What If Bo Jackson Only Played Football? By: Sam Quinn TheSportsPost.com
There has never been a greater athlete in the history of sports than Bo Jackson. The legends are as numerous as they are ridiculous: he once ran a 4.1 second 40, he can run on a wall, he once threw a brick 100 yards and hit a moving target, he routinely hits 450-foot home runs in batting practice left-handed. Let’s key in on that last one. To this day, Jackson is the only player to ever make an All-Star Game in two sports, baseball and football. Famously calling football a “hobby,” Jackson focused mainly on his career with the Kansas City Royals. A devastating hip injury while playing for the Raiders ended the meaningful portion of his career, but it’s worth wondering, would he have even been in that situation had he not played baseball? What if Bo Jackson focused solely on football? The answer is terrifying for the rest of the league. After Jackson is taken No. 1 overall in 1986 by Tampa Bay, he is immediately paired with second-year quarterback Steve Young to give the Bucs an incredible offensive duo. Young struggles early on, but Jackson carries the load while he figures things out and Tampa eventually wins nine games and just barely misses the playoffs. That changes in 1987. The combination of Jackson and Young is so devastating that Tampa manages to win 11 games despite having one of the league’s worst defenses. True to form, their second-round playoff showdown with San Francisco turns into a legendary shootout. Young trades blows with Joe Montana for most of the afternoon, but unfortunately it’s the 49ers that come out on top 45–37. Bill Walsh immediately greets Young after the game, leaving many to speculate on what might have been. After all, it was a poorly kept secret that Walsh was always enamored with Young dating back to his college days at BYU. 
The next two years are much of the same, as Jackson wins an MVP award but Tampa’s front office fails to surround its two stars with proper talent. The Bucs lose to San Francisco in the playoffs again in both 1988 and 1989, and representatives from both the Young and Jackson camps begin to grumble. With only one year left on Young’s contract and two on Jackson’s, many wonder whether either will want to stay if they can’t win a championship. The prayers of many Tampa fans are answered, as the Giants stun San Francisco in the divisional round allowing the Bucs to host the NFC Championship Game. Pundits spend the next week debating how Tampa’s duo stacks up against Buffalo’s Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas, but when the game actually starts the Bucs have no answer for New York’s blitz-heavy defense. The 15–6 loss culminates in a sideline meltdown by Young, who screams at his offensive line after being sacked for the sixth time. Young tears off his jersey on the way back to the locker room, forcing many to assume he plans on leaving the Bucs as a free agent. Those assumptions are proven correct, but in a very surprising way. Despite having been away from the 49ers for two years, Bill Walsh pleads with the 49ers to move on Young, telling them he could be a legend with their roster and infrastructure. He compels them to cash in on Joe Montana’s waning value while they can, and they eventually trade him across the bay to Oakland. Young is a 49er soon after, and many criticize Walsh for acting on behalf of the 49ers without being officially employed by them. San Francisco misses out on a championship in Young’s first season, but optimism for the future remains high. Why? Because they also let go of mainstays Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig. Clearly, the Niners were saving money for something big. That something big? Bo Jackson. Without Young in Tampa, the Bucs flounder. Jackson wants no part of such a losing organization, and decides to leave as a free agent. The 49ers spend the ’91 season positioning themselves to sign him, and after being actively recruited by Young and Jerry Rice he agrees to a new contract with San Francisco. Effectively, this ends any and all speculation over who might win the championship. The 49ers are so loaded with talent that nobody bats an eyelash when they win 15 games in 1992 en route to their first championship without Montana. They win two more in a row after that, giving them a total of seven and the title of undisputed best organization in football. They don’t win another title after that, but why would they need to? The trio of Jackson, Young and Rice goes down as the foundation of the greatest dynasty in NFL history, all because one man chose to focus on one sport.