Bo Jackson Says He Would Never Have Played Football

Bo Jackson would not play football in today’s world.

Bo Jackson, the Heisman Trophy winner out of Alabama and two-sport stud, said in a surprising comment, that he would never have played football. “If I knew back then what I know now,’’ Jackson tells USA TODAY Sports, “I would have never played football. Never. I wish I had known about all of those head injuries, but no one knew that. And the people that did know that, they wouldn’t tell anybody.”

What is more surprising is that “Bo Knows” would not exist. Even more so, we would miss his trucking of Brian Bosworth on the way to a touchdown, and how he was far and above the best athlete to ever play both baseball and football (Only player to be both an NFL Pro-Bowler and MLB All-Star). It would disappear from our memory banks. The silver lining is that we would still get him breaking his bat over his large thigh, the running wall catch, and his rifle arm from left field.

Minus all the great moments that Jackson gave us football fans, I don’t blame him one bit. The NFL was much different back when he was playing. For instance, quarterbacks were just getting extra protection when they introduced the new “in-the-grasp” rule in 1991. Not only that but diseases such as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is now prevalent which wasn’t then.

“The game has gotten so violent, so rough. We’re so much more educated on this CTE stuff.” He isn’t just speaking for himself either. When it comes to his kids, he mentioned: “There’s no way I would ever allow my kids to play football today.” Jackson continued, “Even though I love the sport, I’d smack them in the mouth if they said they wanted to play football.”

“I’d tell them, ‘Play baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, just anything but football.’ ’’

Eliminating all the other hyperbole, Jackson is strictly speaking of CTE. The disease that has captured so many different football players lives. To learn more about CTE, there is an excellent documentary on PBS that explores Doctor Omalu’s discovery (League of Denial). The PBS website also keeps track of the concussions suffered by NFL players. Also, if you would like to read the book, here is the link.