Bo Jackson, the world’s 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.
”If I knew back then what I know now,” Jackson tells USA TODAY Sports, ”I 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’t tell anybody.
”The game has gotten so violent, so rough. We’re so much more educated on this CTE stuff (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), there’s no way I would ever allow my kids to play football today.
”Even though I love the sport, I’d smack them in the mouth if they said they wanted to play football.
”I’d tell them, ”Play baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, just anything but football.’ ”
Jackson was leery of the game’s exploitative tendencies when he came out of Auburn – a suspicion that he says played a significant role in his shunning of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 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’s no telling what Jackson might have accomplished in his other sport.
Jackson, 54, who will be honored Saturday evening with the ”Scouts Dream Award,” 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 – who will present him with his award – would not only have been a former Kansas City Royals’ 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.
”You know what,” Jackson says, ”I still wouldn’t change a thing. The man upstairs had a plan of the way of working things out, and they did.
”I have no regrets.”
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.
”That week, three or four days before the playoff game,” Jackson says, ”I 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.
”Well, the man upstairs changed that plan.
”I’m 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.”
Instead, Jackson is beloved wherever he goes, well, with the exception of Tampa, Fla.
‘I’m going to screw you twice as hard’
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.
”Their 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,” Jackson says, ”but 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’m 100(PERCENT) convinced of that. They thought that would make me forget baseball
”I told myself, ”All right, if you screw me, I’m going to screw you twice as hard.’ If anybody else had drafted me, I would have gone, but I wasn’t going to play for that man.
”People thought I was crazy, but it was just morals. If you screw me over like that, and I’m not part of a team yet, just think what they’d do to me under contract. I couldn’t do that. I needed the money. I was as poor as a Mississippi outhouse. I needed that money. But I couldn’t play for that man.
”I also observed the way they were treating people. The fact the owners kept calling the players, ”These are my boys.’ Their wives were doing the same thing.’ I couldn’t go there. I always believed that if you don’t believe in yourself, and stand for what you believe is right, who else is going to have faith in you?”
A gem on the diamond
The NFL’s loss was baseball’s gain.
Royals scout Kenny Gonzalez, who died in 1994 of a heart attack, subsequently convinced the Royals to select Jackson in the 1986 draft – burning a mere fourth-round pick. He scouted every one of Jackson’s games, and was in awe of Jackson’s speed, power and athletic prowess. He spent time talking with Jackson’s baseball coaches, sat down with his family, and truly believed Jackson wanted to be a baseball player.
”He’s the reason I played baseball in Kansas City,” Jackson. ”He asked me if I was serious about playing baseball. I told him I was.
”The rest is history.”
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.
