This morning Bill Simmons' blog contained a link to a great article about Bo Jackson which details his flirtations with the superhuman. It's a great read.
The best "I remember Bo" anecdote I can think of has to begin with the preface that like a lot of folks here, I was too young when Bo made his splash to truly appreciate him. I was 7 when he won the Heisman after his senior year at Auburn, 8 when he was called up to the bigs by the Royals and picked first overall in the NFL draft by the Buccaneers (though he wouldn't play until after the 1987 baseball season, with the Raiders). I was 10 when he ran through Brian Bosworth on Monday Night Football, and when he threw out Harold Reynolds at home plate. I was two days shy of 12 when he scaled the outfield wall in Baltimore.
Exactly one year before that was when I first formed some basic understanding of who Bo was and why he was special. That All-Star game in Anaheim. Rick Reuschel served it up and Bo swallowed it whole, the ball landing 448 feet later after clearing two fences in straightaway center. Even then I thought, my God, that's amazing. Kids dig the long ball.
Two years later, silly as it sounds, I fully began to appreciate Bo when Tecmo Super Bowl was released, and I quickly realized that he was the greatest video game athlete ever pixelated. Youtube has now immortalized what Video Bo was capable of, but back then it was the stuff of mythology, just you, a couple of buddies, the basement, the NES, the RF switch, and more "oohs," "aahs," and "that's fucking bullshit right theres" than a topless cattle ranch. It was legalized cheating.
I think part of the mystique of Jackson is that it was over so quickly for him. After The Injury, he just wasn't the same Bo. He tried, but then was gone. Sports fans were left to wonder what might have been. Leading the wake of a full career in the big leagues and the National, Football, League, would he be considered the greatest pure athlete of all time? Is he now, despite the stuttered end of his playing days? I don't know how Bo compares to the greats like the Jims, Thorpe and Brown, or Ali or Jordan (that's Michael, not Brian) or Gehrig or Grange, but the man did things no one's ever seen before.
The best "I remember Bo" anecdote I can think of has to begin with the preface that like a lot of folks here, I was too young when Bo made his splash to truly appreciate him. I was 7 when he won the Heisman after his senior year at Auburn, 8 when he was called up to the bigs by the Royals and picked first overall in the NFL draft by the Buccaneers (though he wouldn't play until after the 1987 baseball season, with the Raiders). I was 10 when he ran through Brian Bosworth on Monday Night Football, and when he threw out Harold Reynolds at home plate. I was two days shy of 12 when he scaled the outfield wall in Baltimore.
Exactly one year before that was when I first formed some basic understanding of who Bo was and why he was special. That All-Star game in Anaheim. Rick Reuschel served it up and Bo swallowed it whole, the ball landing 448 feet later after clearing two fences in straightaway center. Even then I thought, my God, that's amazing. Kids dig the long ball.
Two years later, silly as it sounds, I fully began to appreciate Bo when Tecmo Super Bowl was released, and I quickly realized that he was the greatest video game athlete ever pixelated. Youtube has now immortalized what Video Bo was capable of, but back then it was the stuff of mythology, just you, a couple of buddies, the basement, the NES, the RF switch, and more "oohs," "aahs," and "that's fucking bullshit right theres" than a topless cattle ranch. It was legalized cheating.
I think part of the mystique of Jackson is that it was over so quickly for him. After The Injury, he just wasn't the same Bo. He tried, but then was gone. Sports fans were left to wonder what might have been. Leading the wake of a full career in the big leagues and the National, Football, League, would he be considered the greatest pure athlete of all time? Is he now, despite the stuttered end of his playing days? I don't know how Bo compares to the greats like the Jims, Thorpe and Brown, or Ali or Jordan (that's Michael, not Brian) or Gehrig or Grange, but the man did things no one's ever seen before.
