Speaker 1: Hi, am and s Williams. Welcome to the NFL Legends podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm here with Bradley Bozeman and we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: reading our country with bullying and I would say a world.
Speaker 1: We also talked about high in the world here and
Speaker 1: his wife lived in an RV while playing for the
Speaker 1: raven for the Ravens for a year. And also the
Speaker 1: success in the admiration with the University of Alabama and
Speaker 1: what has caused the consistency of the excellence competitive excellence
Speaker 1: that Nick Saban taught not only the Bradley but every
Speaker 1: young man that came through the University Alabama. Well, we're
Speaker 1: gonna start with the house, Bradley, I'm hearing University Alabama
Speaker 1: not all. This is just don't equate to me, all right,
Speaker 1: going to the Universe Alabama playing with the Ravens union
Speaker 1: wife Nikki end up living in the r V. Let's
Speaker 1: just start there. How in the world does a professional
Speaker 1: athlete end up living in the r V for an
Speaker 1: entire year. So we have the Bradley Nicky Boseman Foundation,
Speaker 1: and it's a foundation that is based on childhood bulling
Speaker 1: and we focused and fight against childhood bulling. We go
Speaker 1: uh school to school, and then we were getting all
Speaker 1: these conversations from you know, Arizona, Texas, California. I wanted
Speaker 1: to fly us out to come to their schools to talk.
Speaker 1: You know. We were like, well, we can't just fly
Speaker 1: out every weekend. So we planned a trip. We bought
Speaker 1: an r V and in the meantime we decided to
Speaker 1: live in the r V. Lived there for eleven months,
Speaker 1: absolutely loved it, met some great neighbors. Nicky and I
Speaker 1: worked on a communication skills because there's nowhere to hide
Speaker 1: in the in the r V. So you know, it
Speaker 1: was just a great experience. We bought a house right
Speaker 1: before COVID and didn't have to go through quarantine and
Speaker 1: in the trailer, so happy about that. But uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it was an amazing experience. And went across country to
Speaker 1: um from Maryland to California and back and talked to
Speaker 1: over ten thousand students in twenty two different states. Now, Brad,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at you. You're not a little guy, so
Speaker 1: it's not like you walking around high school with somebody
Speaker 1: bullying you. How did you end up with this passion
Speaker 1: to anti bullying when you were probably least likely at
Speaker 1: least once you got you got to high school to
Speaker 1: be bullied, right. So for me, you know, I was
Speaker 1: always tell the kids they look like a gust s
Speaker 1: glue from Tarling and Chocolate Factory. I was like a
Speaker 1: gust of Schluey from Charlton and the chocolate factory. So
Speaker 1: you know he falls in the in the chocolate fountain
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But um, I was a big
Speaker 1: teddy bear. You know, I was a big kid teddy bear.
Speaker 1: People taking advantage of that and they bullyed me. They
Speaker 1: picked on me. I had a um a reading challenge
Speaker 1: when at a young age, I was called stupid, slow,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. You know that that
Speaker 1: affected me. And so looking back and Nicky was the
Speaker 1: same way. Nikki is six ft Once she played basketballt
Speaker 1: University of Alabama. She was the tallest kid in her
Speaker 1: grade for a really long time. People uh picked on
Speaker 1: her for that. And so we we saw that we
Speaker 1: were asked to come to a school or actually do
Speaker 1: a video for this little girl that was getting picked
Speaker 1: on simply because of her her race. You know, she
Speaker 1: was beautiful, she was smart, she was athletic. I mean
Speaker 1: she was everything that a kid wanted to be. But
Speaker 1: she wasn't the right race apparently to some of these kids.
Speaker 1: So we were asked to do a video, and we said, well,
Speaker 1: instead of doing the video, why don't we just come
Speaker 1: down to the school and talk to the girl and
Speaker 1: the kids that are buoying. So get down there. And
Speaker 1: the principle was like, well, you know, we set up assembly,
Speaker 1: so you guys, if you don't mind just talking to
Speaker 1: the old school, if you knowing me at the time,
Speaker 1: not a public speaker, like sweaty hands, like summing over
Speaker 1: my words, like I just can't hold myself together. But
Speaker 1: my wife is like she thrives and she loves it.
Speaker 1: So she's like, no, we're gonna do this. She's gonna
Speaker 1: be fine. And so she was my girlfriend at the time,
Speaker 1: and so we got in there, we started talking, the
Speaker 1: words started to flow, and the emotion started rolling, and
Speaker 1: it was just it was such a beautiful thing that
Speaker 1: had happened there. We got to the car and her
Speaker 1: and I both just started started bawling. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was like, this is this is what we're called to do.
Speaker 1: So now we've talked over a hundred thousand students since
Speaker 1: two thousand and eighteen, and it's been such a life
Speaker 1: changing organization for us. And then we switched to Food
Speaker 1: and Secure. After Food and Security after once COVID kind
Speaker 1: of shut down all the schools and everything. So we
Speaker 1: fed one point four million meals over the last five
Speaker 1: months to Baltimore area. Why did you get this philanthropic spirit?
Speaker 1: Why did you guys get this from so our parents?
Speaker 1: I mean, nick and I were both blessed to grow
Speaker 1: up with amazing parents that taught us life lessons and
Speaker 1: values of being a good person and helping others. And
Speaker 1: then Nicky and I kind of just took that ran
Speaker 1: with it. We had the opportunity, were given the platform
Speaker 1: by the NFL, by football, and to have that platform
Speaker 1: and not use it, I feel like it's a little selfish.
Speaker 1: So to to use that and to try to take
Speaker 1: this to another level and to help as many people
Speaker 1: as we can. It is such a big passion of ours.
Speaker 1: Why did you and Nikki discover what you've been teased about?
Speaker 1: Your big right and she's tall, end up playing basketball,
Speaker 1: You end up playing football. I was also a tease
Speaker 1: feet too big, No, it's too big. He was too
Speaker 1: big and I had to dip in my head. But
Speaker 1: those big feet allowed me to cover ground. Then big
Speaker 1: nos allowed me to breed them more air so I
Speaker 1: could have endurance. When did you guys realize that what
Speaker 1: you're being teased about became your assets? Yeah? Absolutely, And
Speaker 1: that's what that's what our mention is to the kids, like,
Speaker 1: you don't know what you know Jim or John is
Speaker 1: going to turn them to be. You don't know what
Speaker 1: their future holds for them. You don't know their background
Speaker 1: at home, you know, you don't you don't know what's
Speaker 1: going on behind closed doors. And for us, you know,
Speaker 1: to to go out and use that and to um
Speaker 1: show these kids that you know, athletes and you know
Speaker 1: professional athletes and college athletes go through the same thing
Speaker 1: as as they're going through and to give them a voice,
Speaker 1: to someone to talk to and someone to to relate
Speaker 1: with is just so powerful to us. So a lot
Speaker 1: of the young people that you guys spoke with, do
Speaker 1: you find they think that we're exempt as far as
Speaker 1: athletes because we're in this bubble. Do they look at
Speaker 1: athletes say Okay, they can't relate to like what you
Speaker 1: just said. They don't understand what it's like being bullied.
Speaker 1: Il could Bradley, who was at the University Alabama, come
Speaker 1: back now and tell us our story. So how do
Speaker 1: you get them to realize that we're just everyday people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we just we tell them our story. We start
Speaker 1: from the top, you know, like I told you, we
Speaker 1: start with I like a gusts plue from Charlie and
Speaker 1: Chocolate Factory. You know, Nikki goes through her her whole
Speaker 1: her story was a bus situation where this kid picked
Speaker 1: on her every single day the bus every single day,
Speaker 1: would not leave her a long just constantly was just
Speaker 1: just harassing her. She saw that there was a flower
Speaker 1: for basketball trits practicing the mornings and you practicing that
Speaker 1: from so for her, hey, I get off the bus.
Speaker 1: So that turned into playing, getting the scholarship and play
Speaker 1: at the University of Alabama starting for four years, you know,
Speaker 1: doing such amazing things. I mean, she's a better athlete
Speaker 1: than I am, but but I mean, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just that for her turned into something very special. And
Speaker 1: so to to use that and to talk to these
Speaker 1: kids and just be real, like just be every day
Speaker 1: people to them. And we always open up the floor
Speaker 1: at the end of the day whenever we're talking these kids,
Speaker 1: we've talked to fifth through eighth grade. For the most part,
Speaker 1: I think no one's gonna share their story, no one's
Speaker 1: gonna talk about what's going on. But every we've never
Speaker 1: had a session where a kid didn't raise a hand
Speaker 1: and start talking. And I mean, just it's the most
Speaker 1: powerful thing. You're sitting there, You're listening to these kids
Speaker 1: that are, you know, twelve fourteen years old. They're talking
Speaker 1: about committing suicide and talking about, you know, wanting to
Speaker 1: kill theirselves and just all this powerful stuff. As a
Speaker 1: thirteen year old, I've never thought of And you know,
Speaker 1: they shouldn't have a care in the world. It shouldn't
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be an issue for them just to go
Speaker 1: and live and love life. There's with social media, there's
Speaker 1: been such a rise in in suicide rates and young adults.
Speaker 1: So to to try to change that, to try to
Speaker 1: help and try to to take that statistic down, it's
Speaker 1: such a big cost to us, you know, social media.
Speaker 1: When I even when I was growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: I went to school, I'd get picked on, I got home.
Speaker 1: I was safe. For these kids, they wake up in
Speaker 1: the morning, it's on theirselves. They go to schools. At school,
Speaker 1: they get home, they get on their video games, on
Speaker 1: the video games, and it's on everything. There's so much
Speaker 1: access to these young people and they're constantly going through
Speaker 1: this this challenge every single day. It makes sense, and
Speaker 1: it makes sense why why suicide rates have risen so
Speaker 1: high for young adults. It's a second leading killer among
Speaker 1: young teens. What I hear is when you do those assemblies,
Speaker 1: not only the victims, but it has to be enlightening
Speaker 1: for those that are building absolutely when they now here
Speaker 1: what the impact of what they're really doing absolutely right. So,
Speaker 1: Denzel washed you to play the movie called Equalize It,
Speaker 1: where if somebody was done wrong, he's this uber driver
Speaker 1: guy and he'd go right it. How do you manage
Speaker 1: your passion when you see someone I saw someone being bullied,
Speaker 1: but now you're this big guy. How did you manage that?
Speaker 1: What you did? Hey be about to stop, leave you,
Speaker 1: but leave him on? How did you balance that in
Speaker 1: terms of manage it to make sure you didn't go
Speaker 1: now I'm gonna thump you said you bully somebody else?
Speaker 1: How did you manage that? Um, it's a great opportunity
Speaker 1: when you see it, especially now knowing everything that I
Speaker 1: know going through the things that I've gone through to
Speaker 1: be able to use it as a learning tool, to
Speaker 1: be able to walk over and it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: so how is this making you feel? How is this
Speaker 1: making you feel? Why are you doing this? Because usually
Speaker 1: there's an underlying issue with the kid that is bullying.
Speaker 1: There's an underlying issue, whether it's home life, it's school,
Speaker 1: it's it's something, and they're they're using, you know, picking
Speaker 1: on someone else as a either a cry for help
Speaker 1: or a just just to relieve theirselves and to be
Speaker 1: able to go and neutralize that situation. I think there's
Speaker 1: a set out there that even for kids to intervene,
Speaker 1: there's one person intervenes on someone being bullied two percent
Speaker 1: of the time, the bullying stops for the remainder of
Speaker 1: the year or the remainder of the lifetime. So it's um,
Speaker 1: you know, your your voice is a very powerful no
Speaker 1: matter how big or small it is. Speaking of bullying,
Speaker 1: how do you keep people from bullying? Let's transition to
Speaker 1: the ring events. How do you keep guys from bullying Lamar?
Speaker 1: When Lamar runs? What is that like? What is it
Speaker 1: like blocking for Lamar Jackson? The dual threat? What is
Speaker 1: that like? It's I mean, it's great as always start
Speaker 1: with Lamar is. Lamar is a better person than teammate
Speaker 1: that is a football player. And guys had every opportunity
Speaker 1: to have a big head, to be arrogant, to to
Speaker 1: go and just be this the snob. But he hasn't.
Speaker 1: The guy has stayed the same person as he walked
Speaker 1: in those doors, hungry and driven. I mean, he's just
Speaker 1: the ultimate teammate, the ultimate person. I mean, guy shows
Speaker 1: up at at our charity events, he's you know, he
Speaker 1: does everything. He's being mobbed by people and he's just
Speaker 1: like it's fine, Like I'm not I'm not worried about this,
Speaker 1: you know. He said, I was like, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming to our to our event. He's like,
Speaker 1: that's we're family. That's that's what we do. Like, Lamar
Speaker 1: is just he's an amazing person. But blocking for him
Speaker 1: is a whole another animal. That guys is special to
Speaker 1: get us out of situations where things are looking too great.
Speaker 1: I mean he is, he is a great, great football player,
Speaker 1: and he gets me out of a lot of sicks.
Speaker 1: So that helps a lot too. So you gotta you
Speaker 1: gotta just stay blocking with him. You know, you gotta
Speaker 1: stay engage the entire time because you never know he's
Speaker 1: gonna end up, but he usually makes it look good.
Speaker 1: So when your office of alignement and you have a
Speaker 1: mobile guy like Lamar, first I got a chance to
Speaker 1: know him. We uh we actually Hall of Famous win
Speaker 1: against he and some other current players on family feud, right,
Speaker 1: and just to shout out and make sure everybody know
Speaker 1: we beat him. So but that's what I meant and
Speaker 1: realized his humility is probably the power of the secret,
Speaker 1: absolutely of that ability. As an office of lineman. Take
Speaker 1: us into when you have a jewel at the quarterback
Speaker 1: position like that, how do you guys see man like
Speaker 1: if somebody trying to bully him, like hitting him on
Speaker 1: the ground something like that, how do you guys view that?
Speaker 1: As an office the line unit, You're you're gonna protect
Speaker 1: those those type of guys, I mean, like they're the
Speaker 1: family jewels. You know that those guys are special. Now
Speaker 1: you get some you get some quarterbacks that are arrogant
Speaker 1: or cocky or whatever you want to call it, and
Speaker 1: you want to protect him. Obviously that's your job. That's
Speaker 1: that's what there we're there for, you know, But you
Speaker 1: know you're not you're gonna have their back. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, when you have a guy like Lamar,
Speaker 1: like you know, you'll live and die by the guy.
Speaker 1: You know, he's just a he like you said, he's
Speaker 1: a jewel, like he's a great teammate, not just a
Speaker 1: great quarterback. The final question has released to professionally what
Speaker 1: makes a good officer the line um and the key line,
Speaker 1: because you guys have to be on the same page, right.
Speaker 1: It's communication and just that opportunity to work together to
Speaker 1: mesh too. I know, if I have a combination block
Speaker 1: with my center, what foot he's stepping with and he
Speaker 1: knows what a foot I'm said that we're not stepping
Speaker 1: all over each other. We're not stumbling over each other
Speaker 1: my tackle, I know what kind of pass pro said
Speaker 1: he's gonna take, So that way I can adjust myself
Speaker 1: with him. Because he's the initial setter, you know. So
Speaker 1: if if he's setting flat, I can't set back because
Speaker 1: we're gonna get picked. But if he's you know, jumping
Speaker 1: way back and I'm setting up, I'm gonna get picked.
Speaker 1: So it's just about knowing knowing your fellow offensive lineman
Speaker 1: to go in there and just play balls to the wall.
Speaker 1: Didn't know that those guys are gonna give you everything
Speaker 1: they have. So I think that's the definitely the key.
Speaker 1: So here a couple of random questions. You're in the
Speaker 1: r V park, but that year you're at Nikky War
Speaker 1: in the r V What was it like what your
Speaker 1: neighbors seeing Brantley Ravens player living in their RV park?
Speaker 1: What was that like? It was pretty common, honestly, So
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't, we don't. We don't talk
Speaker 1: about it much. You know, we're normal people, you know,
Speaker 1: we we just football is what we do for a living.
Speaker 1: So the first time they found out was the first
Speaker 1: two people that found out where they're groundsmen that worked there. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're Gary and Bill. They're great people, you know, they
Speaker 1: have great families. You know, they helped us out tremendously
Speaker 1: through that whole like getting everything set up and getting
Speaker 1: new gravel in and all types of stuff. But you know,
Speaker 1: it was definitely a funny. It was. It was funny.
Speaker 1: It's like you've been been They didn't know for like
Speaker 1: two months, Like you've been living here for two months
Speaker 1: and we had no clue like that what you did?
Speaker 1: They eventually asked me. And it's hard for me to
Speaker 1: lie to people about what I do, so I'm just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I played for the Ravens like like no way, and
Speaker 1: just they loved it, so you know, they kept on
Speaker 1: the download For the most part. We had some good
Speaker 1: close neighbors that that were really respectful and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: they come over for dinner and different stuff. But um,
Speaker 1: they were so cared about the people we were rather
Speaker 1: than what we did for a living. So it was
Speaker 1: it was always a good, good combination. All right. I
Speaker 1: want to close out what I called the half Fields
Speaker 1: and McCoy's. That's those families at always at war. University
Speaker 1: of alban University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. You tell me you
Speaker 1: live within sixty miles of the University of Aubura. You
Speaker 1: end up going to the University of Alabama. First, did
Speaker 1: anybody in your city give you an evil eye? He
Speaker 1: chose Alabama? Yeah, for sure. Um, you know there for
Speaker 1: a while, I mean I was wearing some Auburge stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, I was a difference, and I would I
Speaker 1: would start just wearing Aburge stuff just to make the
Speaker 1: Alabama people and everybody listening. No, there's no in between, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not we all from the state of Alabama, we've
Speaker 1: all been in Alaba, we all want them to win. No,
Speaker 1: it's if Alabama's in the National championship, albrage sharing for
Speaker 1: Hoover's playing against him, and vice versa the other way. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know it was growing up, it was
Speaker 1: there was no proteins. There was no you know, pro baseball, basketball, football, nothing.
Speaker 1: It was Alabama or Auburn. And you know, if you
Speaker 1: you whoever you picked at bird was who you stayed
Speaker 1: with the rest of your career. At birth, you were
Speaker 1: you were your point. And this is like the baby
Speaker 1: gets when they come out the womb, and then there
Speaker 1: was a decision. There's a swaddle that's put on the
Speaker 1: baby if it's Alabama Albard. So usually whatever, I'm serious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you kind of you're kind of born into
Speaker 1: the family and you have the kids that kind of
Speaker 1: branch off. But I want to be different. But um,
Speaker 1: I grew up in an Alabama family. You know that.
Speaker 1: My my family was Alabama. My grandmother was Auburn. She
Speaker 1: absolutely loved album. My dad was was Alabama. You know,
Speaker 1: it was, yes, definitely, you you picked the team you
Speaker 1: you rocked with him, But yeah, I love messing with
Speaker 1: my people in my hometown because they were like, Oh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna go to Auburn. Nope, it's like you're going
Speaker 1: to Alabama. I don't know yet, but yeah, So I
Speaker 1: grew up, you know, forty five minutes from Auburn UM.
Speaker 1: But I loved Alabama. Alabama was my was my team,
Speaker 1: was my dream. That's what I dreamed of doing my
Speaker 1: entire life. Yeah, I told my dad was really young
Speaker 1: kids like I want to win Multipleness Championships. I wanna
Speaker 1: be a team captain. As ten years old, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to do all these these great things. I
Speaker 1: want to win the Rimmington Award. I want to win
Speaker 1: you know, I want to do all these things. Was
Speaker 1: ten years old, you know about all the names of
Speaker 1: Eastward Yeah, I mean yeah, I did. I loved it
Speaker 1: like we I loved album football and it was my
Speaker 1: dream to go and play there. And so, Nick Saban,
Speaker 1: how do you first come in contact with the universal
Speaker 1: out of men when it comes down to recruiting? When
Speaker 1: did you meet Nick? So? I met coach Saban after
Speaker 1: my freshman year. So I was in finish up ninth grade.
Speaker 1: I had. We had connections through UM Tommy Hill, which
Speaker 1: was our UM apparel provider, and he had connections with
Speaker 1: the coaching staff up there, and he got me in contact.
Speaker 1: We changed information that got me up to a thing.
Speaker 1: It was a day, so I got up there and
Speaker 1: then coach Saban is coming around in his you know,
Speaker 1: his blue suit. He always wears a funny colored suit
Speaker 1: whenever a day. And so it's like the spring game.
Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, the red team versus white team,
Speaker 1: the offense firsus defense, and so you know he comes around.
Speaker 1: It's like, holy smokes, that's that's an excapment right there.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we got got the picture and
Speaker 1: shook hands, you know, did the whole whole spill, and
Speaker 1: you know, it was great, and then went on from there.
Speaker 1: We went over fifty visits there UM, So it was
Speaker 1: it was a great experience going through there and and
Speaker 1: having the opportunity to play. Last question, what would you
Speaker 1: say is the key to close sab in the universe
Speaker 1: of Alabama success? Why have they been had? They have
Speaker 1: great talent, a lot of teams do. How has he
Speaker 1: managed to be consistently excellent? I would say discipline and
Speaker 1: probably mental strength. He he builds mental strength, their mental character.
Speaker 1: Everything is geared towards that. Our practices are geared towards
Speaker 1: you know, gonna break you down. Are running conditioning is
Speaker 1: gonna break you down. And just to have that that
Speaker 1: mental fortitude to continue to go forward and make your
Speaker 1: legs take that extra step to just you know that
Speaker 1: the practice to go that extra period, it's just it's
Speaker 1: it builds it in you. Wow. This has been great. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: thank you, Thank you very much. Please tell Ma you
Speaker 1: we say a little keep up the great work too.
Speaker 1: I will do I'll stand well do. Yeah. This has
Speaker 1: been the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request
Speaker 1: a topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at
Speaker 1: nfl dot com