Bo Jackson

[Gene Mills Fan]

27 minutes ago, ionel said:

Now we know where know spends his time when not diving into data.  Know knows Bo.  

 

45 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

Oh, Bo ABSOLUTELY knows swimming

https://www.facebook.com/SISwimsuit/videos/bo-knows-summer-of-swim/1202512686447808/

Know knows; no no's!

[scourge165]

On 7/29/2025 at 7:49 PM, WrestlingRasta said:

I’ll always remember the play he took a handoff, ran over two defenders, and ran a 92 yard touchdown.  They clocked the time from the second he got the ball (which of course would have been behind the 8 yard line, to the time he crossed the goal line, in 7.6 seconds.  
 

95 yards, full pads, running over two people, edging toward the sideline……in 7.6 seconds.  
 

He also hit monster home runs, climbed walls to steal home runs, throw runners out with laser beam accurate throws, and broke bats over his head. 
 

Best athlete of all time. He’s both cases of has done and could have been. The freak injury cost a lot.l, but he still did a lot.  

I'm pretty sure I know the play you're talking about. Was it vs Seattle? The one where he just ran into the tunnel?

He didn't even look like he was running fast. And then you can see on the screen, Seattle had a CB who was one of the fastest in the league. I want to say it was Kenny Easley(SP?) but he was probably the greatest safety in NFL history, so I think I'd remember it was him.... but anyway, whoever it was, they had an angle on Bo. They were not on the playside, so they took off on an angle toward the ~10. It's been a while since I saw a breakdown of the play, but they highlighted this one dude because he was like a 4.35 40 guy and he had SUCH an easy angle on Bo. I mean, give most of us the right angle and we can get there. You have like 90 yards! The way Bo just out ran that guy and everyone else, he was gliding.

 

Again, I wish he would have just played Football for 4-5 years, won a few MVPs and ran for 8-9K yards, then played Baseball for the next 15. 

 

The freak injury cost him a lot and he still had a lot of highlights, but... it really was more what he COULD have done. 

 

This is what this man did with NO training camp. You miss training camp now due to a holdout, nobody is counting on you to stay healthy. You're not in FB shape. He walked from the Baseball field, right to the Football field and the position you get beat up the most. He also didn't life weights. His legs were too strong. When he was tackled vs the Bengals, everyone else would have just gone down, but he was so strong, he injured his leg(I've seen trainers and others say that had he lifted and trained, he may have had stronger tendons and ligaments and he doesn't suffer that injury... but I haven't a clue if that's true).

 

Still, I just think about what if. What if Tampa doesn't draft him after getting him suspended from Baseball? What if he starts his NFL career 2 years earlier and doesn't have a multi-year layoff? What if he JUST plays Football?

In the end, his career...it was better, but his total numbers are similar to AJ Dillon's. That's just...not right!

https://stathead.com/football/versus-finder.cgi?request=1&player_id1=JackBo00&player_id2=DillAJ00

[scourge165]

On 7/31/2025 at 7:18 AM, Tripnsweep said:

He didn't play full time football though. And he also shared carries with Marcus Allen. So it isn't surprising he didn't get to the 1000 yard mark because he only played 2/3 of the season. Al Davis let him finish the baseball season and then report in September or October. Deion was much better in football, because he skipped baseball in some years. Bo didn't have a good start, because he refused to play football after the Buccaneers tanked his college baseball season, and spent the next few years playing baseball out of spite. He only played for the Raiders because Al Davis let him play baseball and didn't put any restrictions on what he could do. That he was able to be an elite player in both sports early on, and was just getting started, that shows how good he was. One of the MLB scouts who watched him in college said the only thing he needed was to play more baseball and the rest would figure itself out. He also ran track at Auburn and was an NCAA qualifier. So he was definitely capable of being great, it was just whether he wanted to be or if he had enough practice. The story for him in high school was he won the decathlon pole vault event, but he had never practiced it before and his high jump record stood for many years, and still might. I know it's high school, but that's pretty impressive for a guy built like that. 

Oh...I think you mistake me. I know about the suspension his final year at Auburn for Baseball. How he blamed TB for that(I'm not sure that was intentional, but he held a grudge). And I understand he only played 2/3rd of the games, but the question is was he really THAT great or is it more "what could have been."

He had 9-10 games and they had Marcus Allen, but he wasn't really splitting carries, he was walking right in and getting 20 a game. But still, he had one year with more than 700 yards. He had like 550, 580, 950 and then 700 in 11 games. 

So again, it's a "what could have been." 

Nobody questions his athletic ability. His size, his size, his speed, he hit the hole as hard as a ***I have a limited vocabulary*** on prom night... though he got more than 3-4 pumps in before he was brought down. 

 

All of the stuff you're telling me is how great he COULD have been... BUT for these issues that held him back. 

I think it's clearly what could have been. But he never got there. OJ Simpson ran for 2000 yards in a 14 game schedule. Bo played 11 games a couple years and ran for 700 and topped out at 950. 

I posted a couple links... yes, he only played partial seasons...which makes you think, again, "what could have been." 

 

Even in Baseball, he was healthy through his age 27 season and he was never the best player on his team. Hell, he was never one of the 4-5 best players using WAR(which is the best and most comprehensive way to compare players). He was the most amazing, but... end of the day, 4 years, 8.3 WAR. Eric Davis played at the same time. His career through 27, he put up almost 3X the WAR  

He was a very poor defensive player(even for LF)... despite some incredible highlight caliber plays. For his career, he had a couple of good seasons, but even the All-Star nod was fan voting and less about how actual ability.

 

 

I loved Bo. I was a very little kid when he played, but I learned how to read by reading the sports section. Actually a funny story, but in 3rd grade, my teachers thought I couldn't read. They wanted to hold me back. My Dad would buy me the history of Baseball, each seasons Baseball preview, Baseball Encyclopedia, the history of the Super Bowls and I'd spend hours reading them. But I guess I didn't pay attention or something. So I'm at this meeting and they call me in and they ask me to read the sports section and... well, I still remember when it was. The Milwaukee Brewers had let Paul Molitor leave to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays despite a last minute intervention by Brewers owner, and acting commissioner Bud Selig. The teacher was proven wrong, my Dad told me good job and I.... left the room with tears welling up(he was my favorite player)!

 

I also read his auto biography. The one in which he talks about killing a pig with a rock or he talks about killing birds throwing rocks at them. 

 

I think he'd have been an all-time great, but he just.. never got there sadly. So, it's more of a "what could have been." 

 

[Tripnsweep]

I think a lot of it is he showed how great he could be in flashes, he did things that nobody else could do or that nobody thought was possible. Like running a 4.12 at his size. So once he got himself going beyond a few seasons where he was still an above average player who would do something every other game or so that you'd think was super human, it might be reasonable to think those types of things would become more frequent. The greatness was there and we all were waiting for it to become the norm.