Nick Bosa Reveals The Pain Of His Unfinished OSU Business

The NFL draft’s most disruptive force of nature reveals how painful it was to sit out last year—and how hungry he is to start sacking again.

- Kevin Van Valkenburg

Nick Bosa, who happens to be built like a baby rhinoceros, is chasing me.

I’m moving as fast as my 41-year-old legs can churn through the uneven sand. We’re on a private beach in South Florida, and there is a prop football in my hands, a detail that seems irrelevant at the moment because there is a hint of malice in Bosa’s eyes. It’s like a predator about to run down its prey.

In theory, Bosa is chasing me as part of a photo shoot for this magazine. Prior to this, we’d been tossing a football back and forth for 10 minutes, my creaky-but-capable dad arm lofting passes in the direction of his giant frame. But then, to spice things up, the photographer wondered if we might turn up the intensity a bit: How about Bosa comes flying at me and I’ll try to evade him, like I’m a helpless Big Ten quarterback and he’s, well, himself?

With a mixture of apprehension and adrenaline I agree, and now the chase begins (although calling it a chase is, at best, generous).

For the most part, Bosa has the temperament of a tiki bar happy hour regular—mellow, bemused and carefree. But the look on his face has me wondering whether his football instincts are about to override reason.

It’s been more than six months since Bosa knocked someone off his feet, laid him out like a human wrecking ball in a tangle of limbs and snot bubbles. He did it regularly at Ohio State before a painful core muscle injury last fall ended his junior year just as it was beginning. The Cardinals and 49ers, the teams with the first and second picks in the upcoming NFL draft, have spent the past several months examining whether Bosa has the right combination of speed, power and technique to be a game wrecker in the mold of Khalil Mack or Myles Garrett. All the while, Bosa’s been missing the hell out of the sport that he feels he was born to dominate.