Don Bosco Anthony Boselli Jr. (born April 17, 1972) is an American former
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
tackle who played in the
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
(NFL) for seven seasons with the
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...
. He played
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
at
USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
**South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
, where he received three first-team
All-American selections. Boselli was the first player drafted by the Jaguars, who selected him second overall in the
1995 NFL Draft
The 1995 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 22–23, 1995 at the Paramount Th ...
.
During his tenure in Jacksonville, Boselli established himself as one of the franchise's most productive and popular players. He was named to five
Pro Bowl
The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players.
The format has changed thro ...
s and three first-team
All-Pro
All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list th ...
s while appearing in two
AFC Championship Games. In 2002, he was the first selection in the
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...
'
expansion draft
An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...
, but retired without playing for them due to injuries. His accomplishments with Jacksonville led to him becoming the first inductee of the
Jaguars' Hall of Fame, which he was named to in 2006. Boselli was inducted to the
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...
in 2014 and the
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...
in 2022, making him the first Jaguars player inducted to the latter.
College career
Boselli accepted an
athletic scholarship
An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United Stat ...
to attend the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...
, where he played for the
Trojans
Trojan or Trojans may refer to:
* Of or from the ancient city of Troy
* Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans
Arts and entertainment Music
* '' Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 189 ...
from 1991 to 1994. He was a first-team
All-Pac-10 selection and a first-team
All-American in
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
,
1993 and
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
. In 1994, he also won the
Morris Trophy Coaches of the Pac-12 Conference bestow the following awards at the end of each football season. The conference was founded in its current form as the Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1959, but traces its roots to the Pacific Coast Co ...
. While he was an undergraduate, he was initiated as a member of the
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...
fraternity. Boselli was named to the
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...
in 2014.
Professional career
Boselli was selected as the second pick of the
1995 NFL Draft
The 1995 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 22–23, 1995 at the Paramount Th ...
, the first-ever draft pick of the
new
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...
franchise. As a result of his professional success and local popularity, Jacksonville-area McDonald's restaurants offered the "Boselli Burger" in his honor for a period of time.
He was selected by the
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...
in the
2002 expansion draft. He spent the entire season on injured reserve and retired following the conclusion of the season. Boselli has blamed the end of his career on mistakes made during a surgery on his left shoulder.
As a sign of his success in Jacksonville, on October 8, 2006, he was the first player inducted into the
Pride of the Jaguars (the team's
Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
) and signed a symbolic one-day contract allowing him to retire officially as a Jaguar. Boselli was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on February 10, 2022, becoming the first Jaguars player to receive the honor.
Life after football
Boselli participated in numerous business ventures during and after his professional football career. Along with former teammates
Mark Brunell
Mark Allen Brunell (born September 17, 1970) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played in the NFL for nineteen seasons and is best k ...
and
Bryan Schwartz
Bryan Schwartz (born December 5, 1971 in St. Lawrence, South Dakota) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft. He played colleg ...
, he invested in seven
Mattress Firm
Mattress Firm Inc. is an American mattress store chain founded on July 4, 1986. The headquarters of the company is located in Houston, Texas.
Business
Before its bankruptcy in 2018, the company operated over 3,600 locations in 48 U.S. states. M ...
bedding stores in Jacksonville. By the time Boselli left for Texas in 2002, he had sold his interest in the company. Boselli and Brunell own all
Whataburger
Whataburger is an American regional fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in hamburgers. The company, founded by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton, opened its first restaurant in Corpus Chris ...
franchise locations in the Jacksonville area.
He also works as the offensive line coach at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville, on the same coaching staff as Brunell.
Boselli is also a founding partner in ''IF Marketing'' with friends and former teammates
Jeff Novak
Jeff Ladd Novak (born July 27, 1967) is a former American football offensive lineman who played professionally in the World League of American Football and the National Football League. Novak was born in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and grew up ...
and
Will Furrer
William Mason Furrer (born February 5, 1968) is a former American football quarterback in the National Football League for the Chicago Bears, Phoenix Cardinals, Denver Broncos, Houston Oilers, St. Louis Rams, and Jacksonville Jaguars.
High sc ...
. The marketing and advertising firm, with offices in
Georgetown, Texas
Georgetown is a city in Texas and the county seat of Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 67,176 at the 2020 census. It is 30 miles (48 km) north of Austin.
Founded in 1875 from four existing colleges, the oldest of ...
and
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
, was originally called ''Intra Focus marketing & advertising''.
Personal life
Since 2005, Boselli has lived in
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Ponte Vedra Beach is a wealthy unincorporated seaside community and suburb of Jacksonville, Florida in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located southeast of downtown Jacksonville and north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jackson ...
with his wife, Angi and their five children, Andrew, Adam, Ashli, Alexis, and Ansli. Boselli has lost a significant amount of weight and now participates in
triathlons
A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...
.
Boselli's son Andrew received an athletic scholarship to attend
Florida State University
Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...
, and played for the
Florida State Seminoles football
The Florida State Seminoles football team represents Florida State University (variously Florida State or FSU) in the sport of American football. The Seminoles compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Colle ...
team.
Sports broadcasting
In 2007, Boselli was hired as a
color commentator
A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and t ...
on regional NFL telecasts for
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
, teaming with
Ron Pitts
Ronald Dwayne Pitts (born October 14, 1962) is a former professional American football player and current sportscaster. He played cornerback in the National Football League for the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers, and played college football a ...
. In his rookie season as a televised commentator, Boselli drew praise as one of the best in the business.
From 2009-2012, he worked as a game analyst and sideline reporter for
Westwood One
Westwood One is an American radio network
There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...
's coverage of the NFL.
Beginning in 2013, he joined the Jacksonville Jaguars radio play by play team.
Boselli was a former co-host on
1010 XL
WJXL (1010 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, and serving the Jacksonville metropolitan area. WJXL is owned by Seven Bridges Radio, LLC. with
Dan Hicken
Daniel Patrick Hicken has been a television sports news anchor in Jacksonville, Florida for over thirty years for two different broadcasting groups.
Career
Hicken graduated from the University of Florida. His first job in television was an inte ...
and Jeff Prosser each morning from 6-10 am on ''Sports Final Radio''. He still appears part-time as a call-in guest.
Boselli was interviewed for an episode of ''
NFL's Greatest Games
''NFL's Greatest Games'' is a series of television programs that air on NFL Network, ESPN and related networks. They are condensed versions of some of the most famous games in the history of the National Football League, using footage and sound ca ...
'' which aired on
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially fo ...
.
Charity
Boselli and his wife created the
Boselli Foundation in 1995 in Jacksonville to work with at-risk youth, and help them to cultivate high self-esteem and to succeed at home, at school, and at play. Beginning in 2007, he has spent substantial time working on projects with the foundation. He overcame opposition from local politicians when the Boselli Foundation proposed renovating and reopening a closed community center.
References
External links
The Boselli Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boselli, Tony
1972 births
Living people
All-American college football players
American Conference Pro Bowl players
American football offensive tackles
College football announcers
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
Jacksonville Jaguars players
Houston Texans players
Jacksonville Jaguars announcers
National Football League announcers
Players of American football from Colorado
Sportspeople from Boulder, Colorado
Players of American football from Jacksonville, Florida
USC Trojans football players
Ed Block Courage Award recipients
National Football League players with retired numbers