pmills1210's Full Review: Topps Oakland Raiders Bo Jackson 1988 Rookie Tradi...
In the four years he played both baseball and football in the pros, Bo Jackson had few peers in terms of popularity. Not only was no other athlete playing in two major sports per year, but Jackson excelled at both sports. His two-sport star status reached its peak in 1989, where he was an All-Star in the Major Leagues (for the Kansas City Royals), and an All-Pro in the NFL (for the Los Angeles Raiders). Jackson possessed the speed and power to amaze fans and opponents alike. At the height of his stardom, Nike made a series of "Bo Knows" ads that played up his unique status. His two-sport days came to an abrupt halt, though, during a 1991 playoff game between the Raiders and the Cincinnati Bengals, Jackson sustained a legal hit that caused a dislocation of his hip. After just 38 regular-season NFL games and one post-season contest, Bo Jackson was no longer in the know in two sports.
Football experts expected Jackson, who won the 1985 Heisman Trophy and the Walter Camp Award as a running back for the Auburn Tigers, to opt for football over baseball. In the 1986 NFL Draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made Jackson the top overall selection. Jackson, who had also once been a draft pick of the New York Yankees, stunned the football world by announcing he was playing baseball only. By the end of 1986, he was on the Royals roster. The Buccaneers never reached an agreement with Jackson. By NFL rules of the time, he was eligible to be drafted again in 1987. The Raiders drafted him in the seventh round that year, and the team was even willing to wait for baseball to end before Jackson had to join them. The Raiders got a new running back as a result. In just seven games, Jackson gained 554 yards and scored four touchdowns. In one game as a rookie, Jackson rushed for 221 yards, including a 91-yard scoring run that made Seattle Seahawks defenders look like they were standing still.
The year after he made his debut on the pro gridiron, Jackson made his pro football card debut. Topps could not resist putting the part-time Raider in their set. In fact, Jackson is featured on the Raiders' team card as well as his rookie card. The latter card is the key card of the 1988 Topps set. The Jackson rookie card is #327 in that season's 396-card set. This card, at one point, had a Beckett value of $15. That value, though, was reached while Jackson was still an active football player. The value, according to the March 2007 issue of Beckett Football magazine, is $5.
The shot on the front shows Jackson seated on the ground, looking like he's doing some sort of warm-up exercise. The card has the usual white border that Topps cards have. The photo itself has a blue border around it. At the bottom border of the photo is a helmet logo of the Raiders and the designation "Topps Super Rookie." Below that are Jackson's position and name. The card back has Jackson's vital stats, his 1987 rushing totals, and a biography that includes talk about his college and pro football play, and his membership on the Royals squad.
The card serves its purpose, but does little more. On many shots over its history, Topps has used shots of players simulating game poses in lieu of game action shots. On Jackson's card, Topps seems to be happy just to get a shot of Bo in his uniform. Nothing in the shot suggests the excitement Jackson could create on the field. The expression on Jackson's face seems to suggest that the person taking his picture is a nuisance rather than as a person providing football card collectors a pose for their collection. Jackson may simply have been focusing on his work at hand, but Topps presented a photo that captures the bare essence of football. The text captures more of the excitement Bo Jackson created than the photo does.
In spite of the severe injury that cost him his football career, Jackson still played three more seasons of baseball, including appearances in 23 games for the Chicago White Sox in 1991. After hip replacement surgery cost him the 1992 campaign, he played one more season for the White Sox, and ended his career in 1994 with the California Angels. Since retiring from sports, Jackson has made acting appearances and been involved in the business of sports medicine in his home state of Alabama. Deion Sanders and Brian Jordan followed in the two-sport footsteps of Jackson, but neither reached Jackson's level of excitement or excellence. For four short years, Bo Jackson knew sports stardom that stretched from one end of the year to the other. In retirement, Jackson can say he knows firsthand of the thrills he brought to fans of baseball and football.
For those of us who remember, we can say Bo Jackson hit a home run and scored a touchdown.
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