BO JACKSON AND THE HIP INJURY HEARD AROUND THE WORLD - THE TICKET BASTARD web series created by David Catalano ("Dave Cat") and ICONIC SPORTS MEDIA tells the stories of collectible sporting event tickets and the fascinating events behind them.
00:00If anyone ever played against me in the video game Tecmo Bowl back in the day,
00:03chances are I was the Raiders and I ran Bo Jackson down your throat every single play of that video game
00:11and chances are you got your ass kicked.
00:14Bo Jackson's character in Tecmo Bowl was called the greatest video game athlete of all time by ESPN and USA Today.
00:21Tech Times even called his character absolutely, positively, and absurdly unstoppable.
00:28And I couldn't agree more.
00:30Bo Jackson's brilliance on the football field will forever be immortalized in that classic video game.
00:36But for those who remember seeing him in his last NFL game and that devastating hip injury that was like kryptonite to our Superman,
00:44Bo Jackson was maybe the greatest athlete to ever live and an absolute monster on the football field.
00:50Bo finished his career at Auburn in 1985, rushing for 1,786 yards, 17 touchdowns, winning the Heisman Trophy in a landslide.
01:00As a baseball player at Auburn, he hit 17 home runs in 1985 and Major League Scouts were salivating at the possibility of him quitting football and playing baseball full time.
01:11And by the way, Bo also qualified for the NCAA Nationals in track and field during his freshman and sophomore years at Auburn.
01:18Rumor has it that he ran a 40-yard dash in four seconds flat, which is unheard of.
01:24At his pro day at Auburn, he ran an electronically timed 4.13 seconds in the 40.
01:31Absolutely amazing.
01:33Buccaneers select first choice on the first round.
01:37Running back from Auburn, Bo Jackson.
01:39He was drafted number one overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
01:42but refused to play for them because he was convinced that they were trying to sabotage his baseball career.
01:48We're hoping it'll be football.
01:50He then signed with the Kansas City Royals.
01:52He drafted him in the fourth round.
01:54It's a great day for sports.
01:56It's a great day for baseball.
01:58It's a great day for Bo Jackson.
02:00It's a great day for the Kansas City Royals.
02:03He made his Major League debut in September of 1986.
02:06Then in 1987, before the NFL draft, the Buccaneers gave up any hope of signing Bo and forfeited his rights.
02:14The Raiders drafted Bo.
02:15They took a flyer on him in the seventh round, but Bo had no interest in playing football
02:20until Raiders owner, Al Davis, suggested that he could play two sports.
02:25A five-year, $7.4 million contract was negotiated where Jackson would be permitted to play an entire baseball season with the Royals
02:35and would report to the Raiders once the Major League Baseball season was finished,
02:39even if it meant missing some NFL games.
02:41His most notable performance in his rookie season came on Monday Night Football against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 12.
02:49Prior to the game, Seahawks hotshot linebacker Brian Bosworth insulted Bo and promised in a media event before the game to contain Jackson.
02:59Jackson responded by running over Bosworth on his way to a touchdown near the goal line.
03:03Third and one from the two.
03:05Here's Bo.
03:07And here goes Bo for the touchdown.
03:09He also made a 91-yard run in the second quarter to the outside, untouched, down the sideline.
03:16Bo ran for 221 yards that night, two touchdowns.
03:20He added a third with a reception.
03:22The 221 yards was a single-game record for the Raiders at the time.
03:26And on that night, he became immortal.
03:34In 1988, he was already one of the better baseball players in the America League.
03:38He had 25 home runs, 27 stolen bases, and only 124 games.
03:43The next year, in 1989, he was an all-star.
03:4632 home runs, 105 RBIs.
03:49Jackson's 1989 season was his best in the league.
03:52In 11 games, with 9 starts, he rushed for a total of 950 yards with 5.5 yards per carry for touchdowns.
03:59In his abbreviated 1990 campaign, Bo rushed for 698 yards and was selected to his only Pro Bowl of his career.
04:07That leads us to January 13th, 1991, Bengals vs. Raiders in Los Angeles, the AFC Divisional Playoff Game.
04:22The hip injury hurt around the world.
04:25Bo was tackled at the end of a 30-yard run right down the right side and appeared to run out of his hip as the defender held on to his lower body.
04:34What seemed like a routine tackle resulted in a dislocated hip.
04:39Bo apparently punched the hip back in place while he was on the sideline, which led to a diagnosis of avascular nuclerosis,
04:47which is a condition that's characterized by decreased blood supply to the bone that ultimately led to the deterioration of Bo's hip joint,
04:56necessitating a total hip replacement at that point.
05:00So, at the time, the severity of the injury was not completely understood.
05:05After the game, Bo even told reporters that he'll play next week in the AFC Championship game vs. the Bills.
05:11But that was not possible.
05:13That was the end of a football career for one of the most electrifying athletes of all time.
05:18And we got the ticket to that.
05:19Here it is.
05:20Bo Jackson.
05:21This is the playoff game.
05:23It says 1990 AFC playoffs, game one, Los Angeles Raiders.
05:29This is a stub.
05:31On the PSA label, it says Bo Jackson's final NFL game.
05:35Bo Jackson signed it and wrote last NFL game with an exclamation point right at the end.
05:41Uh, this is a legendary piece of football history for anyone who has seen Bo play.
05:50It's almost like he reaches mythical proportions.
05:54So, to have this being, uh, his last NFL game, the last time he ever stepped on a football field,
06:00this is a very, very, very cool, uh, piece of memorabilia.
06:05Very, very valuable.
06:06So, unwilling to pay his $2 million salary in 1991 to rehabilitate his football injury,
06:14the Kansas City Royals released Bo Jackson on March 18th, 1991.
06:1816 days later, Chicago White Sox signed him.
06:21But Bo only played in a total of 108 games in two seasons with the White Sox.
06:25He was never the same player.
06:26In 1994, Bo signed a one-year deal with the California Angels
06:29and played 75 games with them before announcing his retirement from baseball.
06:34At the time of Bo's injury, we didn't have the advancements in surgery,
06:38the medication, or the rehabilitation techniques that we do today.
06:42Or maybe we would have seen Bo Jackson make a full comeback.
06:46His story remains one of the great what-if stories in the history of sport.
06:51Bo Jackson's legacy remains alive and well.
06:54It is celebrated during every Tecmo Bowl tournament that we see across the country each year.
06:58And with that, the legend of Bo Jackson grows larger.
Be the first to comment