In Bo Jackson’s most productive NFL game, the former Auburn All-American ran for 221 yards in the Los Angeles Raiders' 37-14 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 30, 1987.
But Jackson figures he could do a lot better than that if he were playing in today’s NFL – record-breaking better.
During an appearance this week on Deion Sanders' podcast “21st and Prime,” Jackson said he’d “be averaging 350, 400 yards a game.”
The reason? The poor tackling technique of NFL defensive players.
Jackson told Sanders that he doesn’t watch sports much, preferring to golf, hunt and fish during his leisure time.
An All-Star for the Kansas City Royals in baseball and a Pro Bowler for the Raiders in his “hobby” of football, Jackson said he doesn’t enjoy the lack of devotion to the fundamentals whenever he does happen to catch a baseball or football game.
“With me, even when I do see a little bit of it, I’m not going to say it’s frustrating, but it’s disappointing,” Jackson said, "because – let me ask you this: When was the last time you watched a baseball game and saw a baseball game where everybody was doing the basics? When was the last time you saw a hit-and-run? Everybody’s swinging for the fence now. You either hit it out the park or strike out. Either hit it out the park or strike out. Nobody practices base stealing. Nobody practices hit-and-run. Nobody practices hitting the cutoff man, and so forth and so on.
“In football, I’ll say the same thing. Nobody wraps up and tackles no more. With me being a ball-carrier, my coach taught us, No. 1, he said, ‘I know you can run, but I’m going to teach you how to carry that football.’ He said, ‘That football is like your newborn baby. Don’t ever put it on the ground. And keep it away from the enemy.’ It’s like this – and I watch technique – I don’t see nobody hitting and wrapping up. Everybody’s running into each other and trying to use their shoulder pads to knock the ball-carrier down. And I’m like, if I played during this era, man, I’d be averaging 350, 400 yards a game because nobody wraps up anymore. They run into each other with their pads.”
Jackson said that doesn’t mean he doesn’t like baseball or football anymore. It’s just that he likes remembering more than watching.
“Being an old man like I am now, I miss those days,” Jackson said. “I miss those days. And I sit up and I think about those days and so forth and so on, so that’s how I get my fill. I think about to back when we played. Think about my teammates. Think about other teams that we played and so forth and so on. And me and my teammates, we sit around and talk. We sit around and talk about old times. And we enjoy that.”
Jackson won the Heisman Trophy at Auburn in 1985, then was the first player picked in the 1986 NFL Draft. But he stiff-armed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to sign with Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals.
Jackson played in the outfield for the Royals from 1986 through 1990 and was the MVP of the 1989 All-Star Game.
Starting in 1987, Jackson joined the Raiders after baseball season had ended. He had the NFL’s longest run in three of his four seasons and was chosen for the Pro Bowl in 1990 despite playing in only 10 games.
BO JACKSON PROMINENT IN TOP 100 RUNS IN NFL HISTORY
In the 1990 playoffs, Jackson suffered a hip injury that ended his football career, although he did return to baseball to play in two seasons with the Chicago White Sox and one with the California Angels.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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