For real…I think I might have seen two Bo Jackson highlights in my life at the point in which this picture was taken. Both highlights I saw were football highlights and they were impressive…but what in the world made me ask my mom to take some pics of me posing as if I were Bo Jackson? ⁣
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First – sports cards. Second – Nike. Third – I had some extra football pads and a baseball bat lying around my room. For a minute, Bo Jackson was like the world’s biggest star (in my mind) for like 2 years – 1989 or 1990. And then he hurt himself and it was all over after that. The sports cards were worth a bit (comparatively) and the Nike campaign was something serious. Those ‘Bo Knows’ commercials still stick out in my mind and I DIDN’T EVEN GROW UP WITH A TV in the house. ⁣
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I remember going to a bookstore and my parents asking me to pick out a book and I picked out ‘Bo Knows Bo – The Autobiography of Bo Jackson’. The first paperback edition was super dope – it had a silver embossed cover…I still have it at my parents around somewhere. I read that book TWICE.. I remember him telling stories of growing up in the south and one of them still sticks out in my mind: ⁣ ⁣
“When Bo was 14….On the way to a swimming hole one summer day, he and some friends came across a Baptist minister’s hog pen. “We stopped and threw some rocks,” recalls Bo. “One rock just lead to another.” Before long $3,000 worth of pigs were dead..’ He then goes on to detail how, one day, he was running away from something and jumped over a ditch and as he jumped he looked down and saw all the pigs he had killed at the bottom of the ditch…for whatever reason, that story always stuck in my mind. ⁣
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Anyway, I only ever owned one pair of Bo Jackson Trainers (not even worth posting), but that year or two he was such a (marketing) force that I thought I could one day be him…⁣