Bo Jackson Remains The Greatest Athlete in the History of Sports

Published on April 18th, 2025 4:35 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Stephen A. Smith recently stated that Deion Sanders is the greatest athlete in the history of the NFL.

It's a reasonable argument - after all, Sanders was a two-sport athlete who was one of the greatest corners in the history of the NFL, if not the absolute best.

There is one problem - Bo Jackson exists.

Bo Jackson - the athlete who was so confident in his abilities as a baseball player that he told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go to hell when they drafted him first overall in the 1986 NFL Draft.

If you draft me, Jackson told the Bucs, I'll just go play baseball. And he did.

In 1989, Jackson played for both the Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Raiders in the same calendar year.

Bo Jackson wasn't just a great NFL player who was also a decent baseball player - he was great in both sports, and 1989 proved it.

Let's start with his baseball stats in 1989.

That season, Bo Jackson played in 135 games for the Kansas City Royals, putting up 32 home runs and 105 RBIs. In addition, Jackson was stellar in the field, putting up eight assists for the year.

After Jackson's season ended with the Kansas City Royals, he immediately packed his bags and headed for Los Angeles.

After practicing for a bit, Jackson made his season debut on October 15th, 1989 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Despite just receiving 11 touches, Jackson ran for 85 yards and a touchdown.

After rushing for 79 yards in his second game back, Jackson went on a tear, putting up three consecutive 100+ yard games against the Redskins, Bengals and Chargers.

Jackson appeared in 11 games in 1989, finishing with 950 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns. Jackson had a ridiculous 5.5 yards per touch that season.

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Sanders had some incredible years in both football and baseball, though nothing will top Bo Jackson's domination in 1989 in two sports. 1,000+ scrimmage yards in the NFL and 100+ RBIs in Major League Baseball is a ridiculous statistic that will almost surely never be topped.