Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders??

[Arkyvarminter]

I can't believe they are even discussing this. Bo by a mile...............

 

[blindzebra]

No kidding. Bo excelled in both. Deion was a joke in baseball. Not Jordan bad but he was only in the bigs for the ticket sales.

 

[DFWJC]

Bo was amazing in both sports.
The only argument against him would be how brief his careers were.
He never rushed for > 1000 yards in a season. Some may not realize this.
His career batting average was .250 but he did hit 32 homers in one year once.

I guess I'd take him over Deion.

But Deion did have a Hall of Fame NFL career ...a FAR greater NFL career than Bo had...I mean not at all close.
He also player longer in the MLB, had a better hitting average, stole more bases, had a better fielding %, but hit for way less power.

I don't fully dismiss him here....but the nod goes to Bo IF the question was not who had the better combined career but who was the better two sport athlete in his prime.

It's a legit argument.

 

[joseephuss]

That was from 1 1/2 years ago.

I'm going with Deion. Bo was more about "what could have been" instead of "what actually was". If Bo didn't suffer his unfortunate injury then he probably would have had great full careers in both sports. It sucks, but that is the reality. The injury limited him to a side note in the NFL and his baseball career really wasn't head and shoulders above Deion's experience in the MLB.

Obviously Bo had a big impact, but he had little staying power. He never rushed for a 1000 yards. Bo has less rushing yards than Julius Jones, Marion Barber III or Felix Jones. He has only a couple hundred more yards than DeMarco Murray does. Meanwhile Deion Sanders was a Hall of Famer. Edge Deion.

Bo probably has the slight edge in MLB, but neither did a tremendous amount. Deion played more than people realize.

Bo Jackson
694 games
598 hits
141 HRs
415 RBI
341 Runs scored
82 stolen bases

Deion Sanders
641 games
558 hits
39 HRs
168 RBI
308 runs scored
186 stolen bases

Overall, the edge has to go to Deion, but it isn't really a fair comparison because of the hip injury to Bo. Most people just want to live in the dream world of what Bo would have done instead of the reality of how everything did turn out.

 

[joseephuss]

Bo was amazing in both sports.
The only argument against him would be how brief his careers were.
He never rushed for > 1000 yards in a season. Some may not realize this.
His career batting average was .250 but he did hit 32 homers in one year once.

I guess I'd take him over Deion.

But Deion did have a Hall of Fame NFL career ...and FAR greater NFL career than Bo had...I mean not at all close.
He player longer in the MLB, had a better hitting average, stle more bases, had a better fielding %, but hit for way less power.

I don't fully dismiss him here....but the nod goes to Bo.

It's a legit argument.

You beat me to it. I agree.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

That was from 1 1/2 years ago.

I'm going with Deion. Bo was more about "what could have been" instead of "what actually was". If Bo didn't suffer his unfortunate injury then he probably would have had great full careers in both sports. It sucks, but that is the reality. The injury limited him to a side note in the NFL and his baseball career really wasn't head and shoulders above Deion's experience in the MLB.

Obviously Bo had a big impact, but he had little staying power. He never rushed for a 1000 yards. Bo has less rushing yards than Julius Jones, Marion Barber III or Felix Jones. He has only a couple hundred more yards than DeMarco Murray does. Meanwhile Deion Sanders was a Hall of Famer. Edge Deion.

Bo probably has the slight edge in MLB, but neither did a tremendous amount. Deion played more than people realize.

Bo Jackson
694 games
598 hits
141 HRs
415 RBI
341 Runs scored
82 stolen bases
Deion Sanders
641 games
558 hits
39 HRs
168 RBI
308 runs scored
186 stolen bases

Overall, the edge has to go to Deion, but it isn't really a fair comparison because of the hip injury to Bo. Most people just want to live in the dream world of what Bo would have done instead of the reality of how everything did turn out.

Excellent post. Surprised how little numbers Bo put up in the NFL considering he's pretty much a legend and most Cowboys fans don't even remember Julius Jones. And, like you said, it's really no comparison considering they had similar baseball stats and Deion is a Hall of Fame football player and the consensus greatest CB of all time.

 

[Arkyvarminter]

Excellent post. Surprised how little numbers Bo put up in the NFL considering he's pretty much a legend and most Cowboys fans don't even remember Julius Jones. And, like you said, it's really no comparison considering they had similar baseball stats and Deion is a Hall of Fame football player and the consensus greatest CB of all time.

Bo didn't get 1000 yards because he didn't play the entire season. He played in 11 games and almost hit 1000. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry as well. The fact that his career was cut short is the only reason we are not talking about him being one of the best rb's ever. He was a freakish athlete. He was huge AND fast. Comparing Bo to Julius Jones, Barber and Felix makes no sense at all. Bo was a better athlete than Deion and did it while being humble. Deion was a loudmouth who was afraid of contact in the NFL. He was a good cover corner but he was NOT a good receiver as one stated in the video. Bo was one of the greatest athletes ever. I watched him his whole career and he was a monster...As for the baseball stats, look at the HR's...not close at all. I'm just stating my opinion not trying to start an argument.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Bo didn't get 1000 yards because he didn't play the entire season. He played in 11 games and almost hit 1000. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry as well. The fact that his career was cut short is the only reason we are not talking about him being one of the best rb's ever. He was a freakish athlete. He was huge AND fast. Comparing Bo to Julius Jones, Barber and Felix makes no sense at all. Bo was a better athlete than Deion and did it while being humble. Deion was a loudmouth who was afraid of contact in the NFL. He was a good cover corner but he was NOT a good receiver as one stated in the video. Bo was one of the greatest athletes ever. I watched him his whole career and he was a monster...As for the baseball stats, look at the HR's...not close at all. I'm just stating my opinion not trying to start an argument.

I wasn't putting him in the same category as Julius Jones. I was just saying his career numbers don't even compare to Deion's because, like you said, of the injuries. I'm not denying he could have been one of the greatest, but so could Sean Lee. In reality, Sean Lee might never play again and will be forgotten in a few years. So it's hard to compare a "what could've been" career of Bo Jackson's to a Hall of Fame career of Deion Sanders. And Bo was a better baseball player but the difference in their baseball careers isn't enough to make up for the difference in their football careers.

 

[muck4doo]

Bo was good enough that we are still talking about him today. If I was drafting I would still take him over Deion.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Deion was not a joke in MLB. He was at one point looking like the 2nd most dynamic lead-off hitter next to Rickey Henderson. In '92 he had 14 triples in only 94 games. His OPS+ was 130 that year and he stole 26 bases and batted .304 (OBP was .346). Let's say he would have played 155 games that year...that would come out to 23 triples and 43 stolen bases. If Ichiro Suzuki did that in his prime they would be talking about another great year the Japanese sensation would have had.

Deion was the best cover corner I have ever seen. He was also an incredible return man. If you look at the history of the NFL, return men:

1) Are not good returners for very long

2) See their returns drop-off dramatically once they become a starting player.

Deion was one of the best returners ever, for a very long time. And this was even when he played for Dallas and was playing on offense and defense, logging in over 100 plays a game.

Deion's problem was that he is not a very likeable personality and Bo was really the first between the two and Bo had a very likeable personality. But, I think people really miss out on how incredible Deion was.

Bo was a great fielding baseball player that could hit for extreme power, but often struggled to make contact.

He only had 1 season with more than 100 RBI's, his highest BA was .272, highest OBP was .342, led the league in strikeouts despite only playing 135 games. He was a fascinating running back and could have gone on to be the best of all time.

But, I think that is what you get with Bo...potential. And the thought that he could be great because he do athletic things that nobody thought was possible. But, it didn't mean that he was automatically going to be great at a particular sport.






YR

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

2 superbowls and almost 1 WS win makes this close.

 

[Denim Chicken]

Michael Jordan

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Deion. If Bo would have played longer, then it's Bo by a pretty good margin because he was better in Baseball and his unrealized potential in Football was there to have the discussion with Deion. Unfortunately for Bo, Football poetential remained unrealized and on the strength of just that, Deion was better IMO.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

During the 1989 season, he hit a major league home run and scored a touchdown in the NFL in the same week, the only player ever to do so. Sanders is also the only man to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.[1]


In four games of the 1992 World Series, Sanders batted .533 with 4 runs, 8 hits, 2doubles, and 1 RBI while playing with a broken bone in his foot. Despite Sanders's performance, the Braves ultimately lost to theToronto Blue Jays in six games.

He was drafted by the Yankees.

 

[Risen Star]

I'll take Deion.

 

[viman96]

I'd say Deion was the better athlete and overall had the better professional career as an athlete. As YR mentioned, Deion was a really good BB player. The opposing team did not want to see him on base because he was such a threat to steal. He made the entire infield be aware of his every move.

Fair or not, people talk about what if when it comes to Bo. With Deion people talk about what he did.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

I'd say Deion.

His NFL career was far superior to Bo's (now I admit that is due simply to the amount of time Deion played in comparison to Bo's short career) and Deion wasn't some terrible baseball player either. He was a solid player. Their baseball careers are closer than people sometimes think but Deion was simply way better as far as his NFL career went.