Brian Bosworth: Chuck Knox ‘impacted my life for the better’

They were only together for three seasons, but Chuck Knox’s influence on Brian Bosworth was profound.

For Bosworth, a linebacker who played on Knox’s Seattle Seahawks from 1987 through 1989, the recent passing of his former coach at age 86 hit like a “body blow” that Boz said was felt throughout the NFL.

‘Chuck was the epitome of the NFL’

But when he thinks of those three seasons with Knox, he can’t help but smile.

“He’s definitely a man that impacted my life for the better,” Bosworth told Bruce Murray and Brady Quinn on the SiriusXM Blitz. “Chuck was the epitome of the NFL — the way he approached the game, the way he treated the players, his toughness. Just his body language if you watched him from afar from the sideline. You just knew that this is a man you don’t mess with and deserves and can demand the respect that should be delivered each and every play.”

‘You knew that there was an expectation of just professionalism’

Bosworth said Knox, Seattle’s coach from 1983 to 1991, created “an atmosphere of family” for the Seahawk players.

“And I think when you’re a part of Coach Chuck Knox’s family, you knew that there was an expectation of just professionalism,” Bosworth said. “He was one of the first probably most important guys for me, coming out of college in my chaotic career, to kind of set some boundaries. And I appreciated it and I wish I had had an opportunity to play for him longer and be able to build a longer relationship not only with him but with the Seahawks and the tradition that we wanted to start building and I thought we were on our way to do that once my career ended with the injuries.”

‘It’s hard to win in the NFL in the regular season and even harder in the postseason’

Bosworth doesn’t believe Knox’s career should be judged as something less than a great success because Knox never won a championship. The former linebacker thinks the former coach has credentials that stack up with the NFL’s best.

“Yes, it’s hard to win in the NFL in the regular season and even harder in the postseason. It’s hard to get to the postseason,” Boz said. “I know all the coaches, they want to prepare and they all want to get there. I mean, look at Marv Levy. He got to the Super Bowl four times and is his legacy a failure? Absolutely not. I know Cornelius Bennett and Shane Conlan and all those guys. They played their hearts out for that man because they believed in the general and Chuck was our general. We believed in everything he did. He surrounded us with great coaches and the players that we had, we were building something.

‘(Knox) focused on what we were supposed to do’

“Chuck kept us level headed and focused on what we were supposed to do and why we were there as professionals and treat the game the way it’s meant to be treated, with one-hundred percent respect.”