Bo Jackson, the world\u2019s greatest living athlete, and the only man to be an All-Star in baseball and All-Pro in football, now has a confession to make.
If Bo knew back in his playing days what he knows now:
Bo never would have won a Heisman Trophy at Auburn. Bo never would have been inducted into the college football Hall of Fame. Bo never would have worn a Los Angeles Raiders uniform. Bo never would have trampled Brian Bosworth on Monday Night Football. And Bo never would have dislocated his left hip that ended his football career.
\u201dIf I knew back then what I know now,\u201d Jackson tells USA TODAY Sports, \u201dI would have never played football. Never. I wish I had known about all of those head injuries, but no one knew that. And the people that did know that, they wouldn\u2019t tell anybody.
\u201dThe game has gotten so violent, so rough. We\u2019re so much more educated on this CTE stuff (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), there\u2019s no way I would ever allow my kids to play football today.
\u201dEven though I love the sport, I\u2019d smack them in the mouth if they said they wanted to play football.
\u201dI\u2019d tell them, \u201dPlay baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, just anything but football.\u2019 \u201d
Jackson was leery of the game\u2019s exploitative tendencies when he came out of Auburn \u2013 a suspicion that he says played a significant role in his shunning of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers \u2013 and that, in concert with greater knowledge of head injuries and their effect on deceased stars such as Junior Seau,forced a greater reexamination of the sport.
And without football, there\u2019s no telling what Jackson might have accomplished in his other sport.
Jackson, 54, who will be honored Saturday evening with the \u201dScouts Dream Award,\u201d at the 14th annual Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation banquet in Beverly Hills, knows that football truncated his career, but he has no bitterness.
If he had just stuck to baseball, perhaps George Brett \u2013 who will present him with his award \u2013 would not only have been a former Kansas City Royals\u2019 teammate, but a Hall of Fame fraternity member.
If he had only played baseball, perhaps every Mike Trout and Bryce Harper that comes along would be compared to Bo Jackson.
\u201dYou know what,\u201d Jackson says, \u201dI still wouldn\u2019t change a thing. The man upstairs had a plan of the way of working things out, and they did.
\u201dI have no regrets.\u201d
Ready to walk away
This comes from a man who was just one week away from shocking the sports world and retiring from football, focusing on his baseball career.
Jackson revealed to USA TODAY Sports that he had plans to retire from the NFL after the 1990 season. He still had a contract with the Los Angeles Raiders, making the Pro Bowl that season, but planned to walk away and solely play baseball after the season ended.
Instead, a hit from Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Kevin Walker on Jan. 13, 1991, forced him into retirement. The hit fractured and dislocated his left hip in the third quarter of their playoff game.
Jackson thought it was simply a hip pointer, allowing him to return the next week to play against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game.
Jackson, who suffered from hip necrosis that required surgery for an artificial hip, never put on a football uniform again.
\u201dThat week, three or four days before the playoff game,\u201d Jackson says, \u201dI sat down with Linda (his wife and mother of their three kids) and told her that I was going to announce my retirement. When the season was over, we had made my mind up that I was going to do that. That was the plan.
\u201dWell, the man upstairs changed that plan.
\u201dI\u2019m not a very religious guy, but I believe in God, and I believe God works things out for a reason. If I had retired before my contract was over, I would have probably been hated by Raiders fans forever.\u201d
Instead, Jackson is beloved wherever he goes, well, with the exception of Tampa, Fla.
\u2018I\u2019m going to screw you twice as hard\u2019
Jackson, the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner, was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the fourth pick in the 1986 draft. He refused to sign. He was willing to play for any other team in the NFL, but not the Buccaneers, who were owned at the time by Hugh Culverhouse, who died in 1994.
Jackson believed the Bucs were responsible for him becoming ineligible to play baseball his senior season at Auburn. They sent a private plane to pick up Jackson for a physical in Tampa, and allegedly reported the infraction to the NCAA.
It was nothing more than betrayal, Jackson says, and he never forgave them.
\u201dTheir people said they were looking out for me, and checked with the NCAA that it was OK for me to go on their plane for that physical,\u201d Jackson says, \u201dbut nobody checked it out. Well, I put two and two together, and figured it out. They knew I was a first-round pick in football, but they wanted to get me away from baseball, so they got me ruled ineligible. I\u2019m 100(PERCENT) convinced of that. They thought that would make me forget baseball
\u201dI told myself, \u201dAll right, if you screw me, I\u2019m going to screw you twice as hard.\u2019 If anybody else had drafted me, I would have gone, but I wasn\u2019t going to play for that man.
\u201dPeople thought I was crazy, but it was just morals. If you screw me over like that, and I\u2019m not part of a team yet, just think what they\u2019d do to me under contract. I couldn\u2019t do that. I needed the money. I was as poor as a Mississippi outhouse. I needed that money. But I couldn\u2019t play for that man.
\u201dI also observed the way they were treating people. The fact the owners kept calling the players, \u201dThese are my boys.\u2019 Their wives were doing the same thing.\u2019 I couldn\u2019t go there. I always believed that if you don\u2019t believe in yourself, and stand for what you believe is right, who else is going to have faith in you?\u201d
A gem on the diamond
The NFL\u2019s loss was baseball\u2019s gain.
Royals scout Kenny Gonzalez, who died in 1994 of a heart attack, subsequently convinced the Royals to select Jackson in the 1986 draft \u2013 burning a mere fourth-round pick. He scouted every one of Jackson\u2019s games, and was in awe of Jackson\u2019s speed, power and athletic prowess. He spent time talking with Jackson\u2019s baseball coaches, sat down with his family, and truly believed Jackson wanted to be a baseball player.
\u201dHe\u2019s the reason I played baseball in Kansas City,\u201d Jackson. \u201dHe asked me if I was serious about playing baseball. I told him I was.
\u201dThe rest is history.\u201d
After just 57 games in the minor leagues, he was a September call-up. Jackson hit his first career home run in the seventh game, a 475-foot shot off Seattle Mariners pitcher Mike Moore, still the longest home run ever hit at Kauffman Stadium. He became an everyday player in 1987, and two years later, was the MVP of the 1989 All-Star Game, hitting 32 homers and 105 runs in a year marked by his iconic Bo Knows Nike ad campaign.
He might have been a perennial All-Star, but football never left his soul. Just a year after rejecting the Bucs, the Raiders drafted Jackson in the seventh round in 1987. They offered him a five-year, $7.4 million deal. Just like that, Jackson had a new hobby.
\u201dI always had it in my mind, even in college,\u201d Jackson says, \u201dI wanted to do both sports, even at the pro level. There were only a couple of other teams out there I would have played for at that time, the Raiders and 49ers. I would have loved to play for (Hall of Fame coach) Bill Walsh. But I\u2019m thankful I got to experience Al Davis, the most charismatic owner in professional sports to this day. He was an icon.\u201d
Everything changed, of course, on that January afternoon in 1991. The fractured hip led to hip necrosis, which led to hip replacement surgery. Jackson played parts of three more seasons with the Chicago White Sox and California Angels, but never again was the same. His last game as an athlete was Aug. 10, 1994, getting a single in his final at-bat off Tom \u201dFlash\u201d Gordon in a 2-1 victory over the Royals.
The Major League Players Association went on strike the next day, and the World Series was cancelled a month later, quietly ending Jackson\u2019s career.
\u201dThat\u2019s all right, I\u2019ve got no regrets,\u201d Jackson says. \u201dI know Bo Jackson was good for professional sports at one time. I know pro sports was great for Bo Jackson, then and now.\u201d
Jackson lends his name to a training facility in Illinois, Bo Jackson\u2019s Elite Sports, and maintains business relationships with Nike and Gatorade, but otherwise maintains a quiet profile. He rarely watches sporting events these days. He missed the 2015 Royals\u2019 World Series championship. He skipped the Raiders\u2019 wild-card playoff game. He didn\u2019t bother watching Clemson\u2019s national championship victory against his old rivals, Alabama, although he does attend the occasional game at Auburn.
\u201dI\u2019m not a good spectator, I get bored watching,\u201d Jackson says, \u201dbut I sure loved playing the game. I loved the competition. I loved being better than the next guy. I enjoyed watching people\u2019s eyes jump out of their heads watching me do something that was normal to me.
\u201dSo there\u2019s no reason for anyone to feel sorry for what happened to me, or what might have been. I didn\u2019t play sports to make it to the Hall of Fame. I just played for the love of sport.
\u201dI still don\u2019t know what my stats were, but I know I\u2019m still reaping the benefits, enjoying the accolades, and all of the awards that still come to me.
\u201dI\u2019m blessed.
\u201dThings turned out all right.\u201d
25 Nov 1990: Running back Bo Jackson of the Los Angeles Raiders runs down the field during a game against the Kansas City Chiefs at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The Chiefs won the game 27-24.<\/p>\n

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