Bo Jackson. How much has been hype built up over the years

[lastcat3]

Just recently watched the Bo Jackson 30 for 30 show again.

Got me wondering was he really as good as these programs claim he was or is him being a hall of famer in two sports largely been a lot of hype and what ifs built up over the twenty+ years since he stopped playing?

[MatthewToy]

I don't think we had a good enough sample size for his football career. If memory serves he was a decent to good baseball player but I don't think he was being talked about as a future Hall of Famer.

[Rupert Patrick]

Just recently watched the Bo Jackson 30 for 30 show again.

Got me wondering was he really as good as these programs claim he was or is him being a hall of famer in two sports largely been a lot of hype and what ifs built up over the twenty+ years since he stopped playing?

Bo was a terrific athlete, but was a much better running back than a baseball player. Had he been a full time baseball player, he had proven he could hit 30 HR's a season with 100 RBI's, but he struck out an awful lot, even for a young player, and in my opinion would have never developed into a .300 hitter. He didn't walk much, but he had speed and was a good defensive player. He was fast tracked to the majors before he was probably ready to play, and he could hit a lot of homers, but his lack of patience at the plate would curtail his chances of a HOF career.

As a full time football player, provided he could have avoided the hip injury, I would have to say he was well on his way. For one thing, he sat out the 1986 season, and turned 25 late in his 1987 rookie season. If you prorate his stats for 1988-90 over 16-game seasons (he missed the first part of those seasons due to Baseball), he would have gone over 1,000 yards on the ground all three years. Looking at his career totals at pro-football-reference.com, one thing that leaps out at me is that he had TD runs of 91 and 92 yards and another run of 88 yards. How many other RB's in pro football history have three runs of 88 yards or longer? I can't think of one, and that is the kind of bullet point that looks really good on a HOF resume.

Jackson was an electifying athlete, like Michael Jordan he was a human highlight reel, whether it was bowling over Brian Bosworth on MNF or crushing a 450 foot home run in the All Star Game or breaking off three runs of 88 yards or longer. Watching him in the late 80's, I knew he was one of a kind type athlete but trying to play two sports would double the chances of his suffering a career-ending injury and the fact his baseball career was cutting into a third of his football season was hurting his productivity as a football player, which was his the best use of his talent in my opinion.

[Gary Najman]

As a college football player at Auburn, was outstanding, he was by far the best player avaliable in the 1986 NFL Draft. Why he could also enter the following year's draft I have never understood ánd why Tampa Bay couldn't keep his rights and try to gain something for him in 1987 (unlike the drafted players who jumped to the CFL or USFL just a couple of years before) hopefully someone can explain it. I concur with Rupert, but something that I could say about his NFL career is that I don't remember much of it outside the MNF game at Seattle (his 90-yard TD run and the TD run over Brian Bosworth) and his injury vs. Cincinnati, it's seems to me that I remember him mostly as a Kansas City Royal. On the other hand, Deion Sanders in the seasons he combined the NFL with the MLB, I do remember him mostly as a football player. My father, who liked more baseball over football, said that both Bo and Deion were his favorite football players and always asked me if they wore the same numbers in the NFL and in MLB.

[lastcat3]

Maybe a big reason why people tend to not remember much of Bo's NFL career outside of the few highlights we have is because the Raiders simply were not real good during most of the years he was there. In '87-'89 they were just an average to below average team. They were good in '90 but he was injured before he would have faced off against the Bills in the AFC Championship. Bo likely just didn't get a lot of national tv time as that was before the internet and 24 football channels. ESPN was still in its infancy and I'm not even sure NFL Primetime existed yet.

[JohnTurney]

Just recently watched the Bo Jackson 30 for 30 show again.

Got me wondering was he really as good as these programs claim he was or is him being a hall of famer in two sports largely been a lot of hype and what ifs built up over the twenty+ years since he stopped playing?

The highlights showed his speed and power, etc. But he didn't have good wiggle for a running back. In the "tall" back category, i.e. Dickerson, Marcus Allen, etc. he was not in their range is a guy that made people miss. I have quite a few Raiders games and like to watch them to study Bo. Certainly good and his breakaway and power stuff is amazing, but he was a bit like Herschel in that he'd get tripped up.

Other posters here are right, we don't have enough on tape to know how great he could have been. He was not an adept pass catcher, not a good blocker. In some ways he was same is baseball, home run or strike out. Big catch or error. Great throw or really off the line, stolen base and causes overthrow to get to thrid or thrown out because he didn't have skills to get good jump.

Good discussion, though.

[Rupert Patrick]

There was a lot of hype about Bo at the time, and it would have been about ten times worse had the Internet and sports talk radio as we know it today been in place in the late 80's. Jackson was attempting to do the impossible, simultaneously become a superstar in two sports at the same time. And he nearly pulled it off, for a short while. If Bo had not tried it, there is no way Deion Sanders would have played Baseball, and Michael Jordan would never have tried his hand at Baseball either.

[Bryan]

, but something that I could say about his NFL career is that I don't remember much of it outside the MNF game at Seattle (his 90-yard TD run and the TD run over Brian Bosworth) and his injury vs. Cincinnati, it's seems to me that I remember him mostly as a Kansas City Royal.

Same here. So much was made of the MNF game against Seattle, but it was an outlier in Bo's football career, not the alleged beginning of a HOF career. In addition to missing parts of seasons due to baseball, Bo would also split carries with Marcus Allen. He didn't have many 100-yard games in his career (8), and he didn't have any 100-yard games in his first two years (1987 & 1988) outside of the MNF game. Its not entirely Bo's fault, because he rarely got the ball 20+ times a game, and his career itself was only 38 games. That said, Franco Harris had 7 100-yard games in an 8-game span during his rookie year, and only once did he get 20+ carries during that time.

Its remarkable what Jackson did, and I think perhaps the high pay of pro sports will dissuade anyone from attempting to be a 2-sport athlete like Bo did. I think Jeff Smarzjida would have been a pretty high NFL draft pick out of Notre Dame, but he chose to focus solely on baseball and has made over $100M being a mediocre starting pitcher. Perhaps Bo would have been another Herschel Walker...a good-not-great RB in the NFL who was legendary in college. That narrative isn't all that uncommon. So perhaps being a 2-sport pro athlete made Bo Jackson more memorable than he would have been had he stuck with football.

[BD Sullivan]

The fact that he made both the ASG and Pro Bowl in 1989--for the respective seasons is seen as an unbelievable accomplishment. However, in baseball, he had a habit of fading during the second half--first half career BA .263/second half .231. As much as they hype his 1989 baseball season, they seem to neglect (as already noted) that he led the American League in strikeouts with 172. Somebody once described him as Dave Kingman with speed, since he seemingly either hit a home run or struck out. He had a knack for doing something highlight-worthy (i.e. image-hyping): tape-measure home run, throwing out a runner, etc., and conceivably, he had the potential to make the HOF in either sport. Instead, he chose to be a flash in the pan in both.

[JeffreyMiller]

The fact that he made both the ASG and Pro Bowl in 1989--for the respective seasons is seen as an unbelievable accomplishment. However, in baseball, he had a habit of fading during the second half--first half career BA .263/second half .231. As much as they hype his 1989 baseball season, they seem to neglect (as already noted) that he led the American League in strikeouts with 172. Somebody once described him as Dave Kingman with speed, since he seemingly either hit a home run or struck out. He had a knack for doing something highlight-worthy (i.e. image-hyping): tape-measure home run, throwing out a runner, etc., and conceivably, he had the potential to make the HOF in either sport. Instead, he chose to be a flash in the pan in both.

"chose"?