Baseball Kansas City Royals Jackson was selected with the
first overall pick of the
1986 NFL draft by the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Shortly after the draft, Jackson signed a three-year contract with the Royals worth just over $1 million. He spent 53 games with the
Memphis Chicks, the Royals'
Class AA minor league affiliate, and was called up to the majors in September 1986. Jackson made his major league debut on September 2 against the Chicago White Sox, and finished the game 1-for-3. He made the Royals' roster in 1987 as a left fielder, and batted .235 with 22 home runs, 53 RBI and 10
stolen bases in 116 games; his 22 home runs set a Royals rookie record. of Jackson with the
Memphis Chicks On July 29, 1988, playing against the
Baltimore Orioles, Jackson, batting against
Jeff Ballard, attempted to call time out as Ballard was delivering the ball. The time-out wasn't granted, but Jackson recovered to swing and hit the pitch over the left-field wall for a home run despite taking one hand off the bat at the beginning of the at bat. He finished the 1988 season batting .246 with 25 home runs, 68 RBI and a career-high 27 stolen bases in 124 games, Then he led off the bottom of the first—his first All-Star plate appearance—with a monstrous home run against
Rick Reuschel of the
San Francisco Giants.
NBC-TV announcer
Vin Scully exclaimed, "Look at that one! Bo Jackson says hello!"
Wade Boggs followed with his own home run, making them the first pair in All-Star history to lead off the first inning with back-to-back home runs. In the second inning, he beat the throw on a potential double play to drive in the eventual winning run. He then stole second base, making him the second player in
All-Star Game history to hit a home run and steal a base in the same game (the first was
Willie Mays). Jackson finished the game 2-for-4 with one run scored and two RBI. In 1989, Jackson batted .256 with 32 home runs and 105 RBI in 135 games. His 172 strikeouts tied him for 10th most strikeouts in a season for a right-handed batter since 1893. Before Royals games, Jackson used to shoot at a target with a bow and arrow in the Royals clubhouse. During the 1990 season, Jackson hit HRs in four consecutive at-bats, tying a Major League record (held by several). His fourth came off
Randy Johnson, after hitting his first three before a stint on the
disabled list. On March 13, 2024, the Royals announced that Jackson had been elected to the Royals Hall of Fame and would be inducted before the team's June 29 game against Cleveland.
Chicago White Sox and California Angels Only 16 days after Jackson was released by the Royals, the
Chicago White Sox offered him a three-year deal, guaranteeing $700,000 per season with a performance-based upside of $8.15 million over the term. White Sox co-owner
Jerry Reinsdorf stated they did not anticipate him to play all seasons while he addressed his hip issues and
avascular necrosis. Jackson played two seasons appearing in 23 games in 1991 and 85 games in 1993. He appeared on White Sox' disabled roster during the
1992 season due to completing hip replacement surgery earlier that year. He would become the first athlete in professional sports history to compete with an artificial hip. While with the White Sox, Jackson promised his mother that once he returned from his hip replacement surgery in 1993, he would hit a home run for her. Before he could return, his mother died. In his first at-bat after surgery, he hit a home run to right field. Jackson recovered the ball by trading an autographed bat for it, and stated he planned to have it bronzed and placed on her dresser. Later that season, a three-run home run by Jackson clinched the AL West title and the first playoff berth for the White Sox in a decade. He was named
The Sporting News AL Comeback Player of the Year. In the only post-season appearance of his career, Jackson went hitless in 10 at-bats, but drew three walks and scored a run as the White Sox lost to the
Toronto Blue Jays in six games in the
American League Championship Series. He played in 75 games, batting .279 with 13 home runs and 43 RBI before the season was cut short by the 1994–95 baseball
strike. In his eight baseball seasons, Jackson had a career batting average of .250, hit 141 home runs and had 415 RBI, with a
slugging percentage of .474. His best year was 1989, with his effort earning him All-Star status. In 1989, Jackson ranked fourth in the American League in both home runs, with 32, and RBI, with 105.
Football During his junior and senior years at Auburn, Jackson transitioned his focus to baseball and became increasingly vocal about his unwillingness to play in the NFL. A month before the
1986 NFL draft,
Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner and Alabama alum
Hugh Culverhouse took him on a private jet to visit with the team and get a physical during his senior baseball season. Jackson was told by the Buccaneers that the trip had been cleared by the NCAA and SEC. In truth, it had not, and because the SEC barred athletes from being professional in one sport and amateur in another, he was declared ineligible near the tail end of his senior baseball season. Years later, Jackson told ESPN that he has long believed the Buccaneers sabotaged his collegiate baseball career "because of the season I was having". He was so angry at the Buccaneers' actions that he vowed never to play a down for them, going as far as to tell Culverhouse, "You draft me if you want. You're going to waste a draft pick. I can promise you that." Jackson's collegiate baseball coach,
Hal Baird, told the
Tampa Bay Times that no one from either camp mentioned the trip to him, and feared the worst when Jackson told him that the trip had been paid for. Baird maintained that had he known about the trip, he would have told Jackson about the SEC rule that barred him from playing professional football while being an amateur in baseball. Along similar lines, Dye told the
Times that once Jackson concluded that the Tampa Bay trip was "a tactical move", it ended any chance of him ever playing for the Buccaneers. Jackson turned down the Buccaneers' $7.6 million, five-year contract in favor of a $1.07 million, three-year contract with the
Kansas City Royals, and the Buccaneers forfeited his rights before the
1987 draft. Choosing to sleep in rather than attend the 1987 NFL draft, Jackson found out that he was selected in the seventh round (183rd overall) by the
Los Angeles Raiders. Initially, Jackson stated he would continue to focus on baseball and would not sign, but his interest was piqued when he learned Raiders owner
Al Davis was a fan of Jackson and receptive to Jackson playing both baseball and football. Jackson joined the Raiders in time for their Week 8 matchup against the
New England Patriots, where he rushed for a total of 37 yards on eight carries. Jackson shared the backfield with
Marcus Allen, himself an All-Pro and former Heisman Trophy winner, but eventually supplanted him as the featured running back despite being listed as the team's
fullback. Perhaps his most notable performance in his rookie season came on
Monday Night Football against the
Seattle Seahawks in Week 12. Prior to the game Seahawks
linebacker Brian Bosworth insulted Jackson and promised in a media event before the game to contain Jackson. Jackson responded by running over Bosworth on his way to a touchdown near the goal line. He also made a 91-yard run in the second quarter, to the outside, untouched down the sideline. Jackson rushed for 221 yards that night and two touchdowns. He added a third with a reception. The 221 yards was a single-game record for the Raiders at the time. In his rookie season, Jackson rushed for a total of 554 yards on only 81 carries for a 6.8 yards per carry average. He played in seven games, starting five, and scored a total of six touchdowns (four rushing, two receiving). The next year, Jackson played in ten of the Raiders' sixteen games with nine starts, recording a total of 580 yards and three touchdowns. Jackson's 1989 season was his best in the league. In eleven games, with nine starts, Jackson rushed for a total of 950 yards with a 5.5 yards per carry average and four touchdowns. In his abbreviated 1990 campaign, Jackson rushed for 698 yards and was selected to the only Pro Bowl of his career. Jackson sustained an NFL career-ending hip injury from a seemingly routine tackle at the end of a 34-yard run in a playoff game on January 13, 1991, against the Bengals. In his four seasons in the NFL, Jackson rushed for 2,782 yards and 16 touchdowns with an average yards per carry of 5.4. He also caught 40 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns. Jackson's 221 yards on November 30, 1987, just 29 days after his first NFL carry, is still a
Monday Night Football record.
Hip injury Jackson's athletic career was affected by an injury to his left hip. In his last football game, a playoff victory over the
Cincinnati Bengals in January 1991, Jackson suffered a dislocated hip following a tackle. In the film ''You Don't Know Bo'', Jackson claimed that when he realized his injury on the field, he
popped his hip back into the socket, which damaged the blood vessels supplying blood to the hip. While doctors did not find proof that Jackson reset his hip, they did discover that there was a fracture of one of Jackson's hip bones, as well as traumatic chondrolysis (the loss of the thin layer of cartilage that lines the ball-and-socket hip joint) and
avascular necrosis (death of bone tissue) of the
femoral head. He would be forced to retire from football, and was then cut by the Royals in spring training. Jackson would return to competition with the White Sox toward the end of the 1991 baseball season but did not play the 1992 season while having his hip replaced. ==Career statistics==