The Dolphins knew they were playing the risk-and-reward game by signing David Boston. This man of contradictions, famous for his mischief and his muscles, comes to the Dolphins with a big body and big questions.
Bigger. Better. Weirder. More interesting. More colorful. More dangerous. Did we mention weirder?
The Dolphins became a more intense shade of all of those things when David Boston stepped into the franchise last week. Miami has taken on a wide receiver of great gifts and controversy. Miami has taken on perhaps the most scrutinized, suspected, whispered-about player in the NFL.
Risk and reward reside in the same meticulously sculpted body, and the joust goes on to see which word will ultimately describe him. Five pro seasons have not resolved the question. Is the young man a head-case and headache? Or an ascending Pro Bowl star?
Definitions of the player can prove as elusive as Boston in an open field.
The receiver can go deep.
Philosophically, metaphysically deep. Deep enough to suggest a probing mind is at work atop that maniacally grown mass of muscle.
Boston recently attended a seminar on the concept of universal intelligence. He is interested in quantum physics, biomechanics and physiology. Devours books by Frank Netter on the human anatomy. Speaks a bit of French.
Yet other elements of Boston's personality imply superficiality, and convey a man who cares about nothing more passionately than what he admires, flexing, in the mirror. The man's hometown, Humble, Texas, hardly describes him, and this side of Boston can overwhelm and become all you see:
A peacock in pads.
BUILDING THE BODY
His falling out with the San Diego Chargers, which led to his trade to Miami, happened largely because the team became convinced that Boston cared more about his physique than about football.
The player's body is his obsession.
''All I care about is my body,'' he said late last summer.
A personal trainer, chef, chiropractor and acupuncturist help minister that body. His workout regimen of weights and cardiovascular training is intense, consuming, and his diet minutely regulated.
Boston, only 25, swallows up to 90 supplements per day. Twice a week, he undergoes a 90-minute intravenous drip of magnesium and other minerals to speed his body's recovery to better prepare for the next session of weightlifting. He falls into a trancelike state, listening to the sound of ocean waves, while the IV bag hangs above his bed.
He oils his arms before games so his 21-inch biceps glisten.
He has played at up to 257 pounds on a 6-2 frame, the biggest receiver in the NFL. He reported at 237 to the Dolphins, who want him to stay around there.
Boston weighed only 226 toward the end of his breakout 2001 season. His receivers coach in Arizona then, Jerry Sullivan, is with Miami now, a huge reason why Boston is, too.
''At the end of 2001 he was as ballet-type a big guy as you'll see,'' said Sullivan. ``He could dance along the sideline like it was Saturday Night Fever.''
Boston has denied he uses steroids (he was tested seven times last season and was clean each time), but the whispers chase him as surely as they do Barry Bonds in baseball. The speculation about human growth hormones (HGH) is flatly refuted by his personal trainer, Charles Poliquin.
''I hear this all the time,'' Boston told ESPN The Magazine last summer, referring to the rumors. ``What am I supposed to do? I pass every drug test. I eat the right things. I work out hard.''
The speculation that Boston is unnaturally developed is not his only baggage.
''Yeah, there's some dirt out there,'' as Sullivan put it.
A 2002 traffic stop led to Boston testing positive for marijuana and cocaine, and a league suspension. Also that year, ESPN The Magazine reported Boston had been caught with a woman at bed check before a game, and that when the woman was ordered to leave, Boston threatened to fake an injury and not play unless she could stay. She stayed.
The Dolphins are convinced that Boston's drug use is in the past, and they're seemingly unconcerned about other controversies.
Boston, speaking briefly with local media Thursday, deflected all questions about anything controversial, about anything in his rear-view mirror. ''I'm focusing on the future,'' he said.
DAUNTING PHYSIQUE
Boston would be a perennial All-Pro if stardom was based on appearance. At 237 pounds, he is a physical marvel.
Chicago Bears middle linebacker Brian Urlacher told him, ``How are your arms bigger than mine?''
Defensive backs cringe. Rare is the cornerback who dares challenge Boston at the line of scrimmage.
The receiver's father, Byron Boston, a 10-year-veteran NFL line judge, is chuckling on the phone line from his home in Houston, at the image of a small corner attempting to stuff his son at the line.
His son weighed only 130 pounds as a high school sophomore. Began lifting weights to get bigger and stronger. Now?
''You don't see guys come up and press him. He'll swat 'em like a little gnat,'' his father says. ``People think he works out to look good. He does it for his game.''
Byron Boston is aware, more than anyone, of the contrasts in his son's personality, of a young man who can seem eccentric and flamboyant but is, at heart, private.
David Boston wears different colored contact lenses, when the mood suits him. He has had his eyebrow and tongue pierced. He once asked Cardinals defenders to go easy on him during a practice for fear the contact would damage his nipple rings.
LOW-KEY SIDE
This contrasted to the image Boston put forth at his Dolphins introduction Thursday, where his only visible jewelry was a metallic-blue stud in his left earlobe. He appeared reserved, and tended to mumble.
''David is not a public person. He's different,'' his father said. ``If you expect David to be a guy to run up to microphone and always have something to say, you're going to be disappointed. He's not going to seek out people. He never has. He's a little bit aloof. He couldn't care less what people think about him.''
The quiet, conservative side of his personality fits the family. His father is an H&R Block tax consultant when not wearing NFL stripes. His mother is a retired teacher. An older brother is a Dallas police officer, and his sister is a lawyer.
(Boston plans to marry his fiancée, Renee Dota, in June. They live with three dogs: a boxer named Zeus and Maltese terriers named Isabella and Serena.)
Retired receiver Cris Carter, a late-career Dolphin, sees a lot of Ricky Williams in Boston. Williams also arrived in Miami reputed to be a loner, an eccentric, ''different,'' but has fit in well in the locker room and flourished on the field.
''In general, we're different as athletes. And David is different than a lot of other athletes,'' Carter said. ``It's no different than Ricky. You accept him as different. You didn't expect Ricky to be a leader, which he's not. They're different, but both good people.''
Carter also sees himself in Boston. Both are Ohio State alums. Carter has known Boston since high school; the younger receiver has worked at Carter's Palm Beach training facility. And Carter, like Boston, had indiscretions with drugs before finding maturity and his upward career path in his later 20s.
''David has had a few troubles off the field, but gotten those behind him,'' Carter said. ``I hope his career parallels mine. At 25, my career began to get back on track.''
The Dolphins hope Boston's body of NFL work begins to look as impressive as his body. Being the eighth overall pick of the 1999 draft suggested greatness. His 98 catches for 1,598 yards in 2001 seemed to verify it. A return to that form would make Boston as important an offensive addition as Williams.
All who know him are convinced the motivation is there.
''He's real hungry to get to where he was,'' said Sullivan, the receivers coach. ``He wants to get his stature back.''
David Boston certainly will look good trying.
But looking good isn't good enough.
''He has an incredible body, but this is all about results,'' Carter said. ``This is not bodybuilding. We're not taking pictures here.''
So the Dolphins take over this NFL mystery now -- the latest team anxiously waiting to see if all that potential will become a problem or a prize.
