ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Images, really, and did-he-really-do-that-type memories are all that remain of Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson’s star-crossed four-year tenure with the Raiders when they called Los Angeles home.
Bo knew how to run over another celebrated rookie, Brian Bosworth, on the goal line on Nov. 30, 1987.
Bo knew how to speed down the Seattle Kingdome left sideline in that same Monday Night Football game for a breathtaking 91-yard touchdown before disappearing into a tunnel.
Bo knew that football was merely a “hobby,” something for him to do after the baseball season was done with the Kansas City Royals.
But the Raiders also seemingly knew something.
You see, Jackson, as the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner out of Auburn, was also the No. 1 draft pick of the 1986 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But after he turned up his nose at the Buccaneers and chose baseball, the Raiders took a flier on Jackson with a seventh-round pick in the 1987 draft, No. 183 overall, on the same day he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and a walk for the Royals against the Baltimore Orioles.
Asked by his agent if he had any interest in returning to football, Jackson said it depended upon the team. When he was told it was Al Davis and the Raiders, Jackson smiled.
“Hell yeah,” Jackson said.
“God blessed me with the speed that I could run like a spooked deer,” Jackson said in the ESPN 30 for 30 film "You Don’t Know Bo." “He blessed me with great hand-eye coordination. He blessed me with an arm like a high-powered rifle. And with all those tangibles, you’ve got to be successful at something. You’ve got to be successful in something that you do, and my niche fell on the baseball and football field.”
Given his late arrival to the Raiders every year, though, it was not easy incorporating his unique skill set.
“It was nice to have that talent, but it was disruptive in a way,” said Tom Flores, the Raiders’ coach when Jackson was a rookie. “All of a sudden I had to change my game plan. And I already had Marcus [Allen], who got better the longer he played. We didn’t really know what we were getting that first year. We knew Bo was a great player, but that was in college, two years earlier.
“Then, in his first practice, we saw just how fast he was. Wow. I could split Bo out and put Marcus at running back, or put Marcus out and Bo at running back. If I had him in training camp, I could have built a whole offense around both of them.”
In 38 games, 23 starts, over those four seasons, Jackson averaged 5.4 yards per carry in rushing for 2,782 yards and 16 touchdowns, with TD runs of 92, 91, 73, 62 and 55 yards among them.
“Bo Jackson could get off the bus and run 90 yards in a game and act like he had just gone out in the park to play baseball,” Davis told NFL Films. “That’s how good of an athlete he was.”
Jackson described his preternatural ability.
“When I’m running, I can’t hear a thing,” he said. “I can only hear wind going by the holes in my helmet. I can’t hear the people cheering. It just goes silent.”
It all came to an end, though, in the Raiders’ playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 13, 1991. On the second play of the third quarter, Jackson took a pitch from Jay Schroeder, followed a block from Allen and was gone down the right sideline for a 34-yard run when he was dragged down awkwardly from behind by linebacker Kevin Walker.
And that was it for the only player ever selected for both the NFL's Pro Bowl and Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. So powerful was Jackson that he had yanked his own leg out of its pelvic socket. He would never play football again.
“The pain, on a scale of 1 to 10,” he said, “it was about a 25.”
Honorable mentions
Rod Martin, linebacker, USC: A 12th-round selection in 1977 from USC, No. 317 overall, Martin had a record three interceptions of Ron Jaworski in a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV. And three years later, Martin had a sack of Joe Theismann, recovered a fumble and stuffed John Riggins for no gain on fourth-and-1, one play before Marcus Allen’s memorable reverse-field 74-yard touchdown run in Super Bowl XVIII. Martin was a two-time Pro Bowler and a one-time All-Pro with 33½ sacks and 14 interceptions.
Reggie Kinlaw, nose tackle, Oklahoma: A 12th-round pick of the Raiders in 1979, No. 320 overall, Kinlaw became a staple on a rugged 3-4 defense, starting 50 of his last 52 games with them beginning with his second season. He was a starter on the Raiders' Super Bowl XV and Super Bowl XVIII championship teams. Kinlaw played six seasons with the Raiders.