Malik Nabers: See video of NY Giants star receiver during practice
Get a closeup view of WR Malik Nabers working out at Giants practice in East Rutherford.
EAST RUTHERFORD – Swayze Bozeman’s NFL dream has been equally exhilarating and humbling.
The longshot linebacker from his Mississippi hometown – population 1,700 – was at the top of the football world in Super Bowl LIX as an undrafted rookie with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Just seven months later, Bozeman is a New York Giant and signed to an active roster for the first time in his brief professional career. In an unforeseen twist of fate, he’s potentially one snap away from calling the defense against his former team and Patrick Mahomes in prime time Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.
“It’s been a wild and crazy ride,” Bozeman told NorthJersey.com and The Record after Wednesday’s practice. “I’m blessed to be here.”
Yet before we continue with his story, one certainly worthy enough to share, we had to ask the question: so, Swayze, were your parents bigger fans of Dirty Dancing, Ghost or Roadhouse?
“I get that a lot about Patrick Swayze, but no, it’s a family name,” Bozeman said with a laugh. “Gets plenty of attention, but I’m named for my great uncle, who was Swayze, and his son. And now my wife and I are having our first child, and he’s going to be Swayze Jr. Keep the name’s tradition going.”
Make no mistake: there’s more to Swayze Bozeman’s story than his attention-grabbing first name. You just have to dig a little deeper, so we did. Here’s how he landed with the Giants, initially with the practice squad and now on the active roster as a special teams contributor and the backup to starting MIKE linebacker Bobby Okereke.
The 26-year-old from Southern Miss spent his entire rookie season with the Chiefs, finally earning an elevation from the practice squad last December. He dressed on game day for three games at the end of the regular season, then was active for all three playoff games, including the Super Bowl.
Bozeman and his wife Macie were wide-eyed and appreciative of the journey, given their time together as star athletes for the Southern Miss football and soccer teams.
It was a family gathering in New Orleans for the Bozemans, and while Macie found herself living out the experience among Taylor Swift and the Chiefs’ significant others, Swayze played 21 snaps on special teams with two tackles in the biggest game of his life.
Just days after the victorious Eagles’ green and white confetti fell inside the Superdome, Bozeman’s career took a hard left turn. He weighed his options and decided to sign with the Chicago Bears, hoping to earn a roster spot and a larger role on defense to provide more security for his young family.
Shortly thereafter, the Bozemans found out Macie was expecting their first child, due in December. They began planning for a future in Chicago, only to have Swayze’s time there end in late August with an unexpected release.
That’s where the Giants entered the picture.
Bozeman was waived by the Bears on a Monday and he cleared the next day, which also happened to be the NFL-mandated cut down day. A spot on the other 31 teams’ active rosters was unlikely at that point, and since practice squads could not be assembled until that Wednesday afternoon, Bozeman faced a 48-hour period of life-altering uncertainty.
Macie had been with Swayze in Chicago, but following his exit – because they had no idea where he would end up next, if anywhere at all – she made plans to move back to Mississippi. That provided the comfort of home while also giving Swayze the freedom to take the best opportunity in pursuit of his next job in the league.
He was staring at accruing a bunch of hotel points in any number of cities, enduring the ups and downs of NFL life that are more common and tenuous than anyone realizes.
“It’s really hard because there was so much we didn’t know,” Swayze said. “I got let go by Chicago, and it was like, ‘OK, now what?’ Life goes on, and just when you start thinking about, ‘Hey, if I don’t get another chance, what’s next?’ I’d be lying if I didn’t think that, I had to work for my family, we have a kid on the way, how long could I wait for my next shot?”
Bozeman did not have to wait long. At 1 p.m. that Wednesday, Swayze received a call from his agent, Damian Knight. The Giants were interested, and they had a 6 p.m. flight to New Jersey booked for him to join Big Blue.
Fast forward to this week and the 6-foot-1, 224-pound Bozeman finally has some of the security for which he was hoping. The Giants have unfortunately been hit by injuries galore at inside linebacker. Three of the top four players on the depth chart are out – Micah McFadden (foot) and Chris Board (chest) are on injured reserve and Darius Muasau is in concussion protocol – and a fourth, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, did not practice Wednesday due to a calf injury.
Bozeman was signed to the roster Tuesday after he played five snaps on defense and 24 on special teams as a practice squad elevation against the Cowboys.
“I’m ready to do whatever I can to help this team on special teams, and I’m waiting to see how defined my role on defense will be, if at all,” Bozeman said. “I’m preparing to be the starting MIKE, and I know that’s Bobby O, but I learned from watching Carson Wentz last year, he prepared like he was going to start even though [Mahomes] was the starter. Those guys were the first two in the building, the last two to leave, and judging by their preparation, you couldn’t tell who was the starter, who was the backup, and that’s how I’m going to approach it.”
Come Sunday night, when the Chiefs break the offensive huddle and Mahomes surveys the field at MetLife, we could see a Patrick vs. Swayze moment – which happened often in practice in Kansas City.
“Anything you’ve seen him do in a game, he did it 100 times in practice, and crazier stuff that people haven’t ever seen,” Bozeman said. “He’s the real deal, obviously, and everyone knows that. Hopefully we can take advantage of some slip-ups here and there, but he doesn’t do that very often. I had a couple moments against him in practice, there were a few footballs that came my way. It’s like, ‘Pat’s human! He’s human, even though it doesn’t seem like it on TV.'”
Macie will be here for the game on Sunday night, although unlike last season, she will be wearing blue, cheering for Swayze and the Giants – the Chiefs are frenemies now.
“Now that we’re on the roster, we’re gonna work on finding a place and settle here,” Bozeman said. “Not living with her, having the baby on the way the past few months, the uncertainty, it’s been something I don’t necessarily want to do again. I have some stability now, and my job is to keep proving I deserve to stay and be a Giant. This is where we want to be.”