On Thursday, John Bosa got a little emotional while speaking with Bay Area radio station KNBR. The father of star pass rusher Nick Bosa was reflecting on the emotions of Wednesday, upon learning that his son had agreed to terms on a five-year, $170 million contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers.
"Well, it's a couple of hours before the word actually got out, and I was not with Nick," John told Greg Papa and John Lund. "I was waiting for a phone call from him, and it's obviously one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking calls. I got that same call from Joey a few years ago. And I looked at my phone, it was Nick, and that call was going to go one or two ways, and it went great."
That's when the father broke down in tears. Twenty-four hours later, just talking about the moment made John emotional.
"Very emotional call, and just so happy and proud of that kid and what he's accomplished," John continued. "And he's gone through a lot for a young guy. He's gone through some dark days, going through some of the stuff he's went through, but it was very emotional."
Nick Bosa took the NFL by storm during his rookie 2019 season, helping the 49ers reach the Super Bowl. Two games into his next season, the defensive end suffered a season-ending ACL injury.
Bosa awaited news from his agent, Brian Ayrault, hoping a deal would get done before the 49ers kicked off their season in Pittsburgh against the Steelers. As the weeks passed, the defensive end longed to rejoin his teammates.
"[T]he thing that really struck me is Nick is a very happy person, and for the last, I would say 10 days, he was not happy," John shared. "He was grinding, his training was definitely straight up, and he didn't miss a beat on the training end of it, and doing everything that he does after the workouts, the cold tubs and all of that. But he wasn't happy. He was very quiet, and I could tell it was tough.
"... So it was quiet, and it was hard, and it was hard on me to be in with him in the gym for two hours and not a word is spoken."
About 30 minutes after speaking with Nick on the phone and receiving the news, the father was picking up his son to take him to the airport in Palm Beach.
"So it was an awesome call, one I'll never forget," John said. "And a great drive up there, just seeing him so happy to get back with his guys. And so happy and so proud of what he's accomplished through it all."
John added, "It's about a 45-minute drive [to the airport], and about 25 minutes into it, we're talking about everything, what's going on and everything is great. And then there was kind of a moment of silence, and we're driving along on the highway, and we just looked at each other, and we both had just giant smiles on our faces. And we just started laughing as we were driving, just laughing."
You can listen to the entire conversation with John Bosa below.