Where Are They Now Anthony Dicosmo

EagleAction caught up with former BC wide receiver Anthony Dicosmo. "Cos" takes a look back at the recruiting process he went through and explains why BC was the destination for him. The former wide receiver also caught us up with what he is doing now.

EA: Who were the schools other than BC that were recruiting you the hardest?

Dicosmo: My official visits were BC, Stanford, Duke and Notre Dame. Really though it came down to Stanford and Boston College for me. Those were the two places I really wanted to go. I'm really fortunate that my mother and sister played such an integral part in me choosing schools. One thing they made me promise was that they would all be good academic schools. Obviously Stanford and BC are on different coasts so locationally they are opposite but they were both fine academic institutions with good football programs

EA: Was BC a favorite of yours right from the start or did they need to work hard to get you interested?

Dicosmo: No, coming out of North Jersey it really is a destination. Particularly in the 90's there were three destinations to play in the northeast if you wanted to play at a high level---no offense to Rutgers but they were really poor at the time---it was Penn State, Syracuse and Boston College. Of those schools BC was the standout academically so it was an attractive opportunity from the start.

EA: What ultimately made you choose BC?

Dicosmo: It's a standout academically and Boston is a great city so it was a really attractive opportunity.

EA: Did you remember any negative recruiting?

Dicosmo: It's always going to be a high pressure situation for any blue chip recruit. There were a lot of coaches pulling me in different directions and everyone wanted an answer all of the time. It's a tough balance between the recruiting, academics, your friends, family and even your high school team on the field. I think recruiters are trying to gauge how interested a kid is. I don't necessarily remember being too much of the exploited process----I know you hear all sorts of stuff on TV which is probably true in some situations-but I do remember people acting disappointed. I do remember some people acting inappropriately after hearing I didn't want to go somewhere. It wasn't always like 'hey best of luck'.

EA: Do you think the academic emphasis and requirements make it tougher to win at BC?

Dicosmo: I think so, but it isn't for everyone right? It's a place where if you are a serious student athlete, if you want to succeed on the field, if you want to play a really tough competitive schedule, and if you want to earn a degree from a place where an alumni pool takes care of you. The reality is that your career eventually ends whether you are a first round pick, an undrafted free agent or if your career is done after BC. For everyone it eventually ends. You have to do something with the rest of your life and the BC degree will help you with that. The program was really good about finding mentors and I think they are getting better and better at bringing back alumni and opening doors for kids.

EA: Do you have much of a relationship with Addazio, the other coaches and everyone there now? How close are you to the program now with what's going on?

Dicosmo: I haven't met Addazio yet. That's due more to my personal circumstance because I just had a baby. I was really close to Coach Spaz because he was on the staff when I was there so it wasn't so far removed. I'm looking forward to coming to a game this year and hopefully I get to meet Addazio because I've heard nothing but good things. I think that's an important piece making sure the players we have---especially the young kids---meet the right alumni to help figure out what they might want to do when they get out.

As an example, I have a great job now in television where I'm off the camera. I had no idea this job even existed when I was at BC. I was only familiar with the jobs that someone like my classmate Damien Woody now has on the camera.

EA: If you were on Addazio's staff and you were a coach recruiting a player like you were, what would your pitch for BC be? Obviously you'd say different things based on who you're talking to, but what would your main selling points be for the school?

Dicosmo: I think there are a few things. You will be playing for a competitive program with a national schedule with games on national TV. There is the academic piece which they always do a good job of selling. You have the city of Boston which is like very few cities in the world. Then I think you have the alumni base that I've talked about that you can tap into.

EA: You spent a little bit of time in the NFL and in some other leagues. Was it tough when you realized your days of playing football were over?

Dicosmo: I went right to the Tampa Bay Bucs from BC. I played for Tony Dungy and scored a touchdown in my first preseason game. Then I got to experience the opposite of that joy when I was cut a few weeks after. From there I played in the XFL and had a great experience there. I played arena football too. When I broke my foot I had to figure out what was next and I went to graduate school at Rutgers.

EA: What is your profession now that you don't play football anymore?

Dicosmo: I'm the VP of Sports Marketing for Nickelodeon. Really my job is to figure out how the Nickelodeon and our brand comes to life through sports. We create sports content and programming specific for a kid.

We work with other athletes and other leagues outside of football so we can cultivate the next generation of sports fans. That's really what every professional team is trying to do right now. As an example if you are one of the 12 professional teams in New York you have to be competitive to cultivate who the next generation fan is of your team. Nickelodeon obviously has a lot of kids that view it so we can help bridge the gap for the teams. It is a pretty cool job to have.

EA: Is this operation still in the early stages or are you already executing things?

Dicosmo: We've done a ton of stuff. We are entering our 2nd year of doing really big things. We are doing our 2nd Kids Choice Sports Awards on July 16th. We took our Kids Choice Awards model and tweaked it so it was focused on the biggest moments in sports. We brought Michael Strahanon it who is my friend from playing ball. He is like the best example of being more than just what you were in football. We did phenomenal and in our first year we outpaced the ESPY's. If they are the standard in sports and you can beat them in your first year I think that's a great accomplishment.

We have a sports programming block that's a weekly two hour destination that we do with sports leagues on Wednesdays at 9. We create a destination where stuff like Ray Rice and the negative side of sports is taken out. We focus on highlights and just being a fan.

EA: Now that you can look back on things is there anything you would tell a young player?

Dicosmo: It might not be the destination of where I thought football would take me. However , it opened doors to me that probably wouldn't have been opened if I didn't. If you accept that maybe your destination won't be a long career in the NFL and take advantage of the other things football can provide you with you can have a really great professional career.