20/20: Bo Jackson 1990

what our little boys dreams made of touchdown runs on the gridiron and home runs in an all-star game what do you call a kid who does both well his mother called him Vincent Edward Jackson but America knows him as Bo Jackson storybook named fairytale career that kid is now a superstar in both baseball and football and an all-round athlete who at only 27 has written his autobiography but what he's most proud of is none of the above we asked Stone Phillips to find out what makes bull run and run and run do you ever surprise yourself on the athletic field nope serious you never have nope you don't amaze yourself a little bit of time never I think what I do out in the field to myself stay average there's two modes actions there's one bow that's the most awesome baseball player I've ever seen just a tremendous athlete there's a bow that is pretty good even when he has a bad day people that don't know who are the people that have intended seriously overrated because it's not overrated there's nothing overrated about bo Jackson zero nada zilch he comes from Alabama breaking bats crosses me and they say that as an athlete he's picture-perfect physically Oh Bo Jackson while you pose in shoes and shorts their teammates talk about you as the gift God gave to sports I would like to be in that body just one day and play baseball just to see what it's like to run that fast and then when you get up there to swing that big bat he's God like the toothpick he just may be the greatest athlete in the world he's the only athlete ever to compete at all-star level in two professional sports he's got world-class speed and enormous strength coupled with surprisingly supple coordination it enables bo Jackson the outfielder for the Kansas City Royals to drive baseball's up the Royal Road to oblivion here in his first all-star game bo hit a home run his first at-bat and went on to win the Most Valuable Player honors for the game then October comes around and it's on to his part-time job with the Los Angeles Raiders as a running back he's the only player in NFL history to run more than 90 yards for a touchdown twice in one season and his explosive ability excites even the opposing fans you could feed the entire cargo in anticipation of greatness there's never been that kind of anticipation or greatness since I've been playing the game and that's ten years many believe he is bound for the Hall of Fame in both baseball and football something no athletes ever done and on Madison Avenue he's already arrived don't I know you his extraordinary two sport career as meeting the most recognized and sought-after athlete spokesperson today now where's that to attic rats take his commercial endorsements for Nike AT&T and Pepsi among others will earn him more than four million dollars this year in addition to his player salaries which totaled another two million dollars at age 27 bo has also arrived on the best sellers list he dedicated his new autobiography entitled Bono's bow to the only person BOCES is stronger and more stubborn than he is his mother he guards his home in Kansas City the way he guards the ALF field at Royals Stadium bo Jackson is an intensely private person but it's here with his wife Linda a psychologist and their three children that we saw what a natural beau is off the field as a husband father and hobbyist bo loves his bow and arrows bo also loves his money sports and earns his handsome key though he's never done any serious weight training and only practice three days before hitting the football field this year he scored two touchdowns in his debut we interviewed him the following day are you sore yes I always saw after my first game the very first play I thought they had cut me in half right at the rib cage bruised rib sore shoulder sore neck from hitting because you don't do that in baseball you're right in the book football is easy if you're crazy as hell baseball is easy if you've got patience which of those is the more natural state for bo Jackson I guess you can say the football side the crazy side yes this simply what I said you have to be crazy to play the game and I've been this way all my life there are some people who know you well who say that the first week of the football season you practically undergo a personality change true anxious a little nervous perhaps oh maybe a little hard to get along with yes this is an attitude it's a mood change the switch to football is more mental than physical for Bo and he admits that the transition brings out a rather nasty and ill-tempered side of him aside his Raider teammates like to kid him about he's the big dog in baseball but he's by far not the big dog here there's some big big dogs here he tried he starts his bully routine and nicely we tell him kill wait a second man wait a second you got us mixed up with the shortstop in the third baseman we're not taking that crap here cook go away Jackson Hobie routine is a remnant of his childhood here in Bessemer Alabama BAM every year during his 10 days off between the baseball and football seasons beau comes back here to visit he grew up bored and angry on this street that now bears his name in this house with a working mother who had trouble controlling him you say in the book that beating up on kids was the only thing you enjoyed in elementary school true oh yeah to beat up on kids steal bikes do anything just do something whatever it took make the day more interesting you talked in the book also about being angry feeling angry what was that about growing out I guess one thing is because I really is in it not having father just around the house you know it's hard to imagine today looking at you that people would have teased you growing up but but that happened to didn't it because of the stuttering yes Adam in particularly that's the problem when I was young and when people would tease you about your stuttering well what would a lot oh yes as simple is that I just had to pay the piper you mentioned in the book that the kids also teased you because you had to wear hand-me-downs from your sister of your sister she of course there are times when I want my sister's shoes just at school and the kids would look at my ah descoth see the shoes said those are girls I would lie and say no those are my shoes but that's all that I had to wear at that time you know listen you you talk about it yeah you're you you calm you're you have some perspective about it all there is is the angry Bo Jackson still inside of you know I ended that chapter Bo Jackson's an angry kid because it wasn't getting me any anywhere it was here on the athletic fields of McAdory high school that bo Jackson made his anger work for him and earned a scholarship to Auburn University in 1985 he won the Heisman Trophy awarded to college football's best player but that same year bo also tasted criticism in the press for the first time he was accused by some sports writers of letting his team down in big games by refusing to play with injuries it's a criticism that still bothers Bo today you no one has ever questioned Bo Jackson's athletic prowess but there are those who have questioned your heart and that's a sore subject with you isn't the heart yes simply because you got people out there you got people sitting up in the press box or wherever making criticism or they're criticizing the athlete out on the field well this guy isn't playing because of this or this guy is a plain because it who the hell are they to judge when it comes to a player's health the risk of playing with injuries today could end his incredibly lucrative career and after growing up so for himself the money does matter to Bo I want my kids to have the best things out of life whenever there's a function at school where the kids have to pay I don't want my kids to ever worry about well I wonder if mom or dad got the money so I could go on a field trip with the kids which was always something that always scared the daylights out of me just walking home from school and waiting till mom get home from work that night and asking her do she have some money do she have $5 that I could have so I able to go on the zoo field trip with the kids at school and 90% of the time she never had it and I want things like that to be different for my kids you know there are millions of fans who would tell you that their greatest fantasy their greatest thrill in life would be to step up to the plate and hit a home run in a major league game with a dive over the goal line score a touchdown in the NFL and yet you say your greatest thrill came on August 2nd 1988 yes someone else was carrying the ball yeah she was carrying the ball and I was a spectator and no that was when our second son Nicholas was born and when they actually handed Nicholas to him I looked over and I saw tears in his eyes and I said are you crying Oh a little bit didn't want to really admit to it but then I guess he says oh well I'm caught so I might as well admit it and he did ruling a 90-yard touchdown hitting a 500 foot shot off of someone facing nolan ryan um accepting a scholarship to college and all the wealth and the accolades that have come with my athletic career can't touch that one moment and when I was there to see my son come in the world we interrupt this interview with both a proud father Bono's captured for a final commercial moment with both the intellectual which raises the question for beau the philosopher about when he's gonna give us mere mortals out here a break nice tote Bo's got the perfect body and hardly works at it beau runs faster beau hits harder Beau's teammates say he's superhuman now we're telling you he's an all-star family man sensitive caring and faithful - yeah I suppose we are hmm you say in your piece that he's married to a psychologist does does that give him some balance does she does she analyze him i well she does I mean both kids about the fact that first of all that he that she looks like Tina Turner and laughs about the fact that she's always psychoanalyzing him around the house but when beau gets angry at himself because of the way he played or for whatever reason yeah Linda talks to him they work through it together it helps beau he knows it and best of all he says she doesn't even charge him a fee my giving us some of the you know the anger that he had about his past you know his early life and things are so tough where did the name beau come from she calls him Vincent that's his real name beau grew up with nine brothers and sisters the name comes from them because he was as tough as a boar hog only they pronounced it Bo Hogg shorten it to bone there you have it Oh better to be a boy harms and I've done be pigheaded but what she's not which is not I respond that you're interesting when we come back we'll tell you what has happened to a woman who was just a few years ago in the news ever

Channel: alfonzotan

Views: 617,344

Rating: 4.7743754 out of 5

Keywords: Sports, Auburn

Id: HWzGUosq8MA

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 04 2013