Mama Bosa Reflects On Sons' NFL, Super Bowl Journey
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CBS SF) -- Among the latest accolades for San Francisco 49ers rookie defensive lineman Nick Bosa is the award for NFL Rookie of the Year, an honor coming just days before Super Bowl LIV in Miami, less than an hour from Bosa's boyhood home in Fort Lauderdale.
The award comes to no surprise to Niner fans and probably not to his mother, Cheryl Bosa, who – with her husband, former Miami Dolphins player John Bosa - have now seen both their sons win the award.
Nick's brother Joey Bosa, a defensive end for the Los Angeles Chargers, won Rookie of the Year in 2016.
Cheryl and John Bosa still live in the home their boys spent their teenage years, and they are reveling in the Super Bowl homecoming.
"I cook for them and they come over and throw a fishing [line] in the water," said Cheryl.
She recalls how both boys were a blur of activity and she had to find ways to bleed off that energy.
"When the kids were little, the trampoline was my savior," said Cheryl. "So I always had to say, you know, 'Get outside! Go on the trampoline!"
Both Nick and Joey wear the number 97, just like their father did in his NFL career.
Cheryl knew early on that Nick was talented on the field. She recalled him walking right up to his football coach when he was just seven years old to make a declaration.
"He tugged on the coach's shirt and said, 'I want to play defense.' How does a seven year old know that?" she said.
Cheryl said Nick knew throughout high school at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale and college at Ohio State that his dream was playing in the NFL like his brother and father.
"They have such an amazing work ethic. You know, this is their dream and they work hard to be where they're at," said Cheryl. "This just didn't fall in their lap."
Could it be that their competitiveness with each other helps in their game?
"Ping pong, whatever, you name it, it's always a competition," Joey told CBS Miami. "Even now we keep it a little better, it's not too aggressive, but darts, pool, whatever it is, it's always a competition."
When they were younger and they would roughhouse, mom says Nick would be the one crying.
"Joey was so much bigger than him and they were rough," she recalled. "They were crazy."
Now Nick is crazy good on the field, and relentless on the attack - and now playing the Super Bowl in his own backyard.
"To be representing in his hometown is just incredible for him," said Cheryl.
She says Nick is ready for Super Sunday, but as for mom, "Come game day, I'm a basket case. I'm an absolute basket case."
