For the second time in his career, Pittsburgh Steelers K Chris Boswell made the NFL Pro Bowl. He is among four Steelers players voted into the Pro Bowl, joining LB T.J. Watt, DL Cam Heyward, and FS Minkah Fitzpatrick. And the man they call “Boz” has certainly endeared himself to Steelers fans and his teammates.
But it wasn’t always rosy in Pittsburgh. Boswell joined the team in 2015 after a string of injuries and poor play convinced the Steelers to sign him in October of that year. The Steelers were hoping that he would be the answer, and undoubtedly he has proven that over the course of the last nine seasons.
Yet Boswell recalled the eyes on him when he joined the team during Thursday’s episode of the Christian Kuntz Podcast. In fact, one teammate stood out in his mind that he can recall it all these years later.
“I signed on like a Friday and Saturday. I got to go home for the weekend and come back, and Deebo, my very first practice stood over the holder,” Boswell said of James Harrison. “So the holder’s waiting to get a snap, standing over his shoulder, and it’s just, ‘I dare you to miss this kick. I dare you to miss it. You miss this kick, you wash my back in the shower.’ Even after I obviously had a decent season that year, but team meeting room, when I used to go, I would sit here and Deebo would sit here, and he would just stare at me. Mike Tomlin’s up there, giving his team presentation, and he’s just staring at me like this the entire team meeting. Just intimidating. Intimidating as hell.”
There are few players who can intimidate like former Steelers LB James Harrison. How many people do you see working out in full sweats lifting as much as Harrison? Even former Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald equated trying to tackle Harrison during his Super Bowl pick-six to trying to move a refrigerator.
So imagine your first practice with a new team. You’ve got Harrison staring daggers at you while you’re trying to make a kick. And he’s not just staring. He’s chirping, trying to get you to mess up with threats of humiliation. Or you’re trying to pay attention to your new head coach, and Harrison is just staring death rays into your soul.
That’s exactly what Chris Boswell experienced after he first joined the Steelers. Now, his career field goal percentage is 87.98, fourth-best all-time in the NFL. In 2024, he’s kicked more field goals than any other kicker in the league. Perhaps surviving as the target of James Harrison’s stares made gamedays more relaxing. Or at least they were compared to Harrison’s stares and threats.
