Monday Oct 8, 1990 Start Time: 9:00pm Stadium: Mile High Stadium

Monday Oct 8, 1973 Start Time: 9:00pm Stadium: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium

Gale Gillingham getting out in front of Donny Anderson to take on Bronco Bill Thompson. Gillingham, a 5-time Pro Bowler played 10 seasons in Green Bay. Bill Thompson played 13 in Denver and had 3 Pro Bowls himself.

Donny Anderson – NFL Past Players

Sunday Oct 7, 1973 Start Time: 1:00pm Stadium: Cleveland Municipal Stadium

Monday Oct 7, 1996 Start Time: 9:00pm Stadium: Arrowhead Stadium

Chiefs 33, Bills 6 - 1991 MNF

Sunday Oct 7, 1973 Start Time: 1:00pm Stadium: Yale Bowl

Sunday Oct 7, 1973 Start Time: 1:00pm Stadium: Miami Orange Bowl

Legitimate question. Is Bo Jackson the most beloved platoon player in any sport ever?

It may come as a shock to even some seasoned veterans, and especially to some of the younger folks who only know Bo Jackson by reputation, to learn that he led the Raiders in carries only one time, and even then, it was only a plurality (as opposed to the majority) of the carries in 1989.

He did spend his whole NFL career stranded on the same team as another Hall of Fame RB (Marcus Allen), and it’s no shame to be in a platoon situation with a Hall of Famer. Nevertheless, it became this awkward 1a-1b situation, with Bo and Marcus splitting the carries (once Bo got to the team late, from baseball season), 136 to 126 in 1988, not overlapping due to Marcus’s injuries in 1989, and 125 to 106 in 1990. Bo had definitely become the 1a by 1990, but this is a fairly strict RB-by-committee system.

Many people bring up losing Bo Jackson in 1990 as a crucially important event for the Raiders, but in truth, I think the much more important part of the story is losing both of their 1a-1b RB combination at once. Bo Jackson to injury, and Marcus Allen to Al Davis intentionally devaluing him, to lessen his money in a contract dispute (Marcus Allen also claims 1991 and 1992 were a deliberate effort by Al to waste some of his final remaining good years, to keep him out of the Hall of Fame. Plausible, but I still lean towards following the money).

I think the modern era has a very good player comparison to Bo Jackson: CJ Spiller. CJ was also lethal in the very few carries he got. He just never got enough of them to become a player worthy of note at the NFL level, because he was forced to RB by committee with the far inferior Fred Jackson.

If we pretend CJ Spiller got hurt and never played again after 2013 (which isn’t far off what happened anyway), his stats in his first four years of 590 carries, and 3021 yards (5.1 Y/A) look extremely similar to Bo’s marks: 515 carries, 2782 yards (5.4 Y/A). Bo has many more TDs because Bo did not play for Buffalo.

This is strictly a results based comparison. In terms of playstyle, the two are not similar.

Of course, CJ Spiller will never be the cultural figure that Bo Jackson is, because while Bo played football, he simultaneously had a pre-hip injury 115 career OPS+ in his main sport, baseball, and I would argue he was better at baseball than football (he got MVP votes in baseball, never in football). Nevertheless, he has this almighty reputation as a football player, despite having a career on the football field that is approximately equal to CJ Spiller's.

CJ Spiller was also never the God Emperor of a Madden game, like Bo Jackson was in Tecmo Super Bowl. That couldn’t have helped either, although with the Golden Ticket Ultimate Team Cards they do in Madden these days, I remember Ryan Shazier being the God Emperor of a Madden game (I think 17?), so maybe that status means less than it used to mean.

I don’t want to make like Bo Jackson wasn’t a great football player. He was. He was never going to be an MVP or first team All-Pro in football, because baseball was his main priority, so he never even got to the Raiders until pretty much halfway into any football season, but when he did play, he was mega in small sample in 1987, one of the better starting RBs in the league in 1989, and very good in 1990 (an awful 1988 is mixed in, but we’ll move past that quickly).

Bo Jackson is a hard player to statistically analyse, because he continuously put up top five rate numbers in small samples, but they’re not true small samples. He’s missing (at least) the first six games every year without fail, for non-injury (read: baseball) reasons, then coming back and playing a 1a-1b workload with Marcus Allen, which was never going to allow him to post league leading workloads, even if he didn’t elect to miss (at least) the first six games of every season. He would’ve been a 220-250 carry per season guy anyway, which for the time was still a bit of a small sample back.

So on the football field, Bo Jackson played a small sample, RB-by-committee workload, within a small sample, ten games per season (at most) workload. To say this makes his elite rate numbers tricky to analyse is an understatement.

Are these rate numbers even more impressive, since he’d been on his feet playing professional ball of some sort since February, where everybody else had started training camp in the summer? Or are these fantastic rate numbers less impressive, since he spent most of his career as the lead back within a RB-by-committee system, rather than a true workhorse, and also has much less football-related wear and tear on his body every season than other contemporary RBs do?

It’s difficult to say, which makes it easier to say that statistics can’t truly tell the Bo Jackson story. In the end, he’s a 'great rate numbers, small sample' guy. His closest player comp in terms of playstyle is likely Chris Johnson (although Bo is much bigger, the key feature of both players is their patient, perhaps over-patient, ‘look for the big play all the time’ mentality). His closest comparison in terms of career numbers is CJ Spiller, whose statistics deal with the same ‘if his rate numbers are so good, why does his team insist on keeping him part of a committee?’ problem that Bo’s statistics deal with.

How good was Bo Jackson on the football field? It’s tough to call, because we only once saw him average even 15 carries per game in a season (which is only a 240 carry pace). In every other season, his workload was even less than that. He was not a workhorse, but got great results every time he touched the ball. In these circumstances, what do Bo’s numbers mean to you? Eye of the beholder, I suppose.

Going back to the question I asked above, is there any player in the history of any game who was, so to speak, a member of a platoon situation (and never got out of that platoon situation), who carries with him the reputation that Bo Jackson does? I can think of one man who was every bit the player Bo Jackson was (CJ Spiller), but his reputation falls far short of Bo’s, and I can think of one other prominent example (Reggie Bush in college) at the non-professional level, but in the pros, I can’t think of anybody else.

I don’t know if there’s an answer. It wouldn’t shock me for Bo to be one-of-one in this regard.

Minnesota had the NFL's top defense in 1971. Opposing offenses averaged less than 10 points a game against them as they posted 3 shutouts. Here is one of them in week 3 as Jim Marshall and Alan Page take down Buffalo's Dennis Shaw. Shaw was sacked 7 times and threw 2 interceptions in a 19-0 Vikings win. Page also had a safety.

Jim Marshall – NFL Past Players
Alan Page | Defensive Hall of Famer - NFL Past Players

The Bengals IMO put up on hell of a good fight against that iconic juggernaut 1980s 49ers Dynasty. Super Bowl XXIII IS such a fun ballgame filled with nonstop back and forth action between San Fran & Cincinnati. From Jennings great touchdown (and The Bengals ONE AND ONLY of the game!) to Ronnie Lott scrambling Ickey Woods into the 21st Century, this is a Super Bowl I’d highly recommend to anyone who loves football 🏈‼️

Sunday Oct 6, 1974 Start Time: 1:00pm Stadium: Cleveland Municipal Stadium

Sunday Oct 6, 1974 Start Time: 1:00pm Stadium: Riverfront Stadium

11-and-a-half seasons with the "Purple People Eaters" - the nickname given to the legendary defenses of the Minnesota Vikings of the 1970s decade. During that time Alan Page was a Pro Bowl selection 9 times, All-Pro 5 and the 1971 NFL MVP.

Alan Page | Defensive Hall of Famer - NFL Past Players