Who Was The Best Two Sport Athlete Ever? ….bo jackson? deion sanders? someone else?
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A couple of highlight reels to help with the debate …and to enjoy athleticism at its finest. Full Bios, stats, playing career and stats below.
Deion Sanders Bio (credit Encyclopedia Britannica)
Deion Sanders, in full Deion Luwynn Sanders, bynames Prime Time and Neon Deion, (born August 9, 1967, Fort Myers, Florida, U.S.), American gridiron football player and baseball player who is the only person to have played in both a Super Bowl and a World Series. Known for his flashy personality and outspokenness, Sanders was a middling professional baseball player but is widely considered the best man-to-man cover cornerback in National Football League (NFL) history.
Deion (2:28)
Sanders was a multisport star in high school and earned a scholarship to Florida State University, where he was a member of the school’s football, baseball, and track teams. He first brought his brash attitude to national attention as a two-time All-American in football. Sanders quickly became a sports media favorite, and his tremendous on-field achievements were sometimes overshadowed by his braggadocio, his penchant for gaudy jewelry, and his self-promotion, which included his tuxedo-attired arrival in a white stretch limousine at a 1988 game against the rival University of Florida. NFL teams were not put off by his cocky persona, however, and Sanders was selected by the Atlanta Falcons with the fifth selection of the 1989 NFL draft.
Sanders played primarily in the New York Yankees’ minor league system in 1989 but was called up for 14 games in the majors that summer. After posting a .158 batting average in 57 games with the Yankees in 1990, he was released and then signed by the Atlanta Braves. The speedy outfielder had the best season of his baseball career in 1992, batting .304 with a league-leading 14 triples as he helped the Braves reach the World Series (a six-game loss to the Toronto Blue Jays). He was traded to the Cincinnati Reds during the 1994 season and then to the San Francisco Giants during the 1995 season.
After not playing in 1996, Sanders had one-year stints with the Reds in 1997 and 2001 before retiring from baseball.
In his much more successful professional football career, Sanders made an immediate impact: he intercepted five passes in his rookie season, was a full-time starter in his second, and was named to his first of eight Pro Bowls in his third. He signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers for the 1994 season, during which he was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year after making six interceptions (returning three for touchdowns) and helped the team to a decisive victory in Super Bowl XXIX. In 1995–96 he won another Super Bowl title in his first season with the Dallas Cowboys, with whom he played for four more seasons before moving to the Washington Redskins for the 2000 season. Sanders then retired for three years only to return for a two-season stint with the Baltimore Ravens before permanently leaving the sport in 2006.
That his interception totals were lower than those of most other elite cornerbacks is attributable to the fact that opposing teams often simply avoided throwing the ball in his vicinity. On the other hand, noting that Sanders’s tackling and run-stopping abilities were often lacking, some have said that he was not a complete cornerback. Sanders’s speed and elusiveness made him one of the best kickoff and punt returners of all time, as well as an effective occasional receiving option on offense, with 60 career receptions (three for touchdowns) to his credit. The 19 non-offensive touchdowns (combining kickoff, punt, interception, and fumble returns) he scored over the course of his career were an NFL record at the time of his retirement. (His record was broken in 2014 by kick returner Devin Hester.)
After his playing days ended, Sanders spent time as a television football analyst and starred in a short-lived reality television series. His eventual alienation from his freewheeling lifestyle was documented in Power, Money & Sex: How Success Almost Ruined My Life (1998; co-written with Jim Nelson Black). He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.
Deion Sanders (football)
Deion Luwynn Sanders (Prime Time, Neon Deion or Leon Sandcastle)
Position: DB-WR
6-1, 195lb (185cm, 88kg)
Born: August 9, 1967 (Age: 53-073d) in Fort Myers, FL
College: Florida St.
High School: North Fort Myers (FL)
Draft: Atlanta Falcons in the 1st round (5th overall) of the 1989 NFL Draft.
Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 2011 (Full List)
Deion Sanders (baseball)
Position: Centerfielder
Bats: Left • Throws: Left
6-1, 195lb (185cm, 88kg)
Born: August 9, 1967 (Age: 53-073d) in Fort Myers, FL us
Draft: Drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 6th round of the 1985 MLB June Amateur Draft from North Fort Myers HS New York Yankees in the 30th round of the 1988 MLB June Amateur Draft from Florida State University
High School: North Fort Myers HS (North Fort Myers, FL)
School: Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL)
Debut: May 31, 1989 (Age 21-295d, 13,229th in MLB history)
vs. SEA 4 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB
Last Game: June 14, 2001 (Age 33-309d)
vs. CHW 2 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Note: His not being drafted higher (likely a 1st round talent) was a result of him also being an NFL caliber talent. Often folks will point to how late an MLB Superstar/Hall-of-Famer was ‘drafted low’, but became a star. In most cases that player was also a elite star in another sport. Having other options makes a player ‘less signable’. MLB teams often skip over such players in early rounds, not wanting to waste a pick on a player they may not be able to sign. An example is Ryne Sandberg, who wasn’t drafted until the 20th Round because he had a football scholarship to play quarterback at Washington State University.
Bo Jackson Bio (credit Encyclopedia Britannica)
Bo Jackson, byname of Vincent Edward Jackson, (born November 30, 1962, Bessemer, Alabama, U.S.), American athlete who starred for the Kansas City Royals of Major League Baseball and the Los Angeles Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) during his short but storied professional career and who is widely considered one of the greatest all-around athletes in history.
Jackson’s outstanding athletic ability manifested itself early in life. At McAdory High School in McCalla, Alabama, he excelled in athletics (track and field), baseball, and football, winning two state decathlon titles, throwing multiple no-hitters for the baseball team, and playing nearly every snap on offense and defense for the football team, in addition to handling all kicking duties. He was drafted by the New York Yankees out of high school, but he instead decided to attend Auburn University. Jackson lettered in all three sports at Auburn, but he made his biggest impact on the football field, where he was twice named a consensus All-American running back (1983 and 1985) and won the 1985 Heisman Trophy after rushing for 1,786 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Despite stating publicly that he did not want to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jackson was selected by the franchise with the first overall pick of the 1986 NFL draft. True to his word, he spurned the Bucs and signed with the Royals after that team selected him in the fourth round of the 1986 major-league draft. Jackson played in just 53 games in the minor leagues before making his debut with the Royals in 1986. Eligible again for the NFL draft in 1987, he was selected in the seventh round by the Raiders, whose owner, Al Davis, agreed to pay Jackson a full-time salary while allowing him to miss early-season games to complete his yearly baseball obligations.
Bo Jackson (3:08)
It was during his time as a Royal and a Raider that Jackson made a massive impact on American sporting culture. He quickly gained national attention via his seemingly preternatural exploits, such as nearly scaling a 7-foot (2.1-metre) outfield wall to slow himself after making a running catch, rushing for a then team-record 221 yards in just his fifth career NFL game while playing to a national audience on Monday Night Football, and routinely throwing runners out at home plate from the outfield on the fly. Even in failure Jackson showed amazing athleticism and strength, as he did on those occasions when he broke his bat in two over his thigh after striking out. Jackson’s celebrity was augmented by a popular series of television commercials he filmed for the Nike shoe company that showed him demonstrating a wide range of athletic prowess while famous athletes declared that “Bo Knows” the sport in question.
In 1989 Jackson was named to the American League All-Star team during a season in which he established career highs with 32 home runs and 105 runs batted in. The following year he rushed for 698 yards and five touchdowns over 10 games to earn Pro Bowl honors, thus becoming the first athlete to make all-star teams in two major North American sports. In January 1991 Jackson injured his hip during a Raiders play-off game, and the resulting deterioration of the joint led to his never playing in the NFL again. He was subsequently released by the Royals and played three partial seasons for the Chicago White Sox (1991, 1993) and the California Angels (1994) with mixed results before retiring in 1995. Although his hip injury prevented him from fully realizing his athletic potential on the professional level, Jackson was nevertheless a cultural sensation who made a significant impact on the history of American sports.
Bo Jackson (baseball)
Position: Leftfielder
Bats: Right • Throws: Right
6-1, 220lb (185cm, 99kg)
Born: November 30, 1962 (Age: 57-326d) in Bessemer, AL us
Draft: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 2nd round of the 1982 MLB June Amateur Draft from McAdory HS
California Angels in the 20th round of the 1985 MLB June Amateur Draft from Auburn University
Kansas City Royals in the 4th round of the 1986 MLB June Amateur Draft from Auburn University
High School: McAdory HS (Bessemer, AL)
School: Auburn University (Auburn, AL)
Debut: September 2, 1986 (Age 23-276d, 12,840th in MLB history)
vs. CHW 3 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Last Game: August 10, 1994 (Age 31-253d)
vs. KCR 4 AB, 2 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 SB
Note: Like Sanders above, Jackson likely would have been a 1st Round pick, if he were not also an elite football talent.
Bo Jackson (football)
Vincent Edward Jackson
Position: RB
6-1, 227lb (185cm, 102kg)
Born: November 30, 1962 (Age: 57-326d) in Bessemer, AL
College: Auburn
Draft: Los Angeles Raiders in the 7th round (183rd overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft
Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1st round (1st overall) of the 1986 NFL Draft
Note: Drafted by Raiders in the 7th Round for the same reasons mentioned above in the note below Deion Sanders’ Baseball info. By 1987 he had established himself as a MLB baseball player and had refused to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 1986 NFL draft.