I am old enough to remember Bo Jackson, especially that infamous 91 yard TD run on Monday Night Football, and that ridiculously funny Bo doesn't know Diddly Nike ad commercial. But to be honest, I didn't remember (or never knew) the details of his early life, his personal struggles with stuttering, his baseball career, and the devastating injury that cut short his participation in both football and baseball.
As told by Jeff Pearlman, although without the benefit of any time spent interviewing Bo, for most of the book I did not like Bo Jackson. He was a bully, quick to threaten and fight, treated women as mere sexual objects (at one point he was engaged to 2 different women at the same time), and thought the rules didn't apply to him. More than once I was tempted to put the book down and stop reading, but figured his comeuppance was inevitable.
Bo took his amazing physical talent for granted, assumed it would last forever, and did nothing to work at his craft, or even to maintain his body. The poster boy for a selfish athlete, if ever there was one.
But this was not a "hit" book by Pearlman. While he certainly demonstrated just how unlikable Bo Jackson was to many he encountered, Pearlman specified the why. Bo was raised in poverty whose mother did not spare the rod, and whose father spent most of his time across town with his wife and children. Hurt before being hurt was his self defense against the world. And trust no one, since, other than his abusive mother, there was no one trustworthy in his life.
For some, Bo Jackson is the greatest athlete who ever lived, rivaling Jim Brown and Jim Thorpe. His exploits, in both sports, college as well as professional, however, are instances of greatness, not greatness exhibited over time. His actual stats are middling at best. Yet, perhaps no other athlete ever, will be known for doing something "never seen before, or since". From massive home runs to incredible acts of strength and speed, to his improbable physique, his natural physique, not one which came from a weight room or bottle, Bo caused more jaws to drop, jaws, not just of reporters and paying customers, but fellow athletes who were also elite members of their sport.
It wasn't until after Bo's hip injury that he became a likable character. Not just out of sympathy, we always feel sympathy for someone whose life is inextricably changed by an accident, but due to how he reacted, how he changed afterwards. While ego may still have been at work, he devoted countless hours of physical therapy to prove wrong all who said he would never play again. He became a better teammate, more empathetic to fellow athletes who were also, in the end, packages of meat being used by owners, fans, and businessmen.
Also, once he settled down with fiance number 2, and had children, he did everything he could do to be the father he never had. He became a little more humble with the realization that athletics were nice, even fun and certainly monetarily rewarding, but not as important as family. He began seeing and treating other people, not just as someone who might hurt or take advantage of him, but as someone to get to know, perhaps even to help.
And he did help, other athletes he met as his career faded, and his community, especially fellow Alabamians in 2011 when the state experienced devastating hurricane damage.
Bo Jackson's story can certainly be viewed as an American success story, but not because he made millions of dollars playing sports, and because he became a world wide recognized figure.
One might even say his life was doubly successful. He earned millions of dollars playing a game, two games actually, and through sports endorsements, then earned the respect of his fellow human beings by living his life simply after sports, with the emphasis on family and empathy for others.
Perhaps some day, someone like Bo Jackson will be remembered for that second part of his life when he was able to overcome his learned distrust, his learned 'hurt before being hurt' philosophy, and his overall brutal upbringing, and became a man happy with his family, happy with his situation, living for the now and the future, and not stuck in the hero worship past that sports can evoke. Someone capable of empathy for those he encountered.
I posted the following early last year, also about empathy, if interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment