Bo was probably the most versatile, world class athlete we've ever seen. And this is cool to hear. It's a bit hard to believe... but that's part of what makes it interesting. Yes, I know it was recorded off of a Zenith with a potato. Sorry.
Great Bo Jackson story...
- Thread starter Kinnick.At.Night
- Start date
Arguably the greatest athlete ever. If he didn’t get injured I am not sure there would be much debate.
I was lucky enough to have my Dad take me to see Jackson as a Royal and as a member of the White Sox.
Deion Sanders blew him away.
First of all at their primary position in their primary sport, Bo was never the best at his position any of the 4 years he played and never got a thousand yards in a season. Don’t believe me? In 87 the best running backs were Eric Dickerson and Herschel Walker were tops when looking at the combo of total yards, TDs, ypa etc... In 88 it was the same two plus Ickey Woods, James Brooks, and Roger Craig. In 89 it was Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas and Christian Okoye. And in 90 it was Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Barry Word, and Marion Butts. That’s why his career highlight was his only in 1990 Pro Bowl nod as a backup. Conversely, Deion was THE best corner in the NFL most of his career and had 9 first team AllPro Selections as a corner PLUS 2 separate first team AllPro selections as punt and kick returner.
Second of all, just talking football....Deion was a multi role player. He’s literally one of only two players in NFL history to score six different ways (rush td, receiving td, punt return, kickoff return, interception and fumble). And he was not in those other roles as a token of his stardom, he produced. He is still THE ONLY NFL player in the modern era to not only play on both sides of the ball...he STARTED on both sides of the ball while simultaneously being the punt and kick returner. One year he was the second leading receiver for the cowboys behind only Michael Irvin and ahead of Emmitt Smith and Darryl Johnston.
Then in other sports Deion eclipses Bo in baseball quite a bit. Deion Sanders finished with a career .263 hitting percentage and .319 on base percentage over a 13 year career to Bo’s .250 hitting percentage and .309 on base percentage over an 8 year career. Deion’s best year was 92 where he batted .304 for a .346 obp compared to Bo’s best in 90 where he batted .273 for a .342 obp. The one thing that Bo gave that Deion didn’t was homers (not that he was a wrecking crew but in his best year he did hit 141 in his career to Sanders 49) but that is offset by Deion’s many steals (186 to 81) and the fact that Deion was one of the better defensive centerfielders in the game while Bo was a defensive liability and frequently played DH along with his official position of LF.
Just for further clarification, Deion is the only person to hit a homerun in the MLB and a td in the NFL the same week. He’s also the only person to play in both World Series and Super Bowls.
Probably the most overrated athlete ever.
That's in his 30 for 30. If anyone is a member of the Bo Jackson fan club (like me, look at my avatar), that is mandatory viewing. Lots and lots of awesome stuff and interesting stories in that one... Late on a weekend after a few adult beverages and others are asleep, I will watch that from time to time, although The Last Dance has broken into the rotation.
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Deion Sanders blew him away.
First of all at their primary position in their primary sport, Bo was never the best at his position any of the 4 years he played and never got a thousand yards in a season. Don’t believe me? In 87 the best running backs were Eric Dickerson and Herschel Walker were tops when looking at the combo of total yards, TDs, ypa etc... In 88 it was the same two plus Ickey Woods, James Brooks, and Roger Craig. In 89 it was Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas and Christian Okoye. And in 90 it was Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Barry Word, and Marion Butts. That’s why his career highlight was his only in 1990 Pro Bowl nod as a backup. Conversely, Deion was THE best corner in the NFL most of his career and had 9 first team AllPro Selections as a corner PLUS 2 separate first team AllPro selections as punt and kick returner.
Second of all, just talking football....Deion was a multi role player. He’s literally one of only two players in NFL history to score six different ways (rush td, receiving td, punt return, kickoff return, interception and fumble). And he was not in those other roles as a token of his stardom, he produced. He is still THE ONLY NFL player in the modern era to not only play on both sides of the ball...he STARTED on both sides of the ball while simultaneously being the punt and kick returner. One year he was the second leading receiver for the cowboys behind only Michael Irvin and ahead of Emmitt Smith and Darryl Johnston.
Then in other sports Deion eclipses Bo in baseball quite a bit. Deion Sanders finished with a career .263 hitting percentage and .319 on base percentage over a 13 year career to Bo’s .250 hitting percentage and .309 on base percentage over an 8 year career. Deion’s best year was 92 where he batted .304 for a .346 obp compared to Bo’s best in 90 where he batted .273 for a .342 obp. The one thing that Bo gave that Deion didn’t was homers (not that he was a wrecking crew but in his best year he did hit 141 in his career to Sanders 49) but that is offset by Deion’s many steals (186 to 81) and the fact that Deion was one of the better defensive centerfielders in the game while Bo was a defensive liability and frequently played DH along with his official position of LF.
Just for further clarification, Deion is the only person to hit a homerun in the MLB and a td in the NFL the same week. He’s also the only person to play in both World Series and Super Bowls.
Your citation to stats is dubious. With regard to running back, from 87 through 90, he played 7, 10, 11, and 10 games respectively. Because he played baseball professionally. As an all-star. He averaged 5.4 ypa, dragged down by 88 when he averaged 4.3. Other years were 6.8, 5.5, and 5.6. In 1988, Dickerson only averaged 4.3 as well, and Herschel averaged 4.2. In 87 through 90, Dickerson and Walker never averaged more than 5 ypa. Meanwhile, Bo averaged more ypa than Barry Sanders in 89 and 90. The proof is in the pudding. The number of draw dropping highlights in 4 shortened seasons, with no off season training, is crazy.
And the preceding is not to say Deion was not incredible. He was. But, there were and are many players now who excel both at their primary position and as returner. Deion did play longer but that was because he did not suffer a devastating injury while being tackled. Rather, he did not like to tackle and was not very good at it.
With regard to baseball, you cited making the pro bowl as a backup as a demerit. Meanwhile, Deion was never an all-star in basball while Bo was in both sports. I think whether you think Bo or Deion was a better baseball player comes down to what you are looking for. Overall, I cast my lot with Bo.
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Your citation to stats is dubious. With regard to running back, from 87 through 90, he played 7, 10, 11, and 10 games respectively. Because he played baseball professionally. As an all-star. He averaged 5.4 ypa, dragged down by 88 when he averaged 4.3. Other years were 6.8, 5.5, and 5.6. In 1988, Dickerson only averaged 4.3 as well, and Herschel averaged 4.2. In 87 through 90, Dickerson and Walker never averaged more than 5 ypa. Meanwhile, Bo averaged more ypa than Barry Sanders in 89 and 90. The proof is in the pudding. The number of draw dropping highlights in 4 shortened seasons, with no off season training, is crazy.
And the preceding is not to say Deion was not incredible. He was. But, there were and are many players now who excel both at their primary position and as returner. Deion did play longer but that was because he did not suffer a devastating injury while being tackled. Rather, he did not like to tackle and was not very good at it.
With regard to baseball, you cited making the pro bowl as a backup as a demerit. Meanwhile, Deion was never an all-star in basball while Bo was in both sports. I think whether you think Bo or Deion was a better baseball player comes down to what you are looking for. Overall, I cast my lot with Bo.
Bo Jackson NEVER had the top ypa when he met the min statistical requirement of the NFL (ie you had to have at least 100 attempts to lead the NFL in any stat, so 87 doesn’t count as he mainly played in garbage time a couple of plays a game).
In 88 Bo was 17th at ypa and was behind in both ypa, TDs per game and total yards of 8 other players.
In 89 Bo was 3rd in ypa and was behind James Brooks in both ypa, TDs per game and total yards. He did average 0.2 yards more per attempt than Barry Sanders but Barry had 14 TDs to Bo’s 4 and Barry also has four times the amount of receiving yards.
In 90 Bo was 2nd in ypa behind only Randal Cunningham, however despite playing in only 10 games he only had 5 TDs to Barry Sanders 13 TDs in 16 and Barry Sanders had 480 yards receiving to Bo’s 78.
The real standout when you look at Bo with a neutral eye is that despite his reputation as a “big play” hitter, he really didn’t have a lot of long TD plays at least compared to contemporary to him players like Ickey Woods, Barry Sanders, Herschel Walker, etc...
If you start a list of greatest DBs of all time, Deion is always in the discussion. Bo doesn't even crack the list of top RBs in the 1980s.
Neither is in the discussion for greatest baseball players of all time.
Neither is in the discussion for greatest baseball players of all time.
What? He did not have a lot of long TD plays? In the all-time records for the 50 longest runs from scrimmage, he has runs ranked: 15th (92 yards), 18th (91 yards), and 39th (88 yards). Two of those came in the same game, and he is the only person in the history of the NFL to have two 90 yard runs in the same game. Meanwhile, Ickey woods has none of the longest runs, Barry has none of the longest runs, and Herschel "only" has one (18th at 91 yards). This is with Herschel having 1,954 NFL attempts and Barry 3,062 attempts. I am not sure why you brought Woods into the conversation because he only has 332 career attempts with an average of 4.6 and a long of 56. As for the 1988 season, I would hope Brooks and Woods had good seasons as they made and could have won the super bowl. As for 1990, comparing Cunningham's scrambles at qb versus carries running back is apples and oranges.
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Based upon longevity and injury, he is not included. Based upon incredible play per carry, he is. Let me put it this way. If you could have Bo Jackson or his clone all of the time, just replacing him with his clone after every 4 years, would you rather have that or Ickey Woods, Herschel Walker, etc?
Yeah, the one where he follows kids home and threw rocks through their screen doors? What’s not to like?
That’s why I pointed out that Barry Sanders blew Bo away in total yards, number of TDs and receiving yards during both of Bo’s best two years. Some of the others you can argue certain points and say Bo was better but against Barry? No one who understands football can say Bo’s 3rd and 4th are better than Barry’s first two (the same years, his later production was even more outstanding).
Also keep in mind I’m only comparing Bo to contemporaries, once you start adding in the Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Marshall Faulks, LaDainian Tomlinson, Marshall Faulk, etc... Bo wasn’t even a top 25 running back. And that’s not just me saying that, that’s experts like Athlon.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/athlonsports.com/nfl/25-greatest-running-backs-nfl-history?amp
Meanwhile, just try and find a list of the greatest cornerbacks of all time that doesn’t have Deion in the top 5 (and almost always he’s number 1).
And as I mentioned that doesn’t even include the fact that simultaneously with being the best defensive back of his generation if not ever, that he was also one of the top punt and kick returners of that era and the second best WR on his team behind a fellow HOFer in Michael Irvin. Heck, Deion has more than twice the receiving yards in his career than Bo does and that was Deion’s 4th most important role (after playing corner, punt returner and kick returner).
Also as far as Bo getting an AllStar nod in baseball, I pointed out that Sanders had the better career and the better season. The only reason Deion didn’t get several AllStar selections was because he always did it part time while Bo was full time for half of his seasons and he made several irritating comments in the press about MLB being run by slaveowners which Bo abstained from doing. But as far as production, Deion was better. Deion never got sidelined to DH because his defense sucked like Bo did.
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And it wasn’t that he stalked them they were in a crabapple right where he finished it even if they ran inside. Not a great look along with allegedly killing boars throwing rocks at them...
Deion Sanders blew him away.
First of all at their primary position in their primary sport, Bo was never the best at his position any of the 4 years he played and never got a thousand yards in a season. Don’t believe me? In 87 the best running backs were Eric Dickerson and Herschel Walker were tops when looking at the combo of total yards, TDs, ypa etc... In 88 it was the same two plus Ickey Woods, James Brooks, and Roger Craig. In 89 it was Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas and Christian Okoye. And in 90 it was Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Barry Word, and Marion Butts. That’s why his career highlight was his only in 1990 Pro Bowl nod as a backup. Conversely, Deion was THE best corner in the NFL most of his career and had 9 first team AllPro Selections as a corner PLUS 2 separate first team AllPro selections as punt and kick returner.
Second of all, just talking football....Deion was a multi role player. He’s literally one of only two players in NFL history to score six different ways (rush td, receiving td, punt return, kickoff return, interception and fumble). And he was not in those other roles as a token of his stardom, he produced. He is still THE ONLY NFL player in the modern era to not only play on both sides of the ball...he STARTED on both sides of the ball while simultaneously being the punt and kick returner. One year he was the second leading receiver for the cowboys behind only Michael Irvin and ahead of Emmitt Smith and Darryl Johnston.
Then in other sports Deion eclipses Bo in baseball quite a bit. Deion Sanders finished with a career .263 hitting percentage and .319 on base percentage over a 13 year career to Bo’s .250 hitting percentage and .309 on base percentage over an 8 year career. Deion’s best year was 92 where he batted .304 for a .346 obp compared to Bo’s best in 90 where he batted .273 for a .342 obp. The one thing that Bo gave that Deion didn’t was homers (not that he was a wrecking crew but in his best year he did hit 141 in his career to Sanders 49) but that is offset by Deion’s many steals (186 to 81) and the fact that Deion was one of the better defensive centerfielders in the game while Bo was a defensive liability and frequently played DH along with his official position of LF.
Just for further clarification, Deion is the only person to hit a homerun in the MLB and a td in the NFL the same week. He’s also the only person to play in both World Series and Super Bowls.
I brought up Ickey Woods because he had a better season than Bo Jackson did in 1988 which was Ickey’s rookie season and Bo’s second. In that year, Ickey had almost double the yardage on the ground (1066 to 580), had FIVE times the number of TDs (15 to 3), had a far longer TD (91 to 25), and more receiving yards (199 to 79); all while having an extra yard per attempt (5.6 to 4.3). Ickey then suffered a string of injuries which meant he never succeeded much after that, but if you’re going on what he COULD have done for Bo, why not what Ickey COULD have done? He eclipsed every season of Bo’s in just his rookie outing, who knows what he could have done if healthy with a couple of years in the league.
All I can say is, I sat at Jordan-Hare in 1985 and watched him tear our #4 ranked Noles apart; he had close to 200 yards that day, and it was like watching a man playing boys. Much like watching Herschel in his time.
Sadly, the Stinkin' Gators (but I repeat myself) owned him; in 3 games, he was pretty much non-existent. Wish he'd have saved that big game for the 'Turds instead.
Sadly, the Stinkin' Gators (but I repeat myself) owned him; in 3 games, he was pretty much non-existent. Wish he'd have saved that big game for the 'Turds instead.
Despite his claim to be a retro-game geek, it's clear that @FSUTribe76 has never played TecmoBowl.
I love Deion and Bo. Picking one over the other is a Sophie's choice.
I love Deion and Bo. Picking one over the other is a Sophie's choice.
Peter Warrick came to the NFL with a lot of upside, hype and potential. Despite his potential, Warrick never panned out, finishing his NFL career with just under 3,000 receiving yards. Sound familiar?
I did not say Bo was better than Barry.* If Bo played football full time, I think you could have a debate. But he didn't, and Barry produced year after year and was a beast. However, it is illegitimate to tout Barry's greater total yards when he played full seasons, prepared for football year around, and he didn't share the backfield and carries with one of the best ever Marcus Allen. As for comparing Bo against other greats, I concede he did not have better careers than Sweetness and others, but that does not mean he was not a better running back. I don't care what a list says admiring the careers of Ladainian Tomlinson and others. I know what I saw with my own eyes and can see now on youtube. His star shone brighter, just not as long.
And did you really just say that Deion was the 2nd best WR in that era???** Deion played from 89 to 04. That included Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Jerry Rice, Larry Fitzgerald, Sterling Sharpe, Andre Rison, Andre Reed, Art Monk, Keyshawn Johnson, Irving Fryar, Herman Moore, Isaac Bruce, Cris Carter, Steve Smith, Chad Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Torry Holt, Marvin Harrison...
With regard to your statement: "The only reason Deion didn’t get several AllStar selections was because he always did it part time while Bo was full time for half of his seasons . . . ." you could say the same thing about Bo and football. Also, as to who was the better baseball player, I do not see any articles written evaluating Deion as such. Do you have a cite?
*Edited to note I made a mistake in the first sentence. I meant to write I did not say Bo was better than Barry.
** Edited again to note that you said 2nd best receiver on his team. In his best season he only had 36 receptions. Looking at the stats in 1996, they had really shitty receivers that year. So that is more of being who was the tallest midget.
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Ickey did not have a 91 yard rush or catch. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/W/WoodIc00.htm And if you are going to compare rookie seasons, look at Bo's: 6.8 ypa, long of 91. Again, while playing part time and trying to steal carries from Marcus Allen.
I’ll say what we’re all thinking, pre-injury Greg Jones could have been better than Bo Jackson.
Also as to your snipe: "No one who understands football" I will concede you know a lot about a lot of different things and very likely more than me. But, I doubt you know more about football than me. No offense.
Anyways, in regard to the original post, which I hoped would be discussed, the scoreboard at Kauffman Stadium is around 460 feet from home plate. To even reach the base of it would require a career long home run for almost every hitter in baseball. The crown itself is more than 100 feet above that point. There’s no way Bo achieved that feat.
Here's another:
Bo Diddley lived in the small town in North Florida at the same time that I grew up there. He would come and play at our school every year. It wasn't until the "You Don't Know Diddley" Nike commercial that came years later that I realized he was actually a famous musician.
/coolstorybo
Let’s be honest Bo Jackson did not even deserve the Heisman trophy.
Yes but Bo wouldn't have been afraid to tackle.
Deion Sanders blew him away.
First of all at their primary position in their primary sport, Bo was never the best at his position any of the 4 years he played and never got a thousand yards in a season. Don’t believe me? In 87 the best running backs were Eric Dickerson and Herschel Walker were tops when looking at the combo of total yards, TDs, ypa etc... In 88 it was the same two plus Ickey Woods, James Brooks, and Roger Craig. In 89 it was Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas and Christian Okoye. And in 90 it was Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas, Barry Word, and Marion Butts. That’s why his career highlight was his only in 1990 Pro Bowl nod as a backup. Conversely, Deion was THE best corner in the NFL most of his career and had 9 first team AllPro Selections as a corner PLUS 2 separate first team AllPro selections as punt and kick returner.
Second of all, just talking football....Deion was a multi role player. He’s literally one of only two players in NFL history to score six different ways (rush td, receiving td, punt return, kickoff return, interception and fumble). And he was not in those other roles as a token of his stardom, he produced. He is still THE ONLY NFL player in the modern era to not only play on both sides of the ball...he STARTED on both sides of the ball while simultaneously being the punt and kick returner. One year he was the second leading receiver for the cowboys behind only Michael Irvin and ahead of Emmitt Smith and Darryl Johnston.
Then in other sports Deion eclipses Bo in baseball quite a bit. Deion Sanders finished with a career .263 hitting percentage and .319 on base percentage over a 13 year career to Bo’s .250 hitting percentage and .309 on base percentage over an 8 year career. Deion’s best year was 92 where he batted .304 for a .346 obp compared to Bo’s best in 90 where he batted .273 for a .342 obp. The one thing that Bo gave that Deion didn’t was homers (not that he was a wrecking crew but in his best year he did hit 141 in his career to Sanders 49) but that is offset by Deion’s many steals (186 to 81) and the fact that Deion was one of the better defensive centerfielders in the game while Bo was a defensive liability and frequently played DH along with his official position of LF.
Just for further clarification, Deion is the only person to hit a homerun in the MLB and a td in the NFL the same week. He’s also the only person to play in both World Series and Super Bowls.
