Tony Boselli

As a tribute to a great Hall of Fame player on his birthday, we celebrate the football career of Tony Boselli, star Left Tackle most notably of the USC Trojans and the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars.

April 17, 1972 - Modesto, California - Legendary Left Tackle most famously of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tony Boselli was born. His parents were Tony, Sr., and Candy Boselli. According to Pro Football History.com Tony Sr. worked as a wine sales representative based in Modesto in California. With the lure of a great business opportunity, the couple moved the family to Colorado in 1974.  Tony Sr. and his older brother Bud set up a series of McDonald’s Restaurant franchises. The Boselli brothers at one point had owned twelve Golden Arches locations in the state by 1995. Tony Jr. attended Fairview High School in Boulder, Colorado and loved football, and followed the Denver Broncos quite closely, especially enjoying the play of their Quarterback John Elway, and his gunslinger mentality of play. At the age of six, Tony started playing football near the family home. Between the coaching he got from his team, his father giving him pep talks in the car ride to and from practice and games and neighborhood pick-up games with his friends, and sometimes Tony Sr with a Nerf football in the backyard, Boselli had a great foundation of the playing game. 

When he wasn’t playing ball or in school he spent time cleaning up the parking lots of the family’s restaurants, having the education of hard work instilled into him starting at the age of 8. Of course, his father told Sports Illustrated years later that his son would come into the store on the hour while sweeping and pulling weeds asking for a Happy Meal. Tony Sr. would often encourage his son to get back to work and he would receive the reward of the tasty treat later. These tasks merged into Tony flipping burgers and dropping baskets of fries by the age of 14. He was only making minimum wage but his father realized that with the pay plus the boy’s food consumption, having the store’s manager claim to Sr. that Tony’s growing appetite was giving the store a loss. The wise father and business owner soon transferred his growing son to the landscaping crew of the stores. 

The young man was growing in size strength and work ethic, and when he joined the high school team in 1987, the towering figure told the coach of his intentions to play quarterback. The wise coach allowed him to try out for the position but then assigned him to the offense as a tight end. As a sophomore, the youngster made another run at the signal calling duties, and even Tony Sr. pleaded with Fariview Knights Head Coach Sam Pagano to allow his son to play QB. Pagano years later laughed in an interview as he remembered announcing that Tony was entrenched in the offensive line. He also played a little DL and linebacker. Tony Sr. was disappointed as he felt his son had the talent to make it as a professional someday and wanted him to play a position that would pay. Eventually, Pagano assured the father that with hard work, Tony could earn over a million dollars per year as an NFL tackle. As a senior, Tony put on 40 pounds of muscle and bulked up to 265 pounds. He became a nightmare for opposing pass rushers to get past and became a high school All-American and earned First-Team All-State honors. Tony hoped that Notre Dame would offer him a scholarship, but they were one of the few schools that didn’t show interest in the young star.

Boselli received a football athletic scholarship from the University of Southern California, where he played for the USC Trojans from 1991 to 1994. He was a first-team All-Pac-10 selection and a first-team All-American in 1992, 1993, and 1994. The All-American status came from playing both offensive tackle positions too. In 1994, he also won the Morris Trophy, presented annually to the best offensive and defensive linemen in the Pac-12. He was so good that the College Football Hall of Fame inducted his college career into their museum of legends in 2014.

Tony Boselli Jr. was selected as the second overall pick of the 1995 NFL Draft, the first-ever draft pick of the new Jacksonville Jaguars franchise. The Jaguar's acquisition of Boselli was a foundational building block of how they wanted to construct their offense. They made history by signing Boselli to a seven-year, $17 million deal that made him the highest-paid rookie offensive lineman, per SI.com.

He played seven seasons in Jacksonville and was the anchor of the offensive line at the Left Tackle position. Jaguars head coach Tom Coughlin knew he had a winner with the youngster because at 6’7″, 322-lb. Boselli’s size and mobility were a combination seldom seen in a man. While he was a large offensive lineman, his mobility and athleticism could hold off the NFL’s best pass rushers. This was pretty evident in Boselli’s debut NFL game when Jacksonville faced the Green Bay Packers pitting Tony up against Reggie White and Shawn Jones all afternoon. To the delight of Coughlin and the Jacksonville faithful, the rookie held his own against the top defensive linemen. The Jags won just four games in that first season however in 1995, the franchise won nine games and played deep into the postseason the year after.

Boselli continued playing at a high level. In the playoffs, he kept future Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith from his normal effectiveness in the Jaguar's unexpected victory over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card Game. A week later, the Jags were tested and defeated Boselli’s favorite childhood team, the Denver Broncos, in the AFC Divisional Round. Boselli later told Sports illustrated that the surprise 30-27 win was the highlight of his eight-year NFL career.

A shoulder injury and subsequent bad medical procedure to repair it railroaded and ended Tony’s brilliant career. The Jag’s had little choice but to expose their star left tackle to the expansion draft when the NFL was adding a team in 2002 after Tony missed much of the 2001 season. The Houston Texans in the 2002 expansion Draft took a flier on Boselli but unfortunately, he was unable to do much for them with the injury and eventually called it a career.

Boselli signed a one-day contract allowing him to officially retire as a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars and became the first Jaguars player inducted into their Ring of Honor on October 8, 2006. In early 2022 Boselli found out from a visit by Hall of Fame Tackle Anthony Munoz that he was selected for enshrinement in the 2022 Class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. FOr his career, Tony received five Pro Bowl selections and three first-team All-Pro honors while appearing in two AFC Championship Games.

After football, he was an investor in multiple business ventures with former teammates, was a football analyst on TV, started a charity foundation, and raised a beautiful family of five children with his wife Angi.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of a cropped installment of Fred Davis (#83, about to step into the end-zone) scores the final touchdown of the 2007 UCLA-USC rivalry game. The UCLA Bruins visit the USC Trojans at the L.A. Coliseum; USC would win, 24-7. Creative Commons Attribution link.

Special thanks to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Stathead.com, Sports Illustrated.com and Pro Football History.com.