Not many Gen Z sports fans remember that Bo Jackson at one time was the greatest athlete in the world, dominating two sports. Not many fans remember that at that time it wasn’t Michael Jordan’s “Be Like Mike” slogan that was on the tongue of fans, but “Bo Knows” (fill in the blank) for his ability to be great in seemingly everything he did in the realm of sports.
But despite being the only professional athlete to be named an all-star in two professional sports (baseball and football), believe it or not, the man is NOT a member of…
The Pro Football Hall of Fame, located in Canton Ohio…
Or
The National Baseball Hall of Fame, located in Cooperstown, New York …
Thirty years after playing his final game in the major leagues, this past weekend, the MLBbro athletic prototype known as Bo Jackson got a Hall of Fame induction from the Kansas City Royals. Jackson played five of his eight seasons with the Royals and was named the MVP of the 1989 All-Star Game with this towering “Bro Bomb” that powered the American League to a 5-3 win.
All of this while President Reagan was being interviewed by the legendary Vin Scully…
Hip Injury Ends Bo’s Meteoric Two-Sport Rise
Unfortunately for Jackson and sports fans everywhere, a hip injury in the 1990 NFL playoffs with the Los Angeles Raiders ended his football career and changed the trajectory of his baseball career. After hip replacement and rehabilitation, the MLBbro icon made history again becoming the first professional athlete to play a sport with an artificial hip. After moving on from the Royals, Bo was named 1993 Comeback Player of the Year before retiring the next year as a member of the California Angels.
— Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) June 29, 2024
The Royals gave Jackson and his family the “Royal” treatment celebrating his career with a slow car ride to a standing ovation and being presented with a portrait and a Hall of Fame jacket. In one of the classiest family stories of all time, Jackson’s favorite baseball story involved his wife and newborn baby at the time.
“Probably my favorite moment…was the day I purposely got thrown out of the game in the first inning,” Jackson said. “I took a pitch right down the pipe, strike three. I knew it was a strike, so I turned around, and I gave the umpire some choice words, and he threw me out the game. I said, ‘Thank you.’
“I went to the locker room, took off my uniform, put my clothes on, got in my car, went down on the plaza and spent the day with my wife and my daughter, who was born that morning …[I] went to the hospital, got into bed with her, with my daughter besides, and we watched the Royals beat the Brewers that day.”
The newest #Royals Hall-of-Famer Bo Jackson: "Thank you Kansas City. I wouldn't be me without you. God bless." pic.twitter.com/6TZutfVzex
— Bally Sports Kansas City (@BallySportsKC) June 29, 2024
The Cincinnati Reds put out a tweet this week looking back to May 1, 2001, when Deion Sanders returned to baseball after a three-year absence. It didn’t take long for me to notice and put in my two cents’ worth.
Prime Time was special ⚾️⚾️ We need more of these type of athletes in MLB https://t.co/bIFXq1ENJt
What a day he had too. On this day alone, just look at what he accomplished…
Sanders drove a pitch into center field for a single.
Then he turned on a pitch and knocked a three-run homer over the right field wall extending the Reds lead to 5-1.
Then he fooled the Dodgers with a sneak bunt for a single. What was amazing was the fact that he was basically on the bag before the second baseman could field the ball.
After he got on base, he stole third base standing up! The catcher did not even raise up to make a throw.
You want iconic?
Deion Sanders would spend a month in the minor leagues with no guarantees from the organization that he would be called up to the parent club. The thing is, no matter if you are a sports icon or an unknown, a batting average of .460 in a minor league stint will get anyone into the major leagues.
Overall, Deion Sanders, aka “Primetime,” was one of the most unique MLBbro icons ever to play the game of baseball. He was one of the few in the history of sports to officially be on the field to play football and baseball on the same day! To put this honor in perspective, Deion played three games (Two baseball, and one football) in 24 hours in 1992.
In that time, on September 5, 1992, Sanders became the first professional athlete to score a touchdown in the NFL and a home run in an MLB game.
Want to talk about a World Series performance? Sanders left planet Earth hitting .533 with eight hits, four runs and an RBI in four games. If the Braves would have won, this man would have been a landslide World Series MVP.
Over Primetime’s career, he hit .263 with 39 homers and 168 RBI. But it’s not the stats that he brought to the Braves, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Yankees. He brought interest to the casual baseball fan, something that baseball is sorely lacking today.
With Shohei Ohtani being celebrated as the “Unicorn” of Major League Baseball being able to dominate not only the mound as a pitcher but at the plate as a hitter, why hasn’t the same love and adulation gone to the three players who have played two sports simultaneously, including baseball? Deion Sanders is one of them, who’s the other?
Bo Jackson
Like Deion Sanders, football will always be the legacy that Jackson is attached to because of the superhuman efforts on the field. But while at Auburn, Bo played the game of football and baseball at absurd levels. Then when he turned pro, the world began to understand that BO KNOWS the game of football and baseball…
The game of baseball owes a debt of gratitude to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for getting the services of Bo before the NFL. When the Buccaneers called Jackson’s bluff of foregoing the NFL for baseball and drafted him in 1986, Bo was off to play with the Kansas City Royals.
His first at bat ended up as a home run off Hall of Fame pitcher, Steve Carlton. His combination of speed and power was never seen before…or since. Even his frustrations with strikeouts were a sight to behold. How many YouTube video clips can you find Bo breaking a bat over his head? Just insane.
While being known as a powerful hitter, his outfield antics were just as amazing. Plus…that arm!
If you look at the video, his first throw, nailing fellow MLBbro Harold Reynolds at the plate basically shut the game down for 10-15 minutes (Think about how long it would have been today with instant replay!). The second throw was when Bo was with the Chicago White Sox after having hip replacement surgery.
Like Deion, Bo Jackson’s stats aren’t mind-blowing, with a batting average of .250 with 141 homers and 415 RBI, but rather his ability to make plays that no one at that time or even today could make. Even the game Deion and Bo Jackson played together in 1990 was a memory!
Mental Toughness Defines Bo Jackson & Deion Sanders
What made it amazing for these two MLBbro icons playing two sports at the same time was the mindset. To deal with the physical aspect is one thing. But the mental and disciplinary aspect is another. Sanders even admitted on the Club Shay Shay podcast that baseball was much more difficult.
“That ball does some things to you,” Sanders said when asked which sport was harder at the professional level. “Any sport that you can fail seven out of ten times and become great and make $200-300 million it, that’s a hard sport.”
“I love challenges and I could not master it. And it frustrated me because I hate to lose and I hate I’m not mastering something that I know, if I just had more time I could,” Sanders added.
We always discuss Bo and Deion as the premiere two-sport athletes in history, but there’s a third athlete who also played two pro sports and was an All-Star in both.
Brian Jordan
The former NFL and MLB player has become the forgotten two-sport star:
Jordan was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the 1988 MLB draft out of the University of Richmond. He made his MLB debut on April 8, 1992
Jordan played lasted 15 seasons in the big leagues, playing for four different teams. His first seven years were with the Cardinals and the next five were with the Atlanta Braves. In 1998, his last season in St. Louis, he was elite, hitting a career-high .316 and scoring 100 runs and a career-high with 25 home runs. After signing a $21M deal with the Braves. Jordan Bro bombed 23 times and drove in a career-high 115 runs. He was named a National League All-Star in 1999.
For his career, Jordan hit .282, smacked 184 homers, and drove in 821 runs. While Brian Jordan was in the minor leagues, he was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the seventh round of the 1989 NFL draft, before catching on with the Atlanta Falcons and played professional football while he was also playing minor league baseball for the Cardinals.
In 36 NFL games, spanning three seasons, Jordan finished with five interceptions and recovered four fumbles. He played all 16 games for the Falcons in the 90 and 91 season. Jordan actually played just two fewer NFL games than Jackson, yet Jackson gets more notoriety. In 1991, Jordan was named an alternate for the Pro Bowl.
Brian Jordan Against Specialization
Jordan is another former two-sport star who is against today’s specialization of athletes at a young age.
“Personally I don’t like it, I think it limits a kid’s options and to me, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “You’re taking an athlete’s abilities away from them, I feel like if you play different sports, you become a better athlete. You could have a kid with great potential and all the ability in the world, and you limit him? I’m totally against it.
“Everyone asks me the question, will we see another two-sport professional athlete, and my answer is no: simply because of coaches not allowing these kids to grow up and have fun and utilize all their options and abilities.”
That athleticism that Jordan speaks of is hard to find in today’s MLB. there are some uber-athletic guys in the league, but none of the iconic ilk of the aforementioned two-sport legends.
Support has been received, prayers have been answered and it seems that the worst is behind Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin who finally opened his eyes and is experiencing an amazing recovery following the hit felt around the sports world.
As NFL play resumed on Saturday night, Hamlin has continued to receive support from some of the biggest names in sports all week.
Former NFL and MLBbro star Bo Jackson had a stirring message for Hamlin on Friday that really touched the Twittersverse.
Dear @HamlinIsland, The question you asked, “Did we win?" The answer to that is yes, we did win. The very second you opened your eyes, the nation celebrated and cheered. So to answer your question, hell yeah we won young man!!
Jackson recalled Hamlin’s “Did we win?” question from when he first woke up. Jackson declared that all of America won when Hamlin woke up after nearly losing his life on the football field.
“Dear @HamlinIsland, The question you asked, “Did we win?” The answer to that is yes, we did win. The very second you opened your eyes, the nation celebrated and cheered. So, to answer your question, hell yeah, we won young man!!” Jackson tweeted.
Jackson’s tweet is going viral with over 2.1M views, nearly 42,000 likes, and over 3,500 retweets.
The reaction to Jackson’s tweet shows us how beloved and respected he still is (the wrong Heisman winner ran for political office in Georgia) and how this Damar Hamlin tragedy turned triumph captivated the entire country.
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