Bo Jackson is perhaps the best two-sport athlete of all-time. He’s the only person to make an All-Star team in two different professional sports – NFL and MLB – and was also a track star in college.
Jackson shared his thoughts on the college transfer portal, among other things, while appearing on Audacy Sports’ “The Bret Boone Podcast” this week.
“For me, it’s teaching these young athletes how to run away from their problems instead of sitting back and dealing with it. Be a man, stand up to the plate,” Jackson said. “I don’t think there’s one kid playing in this day and age that could go through an a**-ripping that we got from our coaches when we played. I don’t think there’s a kid that could handle that.”
The multi-sport star explained that run-ins with his coaches actually made him tougher throughout his career.
“My rookie year with the Raiders, this was a week before the Seattle game. I got into it with the defensive line coach … and the defensive line coach jumped in my a– and I jumped back in his. And the last thing he said was ‘You just make sure that you do what you gotta do!’ and I turned around and looked him in his eye and I said ‘Show up Monday night and I’m gonna show you you what I’m gonna do,’” Jackson recalled. “That’s how you handle an issue.
“And on that Monday night when we played Seattle, after that game that defensive line coach came up to me and shook my hand and said ‘Mr. Jackson, what you did out there was impressive. Damn impressive. And you showed me instead of talking about it.’”
Jackson ran for a career-high 221 yards on 18 carries with two rushing touchdowns in just his fifth NFL game. He also caught a touchdown pass en route to a 37-14 rout of the Seahawks.
“If you want to be successful in life, period, it doesn’t have to be sports, it can be anything you put your mind to, let your actions speak for you,” Jackson said. “Let your actions speak for you.”
Jackson ran for over 4,000 yards during his four-year career with the Auburn Tigers with a whopping 1,786 yards on 278 carries in his senior season. He went on to star with the Royals, White Sox, and Angels in MLB as well as the Los Angeles Raiders in the NFL.