STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Sometimes opportunities come to people at the right time in their lives.
 
For former Stony Brook football star wide receiver Ray Bolden, that opportunity was the XFL and a chance to return to pro football and to the game he loves so much.
 
Bolden received an invite to minicamp from the Philadelphia Eagles following the 2018 NFL draft, but the opportunty didn't work out for the Euless, Texas, native. That point sent Bolden into a rough part of his life.
 
"So many different aspects of my life had fallen apart right in front of me," Bolden said. "I lost humans that played vital roles in my own development, and I chose to quit when given my first opportunity to play professionally. I don't have a legitimate reason as to why to this day."
 
That moment also led Bolden deal with a problem that so many people in the world deal with on a daily basis. Mental Illness.
 
"I was dealing with a mental illness that I'd been denying for last few years of my life," Bolden said. "So essentially, I used the process pursuing something I was familiar with as fuel to recreate and commit to myself."
 
That something was football.


 
Bolden earned a roster spot on the Houston Roughnecks of the newly relaunched XFL.
 
"I feel making the roster was just God's way of rewarding me for choosing to accept that I was deserving of the blessings in my life," Bolden said.
 
Like every other professional sports season in the United States, the XFL's return to the spotlight was cut short do to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bolden was just getting back to 100 percent from an injury suffered prior to the start of the season. He did not appear in any of the Roughnecks' five games that was played in 2020.
 
"Believe it or not, injuries didn't too much play a factor into my lack of production or opportunity on the field," Bolden said. "It was just a numbers game, and that's the way it goes at times.
 
"Even though I wasn't being given the opportunity I felt I deserved, I didn't let it affect the way I approached my individual development. I think coaches and teammates acknowledging me as the guy with a great attitude was the highlight of my experience."
 
Bolden does have plans to return to the Roughnecks and is under contract through the 2021 season.
 
"If I were to try and paint a picture for where I'd be by years' end it'd be a lie," Bolden said. "So all I can say is wherever the wind blows in all honesty."