Bo Jackson

At 61 years old, Bo Jackson has this physical status:

Jackson was selected with the first overall pick of the 1986 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he refused to play for them because a visit to team facilities the Buccaneers said was NCAA-approved was actually not, causing him to miss the remainder of his final college baseball season. Jackson believes that the failure to obtain NCAA approval was deliberate and was intended by the Buccaneers to get him to play football instead of baseball. He vowed not to sign with Tampa Bay should they draft him, but they proceeded anyway. He kept his vow and opted to play baseball for the Kansas City Royals, the defending World Series champions, who had drafted him in the fourth round, 105th overall, in the 1986 amateur draft. Shortly after the draft, Jackson signed a 3-year contract with the Kansas City Royals worth just over $1 million. He spent 53 games with the Memphis Chicks, the Royals' Class AA minor league affiliate, and was called up to the majors in September 1986. He made the Royals' roster in 1987 and hit 22 home runs, with 53 RBIs and 10 stolen bases as a left fielder.

Jackson began to show his true potential in 1989, when he was voted to start for the American League All-Star team, and was named the game's MVP for his play on both offense and defense. In the top of the first inning, he caught Pedro Guerrero's two-out line drive to left-center field to save two runs. Then he led off the bottom of the first—his first All-Star plate appearance—with a monstrous 448-foot (137 m) home run against Rick Reuschel of the San Francisco Giants. NBC-TV announcer Vin Scully exclaimed, "Look at that one! Bo Jackson says hello!" Wade Boggs followed with his own home run, making them the first pair in All-Star history to lead off the first inning with back-to-back home runs. In the second inning, he beat the throw on a potential double play to drive in the eventual winning run. He then stole second base, making him the second player in All-Star Game history to hit a home run and steal a base in the same game (the first was Willie Mays). Jackson finished the game with two hits in four at-bats, one run scored, and two RBI.

On July 29, 1988, against the Baltimore Orioles, Jackson, batting against Jeff Ballard, attempted to call time out as Ballard was delivering the ball. The time-out wasn't granted, but Jackson recovered to swing and hit the pitch over the left-field wall for a home run despite taking one hand off the bat at the beginning of the at bat.

Jackson's 171 strikeouts in 1989 tied him for 10th most strikeouts in a season for a right-handed batter since 1893. On July 11, 1990, against the Orioles, Jackson performed his famous "wall run", when he caught a ball six strides away from the wall. As he caught the ball at full tilt, Jackson looked up and ran three steps along the wall, to avoid impact and the risk of injury from the fence.

Before Royals games, Jackson used to shoot at a target with a bow and arrow in the Royals clubhouse.

During the 1990 season, Jackson hit HRs in four consecutive at-bats tying a Major League record (held by several). His fourth came off of Randy Johnson after hitting his first three before a stint on the disabled list. Unwilling to pay his $2.375 million salary in 1991 to rehabilitate his football injury, the Royals released Jackson on March 18, 1991.

Only 16 days after Jackson was released by the Royals, the Chicago White Sox offered him a three-year deal, guaranteeing $700,000 per season with a performance-based upside of $8.15 million over the term. White Sox co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf stated they did not anticipate him to play all seasons while he addressed his hip issues and avascular necrosis. Jackson played two seasons appearing in 23 games in 1991 and 85 games in 1993. He appeared on White Sox' disabled roster during the 1992 season due to completing hip replacement surgery earlier that year. It was with the White Sox that he made his only post-season appearance, in the 1993 American League Championship Series, which Chicago lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

While with the White Sox, Jackson promised his mother that once he returned from his hip replacement surgery in 1993, he would hit a home run for her. Before he could return, his mother died. In his first at-bat after surgery, he hit a home run to right field. Jackson recovered the ball by trading an autographed bat for it, and stated he planned to have it bronzed and placed on her dresser.

Jackson finished his career in 1994 with the California Angels. That season was cut short by the 1994–95 baseball strike, and Jackson decided to retire at age 32. "I got to know my family," he said, "That looks better to me than any $10 million contract."

In his eight baseball seasons, Jackson had a career batting average of .250, hit 141 home runs and had 415 RBIs, with a slugging average of .474. His best year was 1989, with his effort earning him All-Star status. In 1989, Jackson ranked fourth in the American League in both home runs, with 32, and RBI, with 105.

During his junior and senior years at Auburn, Jackson had apparently transitioned his focus to baseball and became increasingly vocal about his unwillingness to play in the NFL.

A month before the 1986 NFL Draft, Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse took him on a private jet to visit with the team and get a physical during his senior baseball season. Jackson was told by the Buccaneers that the trip had been cleared by the NCAA and SEC. In truth, it had not, and since the SEC barred athletes from being professional in one sport and amateur in another, he was declared ineligible near the tail end of his senior baseball season. Years later, Jackson told ESPN that he has long believed the Buccaneers sabotaged his collegiate baseball career "because of the season I was having." He was so angry at the Buccaneers' actions that he vowed never to play a down for them, going as far as to tell Culverhouse, "You draft me if you want. You're going to waste a draft pick. I can promise you that."

Jackson's collegiate baseball coach, Hal Baird, told the Tampa Bay Times that no one from either camp ever mentioned the trip to him, and feared the worst when Jackson told him that the trip had been paid for. Baird maintained that had he known about the trip, he would have told Jackson about the SEC rule that barred him from playing professional football while being an amateur in baseball. Along similar lines, Dye told the Times that once Jackson concluded that the Tampa Bay trip was "a tactical move," it ended any chance of him ever playing for the Buccaneers.

Despite this, the Buccaneers selected Jackson with the first overall pick in the 1986 draft. Jackson turned down the Buccaneers' $7.6 million, five-year contract in favor of a $1.07 million, three-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, and the Buccaneers forfeited his rights before the 1987 draft. Choosing to sleep in rather than attend the 1987 NFL Draft, Jackson found out that he was selected in the seventh round of the draft with the 183rd pick by the Los Angeles Raiders. Initially, Jackson stated he would continue to focus on baseball and would not sign, but his interest was piqued when he learned Raiders owner Al Davis was a fan of Jackson and was receptive to the idea of Jackson playing both baseball and football. A five-year $7.4 million contract was negotiated where Jackson would be permitted to play the entire baseball season with the Royals and would report to the Raiders once the MLB season was finished even if it meant missing NFL games. In addition to this, Davis gave Jackson the highest salary of any non-quarterback player in NFL history, and Jackson would be receiving a reported $500,000 signing bonus plus another $500,000 if he returned the following year in 1988.

Jackson joined the Raiders in time for their Week 8 matchup against the New England Patriots, where he rushed for a total of 37 yards on eight carries. Jackson shared the backfield with Marcus Allen, himself an All-Pro and former Heisman Trophy winner, but eventually supplanted him as the featured running back despite being listed as the team's fullback. Perhaps his most notable performance in his rookie season came on Monday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 12. Prior to the game Seahawks linebacker Brian Bosworth insulted Jackson and promised in a media event before the game to contain Jackson. Jackson responded by running over Bosworth on his way to a touchdown near the goal line. He also made a 91-yard run in the 2nd quarter, to the outside, untouched down the sideline. Jackson rushed for 221 yards that night and two touchdowns. He added a third with a reception. The 221 yards was a single-game record for the Raiders at the time.

In his rookie season, Jackson rushed for a total of 554 yards on only 81 carries for a 6.8 yards per carry average. He played in seven games, starting five, and scored a total of six touchdowns (four rushing, two receiving). The next year, Jackson played in ten of the Raiders' sixteen games with nine starts, recording a total of 580 yards and three touchdowns.

Jackson's 1989 season was his best in the league. In eleven games, with nine starts, Jackson rushed for a total of 950 yards with a 5.5 yards per carry average and four touchdowns. In his abbreviated 1990 campaign, Jackson rushed for 698 yards and was selected to the only Pro Bowl of his career.

Jackson sustained an NFL career-ending hip injury from a seemingly routine tackle at the end of a 34-yard run in a playoff game on January 13, 1991, against the Bengals.

In his four seasons in the NFL, Jackson rushed for 2,782 yards and 16 touchdowns with an average yards per carry of 5.4. He also caught 40 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns. Jackson's 221 yards on November 30, 1987, just 29 days after his first NFL carry, is still a Monday Night Football record.

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