Booty Call

REALITY WRAP UP

CHRISTIAN OKOYE played his entire NFL career with the Kansas City Chiefs , but now he's become a buccaneer. The former running back is a contestant on Pirate Master ( CBS on May 31, 8 p.m.), a floating reality show set in the Caribbean . The show—the latest creation of Mark Burnett , the man behind Survivor and The Apprentice—places 16 competitors aboard a 179-foot ship. Grouped in teams, they spend 33 days deciphering clues and racing to find buried treasure; they also must avoid being "cut adrift" at the end of each episode. The winner gets a $500,000 grand prize. Okoye , the only celebrity on a cast whose members include a receptionist, two bartenders and a glass blower, says that before he signed up for the show, "I just made sure I still remembered how to swim."

Okoye , 45, was the NFL 's leading rusher in 1989 and made two Pro Bowls in his six seasons before retiring in '93 with a knee injury. Now living in Rancho Cucamonga , Calif. , he works as a television studio analyst for Oakland Raiders broadcasts. ("Some of [ Oakland 's fans] are upset that a Chief is talking about their Raiders ," he says.) He also runs a fitness and nutrition company and the Christian Okoye Foundation, which gives free sports clinics and business tutorials to underprivileged kids.

Okoye , who jogs, bicycles and lifts weights to keep in shape, says he readied himself to be a pirate in the Caribbean by "watching a few Johnny Depp movies." He came away from the show—taping is complete, but he can't say how he did—with respect for this new kind of competition. "Preparing for football is a little easier," he says. "It's all physical. You bang heads, and then go home and take Tylenol ."