. It was on the third showing, I talked to the audience before the movie about the event: "Hey, if this event was to happen today, tomorrow, next week, next month, are you prepared? Have you done everything in your life to go home? When He comes, will you be on the train?" Many of 'em were ready to go, but I knew in my heart that I wasn't. I knew that if the train left, I would be left on the stand.

Are you still acting?

When a role comes up that I feel is a good role. I don't have to do those, which is great. I can now choose things that I want to do. I have a great relationship with my wife. My son is a junior in high school, so I'm fighting through those years that you have to go through with your son to make sure that he has all he needs, all the tools that he's going to need to get to that next level. I go on a lot of speaking engagements to talk about the relationships that I have and the journey that I've gone on, to help inspire young people to honor that gift that they have, be humble that that gift is given.

The Millennials, I identify with them because they don't have a lot of patience. They want everything now. You've got to learn patience because patience is what really builds the character. I'm just kind of taking one day at a time. I'm busy. I'm doing whatever He asks me to do.

There's a lot of talk about concussions in football today. Do you remember getting any, and are you worried about the impact it might have down the line?

We didn't call them concussions. We just called it "you got your bell rung." I had a countless number of those. There's times when I have headaches, there's times I have memory loss and sometimes you kind of feel spaced out. I'm sure that has to do with some of the effects of playing football, but those are the choices that we made when we were playing. It's part of what you've got to live with through life. I'm blessed. Things could be way worse. I could have no memory and I could have dementia-like symptoms, but I don't feel like I have those.

Are you happy you played football?

Oh, yeah. No question. It was the gift that God gave me. I got to do something that I truly loved and I got to do it at a place that I truly wanted to be at. I had great success doing it. I couldn't ask for anything better. I certainly would want more, but all humans, we all want more. It played out the way it was supposed to play, and my journey is playing out the way He wants it to play out. I'm using all the tools and the mistakes and everything that's happened to survive myself and help inspire those who may be or are going to be going down that same path.

How is your relationship with Oklahoma now? Has it gotten better through the years?

It was never really off. It's all about the family. The student-athletes come and go. The ones that choose to stay and engage themselves back in the program, they're always welcome. I think overall, the relationship that I have with all of the members of Oklahoma, especially now, it's very special. The reason I'm here is because of the University of Oklahoma.