Bowman’s second chance
by Luke Paul Chandler
Adarius Bowman is a man with nothing to lose, and everything to gain. He’s already lost it once, and it won’t happen again.
By Luke Paul Chandler
Please note that this interview was done prior to Adarius Bowman’s arrest on April 1st, 2008 for possession of marijuana.
“Nah man. You can’t stop me,” Adarius Bowman proclaims during a phone conversation, after being asked how he would defend himself on the football field. Bowman’s frank answer could be interpreted as either extremely cocky, or extremely confident.
Bowman, who eschews the grind process of the pre-draft workouts, where some have said he’s slow too make it in the NFL. He has no waver in his voice when he describes himself as a playmaker. He knows that his game shows up on film, not a stopwatch. That’s why when he’s asked his 40-yard dash times that failed to break 4.7 at the Combine in February and Oklahoma State’s Pro Day earlier this month, he’s not worried.
The former Oklahoma State standout is not a primadonna, though. Despite the kind of physical talent that could bring an NFL general manager to his knees, Bowman is far from the modern NFL wide receiver in personality. His outward confidence comes from a place of maturity and respect, rather than showboating and a self-centered attitude. For someone who once had lost a hold on a budding two-sport career in college, there is not much that gets to him.
The real story is that Bowman has seen a great deal in his 22 years. At such a young age, he’s already experienced parts of life that some men don’t see until they are much deeper in adulthood. Most of it never happened on a football field, but it shaped him into the player that he has become today. To people like his mother, Tara Bowman, and his position coach at both North Carolina and Oklahoma State Gunter Brewer, they see a young man with so much more than NFL potential.
It was not always that way. For a time early on in his college career, which originally began at the University of North Carolina, Bowman was admittedly not making the best decisions. In October 2004, he was caught with two other Tar Heels in a dorm room smoking marijuana. Bowman admits that he was smoking marijuana with the others, but that he was not the one who brought the drugs to the room. Charges were later dropped, but the coach John Bunting moved quickly, and dismissed Bowman along with two others on a one-strike policy.
“I hold no resentment, nor regret it because it made the person that I am today,” Bowman said. “I feel that the university could have handled the situation better, but it happened the way it happened, and it was what it is. It was being young, and making mistakes.”
Bowman felt that North Carolina had acted too harshly against him, feeling that he should have been given a second chance. After his case was dismissed in November 2004, he said that he was given a second chance to come back to the team. Bowman, however, was ready to transfer.
It was a big shock to those closest to Bowman that a mistake like this could happen. He was born on July 10th, 1985 to Tara, who at the time was just 14. Bowman at a young age had to take on great responsibility. His father was not involved in his upbringing, so Bowman had to become a father figure to his younger siblings. Raised in Chattanooga, Tenn. in a small apartment, Bowman couldn’t have the care-free existence of his peers. His responsibilities were at home. It never bothered Bowman though.
“I was taking a different approach than the other students,” Bowman said. “When everyone was going out to the movies or just hanging out, I had to go home to take care of my brothers and sisters. I never had a problem doing it though.”
Bowman can count on one hand the amount of times he’s met with his father. Because of that, his bond with his mother is tight, a near brother and sister relationship because of their close ages. As Brewer described, Bowman may not have grown up with many materialistic things, but he grow up with a lot of love in his family.
Bowman, despite not coming from wealth, was a two-sport star at Notre Dame High School, a private school in Chattanooga. To support the family, Tara Bowman worked several jobs while he was growing up. He was originally a basketball star, and was attracted to football as a way of bulking up, and getting into a better weight-lifting routine. When he first became a member of the team, he tried several positions before finally settling on wide receiver, where Bowman says he finally found “it.”
During his first year of varsity football, Bowman had a monstrous season, catching 52 passes for 1,339 yards and 16 touchdowns. It was at this time that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution named him one of the top 100 players in the South. Bowman had found a home for his athletic talent.
During his senior season while at Notre Dame, Bowman became a hot name in recruiting. At that time he became heavily recruited by Gunter Brewer, the wide receivers coach at the University of North Carolina. Bowman says that his relationship with Brewer was special from the beginning. Brewer made several recruiting visits to his home, and spent time getting to know his family.
“It really allowed me to know what kind of person he was,” Bowman said.
Bowman later said along with his talks with then basketball coach for the Tar Heels, Matt Doherty, gave him the answer he needed, to commit to North Carolina to play both basketball and football. It was a tough move for Bowman, especially early on. He said he had conversations with his mom about coming home to be closer to his family.
“I had spent so much of my childhood at home … I felt out of my routine away from home,” he said.
During his time at North Carolina, it began to take a toll on him. His grades had begun to slip, and he was unhappy.
In spite of the ugliness of his dismissal from North Carolina, Bowman found a second chance in Stillwater, Oklahoma. At that time, Brewer had decided to leave North Carolina to take a role on head coach Mike Gundy’s staff at Oklahoma State. Bowman said that “he was the only reason I went there. I was committed to following Coach Brewer wherever he went.”
Brewer, who had been at Oklahoma State a full semester before Bowman committed, made it known to the receiver that he was being given a second chance. Through coach Gundy, Bowman became aware that another incident involving marijuana would not be tolerated. It was not an issue though, and Bowman had Brewer vouching for the young transfer student.
“He no longer felt comfortable there after I had left, and it was a matter of letting people know we could get him around the corner, and he deserved a second chance,” Brewer said. “I was more concerned with his poor decision making at that time than his character.
“Kids make mistakes, adults make mistakes and from the President of the United States to me, out there in the public eye it’s more visible as an athlete in the media. We were extremely disappointed because he had been raised better than that, and we couldn’t stick our head in the sand. On a college campus of 30,000 or more, that things of that nature do happen. You have to address the problem, not walk away from it, and find out why a person made that decision.”
The two became closer because of the incident, which later defined both men’s roles in each other’s lives.
Brewer said at that time, he started to see Bowman grow as a person. Bowman had stopped handling matters like a child, and more like an adult. During the 2005 season where Bowman had to sit out due to transfer rules, it was a very humbling time for Bowman, according to Brewer. Bowman had no choice but to learn to become a team player, and to learn that it wasn’t always his way that was right. It was tough on Bowman, but he understood that he had no choice, “sitting out that year made a much better player and person.”
When he finally got a chance to play his first game as an Oklahoma State Cowboy Bowman says he was out there to prove a point to himself. He responded with a huge season that saw play well on the field, but more than that become a big part of the team. Bowman blew up to become a big-play receiver, much like former Brewer student Randy Moss, and was one of the hottest wide receivers in the country. He gave serious consideration to declaring for the 2007 NFL Draft, but he said his mom pushed him to finish his degree. At the time, he was only about 20 credit hours away from graduation.
When he came back for his final season in 2007, he says that he was more experienced and he had a deeper understanding for the game, and his comfort level increased. He also had corrective eye surgery in the spring of 2007, to correct 20/900 vision in his one eye.
A change in schemes and quarterbacks saw Bowman’s production drop statistically, but as always, his confidence in his performance never falters, “all I can do is play the game…it is what it is. People can see I can play the game.”
To Brewer, who has grown with Bowman over the past four years, he sees so much more for Bowman. He sees not only the football player, but the young man who’s grown so much. Bowman ranks extremely high on Brewer’s lists of pupils, and not just for his physical talent. Brewer sees much more for Bowman than just football, though he does see a great deal of untapped talent in the young man. To Brewer, Bowman will make an impact somewhere in life, hopefully both on and off the football field.
Contact Luke at Luke@newerascouting.com.