Boyer willed himself into becoming a frontline player at the University of Texas at Austin.
Nate Boyer is an American hero. After graduating from high school, Boyer went to work as a deckhand on a sports fishing boat in San Diego, trying to figure out what to do with his life.
He was training to be a firefighter before he decided that wasn’t for him. Boyer then moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career. It didn’t work out, so he decided to enlist in the United States Army. That worked out, and he was eventually accepted into the Green Berets.
Boyer served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was honorably discharged after six years of service. The question then became, what next?
Nate Boyer (photo courtesy Reporting Texas)
Boyer applied and was accepted at the University of Texas at Austin. Once admitted, his next goal was to be a football walk-on, and he made the team. Boyer was redshirted in 2010, his freshman year, and as a sophomore, he played in one game on special teams.
Odds are that he’d continue to play sporadically unless he figured out a way to contribute. Boyer figured he could do that as a long snapper, and his instinct proved accurate. He got so good at the task that he played in 38 consecutive games.
That wouldn’t be the only way Boyer would succeed in Austin. He was a first-team Academic All-American (2012-14), named the 2012-13 Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year, and won the Armed Forces Merit Award.
Boyer graduated in 2013 and later signed an undrafted free-agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks. While an NFL career was not in the cards, I can tell you that the name Nate Boyer is recognized as a Longhorn legend.
