Ravens' Bozeman, Wife Begin 6-Week Anti-Bullying RV Tour

Baltimore Ravens left guard Bradley Bozeman broke out in 2019 as a major part of a dominant offensive line, but there's something many people wouldn't suspect about the tough-looking 6 foot, 5 inch, 317-pound 2018 draft pick.

Bozeman looks like someone you wouldn't want to mess with now, but as a little boy, he had to endure the pain of relentless bullying.

"I looked like Augustus Gloop from 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,'" Bozeman said. "I was a chubby kid. I wouldn't stand up for myself. Kids picked on me because I was so big. I think in sixth grade, I was 6 foot tall, 260 pounds. I was always a really big kid."

Dawn White reports:

The bullying continued for about five years until Bozeman discovered football.

"I threw myself into football, and I loved football. I loved taking that aggression out on the football field because I never would do it in person on someone because I was just too kind of a kid," Bozeman said.

He played center at the University of Alabama, where he met his wife, Nikki Bozeman, a center for the Crimson Tide basketball team.

“We found out we both have a commonality. I was bullied when I was younger," Nikki Bozeman said. "I was very, very tall. I started out tall and very, very chubby. I have basketball pictures where everyone is lined up, and then I'm honestly 2/12 foot taller than everyone else. I'm very heavy, so that started it."

The boys picked on her for being taller than them. Bozeman stood 5 feet, 10 inches tall in fifth grade.

"The bus was just an awful place to be, whether it was chants that they would chant on the bus, 'Gigantor' or 'man hands' or something like that. Every day I was: 'Ugh. This is awful,'" she said.

The couple are using their painful childhood experiences and Bradley Bozeman's platform as an NFL player to help thousands of kids living through the merciless bullying they once suffered through.

"We're going on a cross-country trip. We're going to go all around the southern coastline to Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, all the way to California and back," Nikki Bozeman said. "We'll talk at 15 different states with over 16,000 students. We're really excited to get our message out there for our anti-bullying foundation and spread the word."

The Bozemans will spread the word about preventing childhood bullying through their charity, the Bradley and Nikki Bozeman Foundation.

"We started this process probably about two months ago, maybe almost three months now. We started calling schools," Nikki Bozeman said. "We had to first find campgrounds because that's the hard part is finding campgrounds, so once we found a campground, then we could find schools within the vicinity of that campground."

The Bozemans needed to find campgrounds because their anti-bullying trip is on wheels. The couple coordinated the RV tour themselves, cold-calling schools.

"Some of them were like: 'We have no idea who you are. We don't know what you're talking about.' And I was like: 'Well, we have a website. This is our website.' They were like, 'OK. go away,' kind of thing. 'We have no idea what a Raven is. Stop saying that,'" Nikki Bozeman said.

Now kids in almost 20 states will know what a Raven is thanks to the big player with a big heart.

"Our biggest message is to know who you are. Know that you're valuable. You're not alone out in the world," Bradley Bozeman said. "Really buy into whatever motivates you. Mine was football, and Nikki's was basketball."

"We talk about cyberbullying a lot because girls are already relentless, but when they don't have to say it to your face, it's 20 times worse. They can sit on a computer and start a group text about you that the next day they show everyone, and you have no idea what they're talking about, and stuff like that," Nikki Bozeman said.

The couple will spread that message in the donated 27-foot-long RV they're driving themselves.

They kicked the tour off at Pikesville Middle School on Feb. 7 and will drive the RV almost 7,000 miles before coming back to Baltimore on March 23.

"I've been with them at a number of their assemblies. What they do is incredible," said former state Sen. Bobby Zirkin.

Zirkin manages the Bozemans' school presentations.

"They walk in, and the first thing they say is that they were victims of bullying when they were kids. Your first reaction is, 'If that can happen to them, it can happen to anybody,'" Zirkin said.

Zirkin sponsored the landmark anti-bullying legislation titled Grace's Law 2.0. It's named after Grace McComas, who took her own life in 2012 after being bombarded online by bullies.

"We passed last year the strongest anti-bullying law in the country," Zirkin said. "The way we drafted the bill last year was extremely tight. It was speech where you were intending maliciously to do harm. It had the effect of doing the harm that you were trying to inflict. It had to be done against a child."

The law includes penalties of up to three years in prison, 10 years if the target is pushed to suicide, and a $10,000 fine.

"What we really need to do is take Maryland's law and bring it around the rest of the country," Zirkin said. "The Bozemans and I are going to talk strategy when they get back in town about some states that we could target and get this into the hands of some politicians from other states."

"We're trying to really create change," Nikki Bozeman said. "We don't want to go to these schools, preach a message, leave and everyone feels good, and that's it. We want to change legislation. We want to make this so that there is a lasting change ... and that we can help."

In the meantime, the Bozemans will hit the road and create lasting change in the lives of kids who need it the most.

"If you can save one child, it's worth it," Nikki Bozeman said.

"They just got finished with a grueling season, and at the end of the day the thing that they most want to do is go talk to kids all over the country," Zirkin said. "That's their offseason, and that shows just how passionate and committed these two are to it. It's really just unbelievable."

"We've been presented with a huge platform. Being an NFL player, it gives you such a broad reach," Bradley Bozeman said. "Even out in California, if they don't know what a Raven is, these kids know what it is. We want to use that platform to the best of our ability. We've been so blessed. It's been such an amazing ride for us. We want to be able to give back, show these kids they're not alone and we're here to help."

The Bozemans are helping on big wheels and on a big mission to create lasting change this offseason and beyond.

Click here for more information and to see a route of the Bozemans' anti-bullying tour. You can see videos of each stop by clicking here.