Sooners’ Brian Bosworth May Have Strange Image, but His Message Is Clear

The dark sunglasses, the unconventional haircut and the gold No. 44 earring give All-American linebacker Brian Bosworth of Oklahoma an off-the-wall image.

At quick glance some people mistake him for Jim McMahon, the free-spirited quarterback of the Chicago Bears.

Bosworth thinks his appearance may help him get across his anti-drug message.

“I have a little bit of strange image and people think ‘Hey, he’s a football player, acting like that, he has to be on something,” said Bosworth, who was in New York on a vacation with a purpose.

“I am here to prove you can be different and still be straight,” said Bosworth, who conceded that the media attention might also get some people thinking about him early as a Heisman Trophy candidate. And, he will do the rest once the season begins.

Bosworth, a 6-2, 248-pound junior who wears a No. 44 jersey, made 12 tackles during last January’s Orange Bowl and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player as his Sooners defeated Penn State, 25-10, to win the national championship.

He has come to be known almost as much for his uninhibited comments and antics as he is for his athletic performance.

At an off-season party he took a swing at an individual who supposedly offered him drugs.

“I was at a party in Oklahoma City,” said Bosworth, who would not discuss details.

“It’s just that we’re in a glamorous position and some people think that (drugs) goes with that glamorous type. I abhor the fact that there are those who feel they have to do drugs to fit that stereotype.”

But despite all the attention given to the connection between athletes and narcotics, Bosworth does not believe the problem is as severe as the public perceives it.

“The problem isn’t as bad as it could be,” Bosworth said. “Everybody could be on it (cocaine).”

The cocaine-related deaths of Len Bias and Don Rogers eight days apart last month Bosworth felt cast a shadow over everybody connected with the University of Maryland’s basketball program and the Cleveland Browns football team, guilty or not.

“I don’t think (the drug problem) matches the numbers printed in the papers,” said Bosworth, a Big Eight Conference Academic All-American with a 3.3 grade-point average in marketing. “But those stories on Bias immediately convicted a whole basketball program.”

Bosworth said the Sooners had a public relations problem when former Oklahoma and Miami Dolphins running back David Overstreet was killed in a high-speed car accident in July 1984. An autopsy later showed Overstreet was intoxicated when his Mercedes sports car flipped and crashed through several gasoline pumps.

The accident was one reason Oklahoma Coach Barry Switzer instituted a drug-testing program that Bosworth advocates all schools adopt.

According to Bosworth, the program includes random testing every 10 days, during the season and after it.