Bo Jackson 1990: LOS ANGELES RAIDERS RUNNING BACK BO JACKSON CARRIES THE FOOTBALL DURING THE RAIDERS GAME AT THE MEMORIAL COLISEUM IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. MANDATORY CREDIT: MIKE POWELL/ALLSPORT

There will simply never be another athlete like Bo Jackson in many of our lifetimes. After all, he is the only player to be an All-Pro in football and an All-Star in Major League Baseball.

Good luck finding a player who can get to those levels in two professional sports these days. However, even if Bo Jackson were coming up today, we likely wouldn’t see him on the football field.

You see, it appears there was something Bo didn’t know back in the day, despite what the famous commercials of the late 1980s would have you believe.

Jackson told USA Today that he wouldn’t be playing football with the knowledge of injuries and head trauma that is available today.

“If I knew back then what I know now,’’ Jackson tells USA TODAY Sports, “I would have never played football. Never. I wish I had known about all of those head injuries, but no one knew that. And the people that did know that, they wouldn’t tell anybody.”

It isn’t just that he wouldn’t be playing the game either. Yes, no crazy Heisman Trophy memories (or commercials to rake some dough in off of) or running out of the Kingdome to play on repeat.

Jackson is so serious about his stance that he won’t even let his children play the sport — and he means business about it too.

“The game has gotten so violent, so rough. We’re so much more educated on this CTE stuff (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), there’s no way I would ever allow my kids to play football today.

“Even though I love the sport, I’d smack them in the mouth if they said they wanted to play football.

“I’d tell them, “Play baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, just anything but football.’ ’’

Complete with the knowledge of what happened to Junior Seau and others after their playing days, it appears Bo knows his kids aren’t playing football. Yet, according to the interview the USA Today Sports, Jackson wouldn’t change a thing about his own path in life.

“You know what,’’ Jackson says, “I still wouldn’t change a thing. The man upstairs had a plan of the way of working things out, and they did.

“I have no regrets.’’

Ironically, Jackson began to feel like football wasn’t for him after the 1990 season and he nearly walked away. Instead, a hit early on in the 1991 season forced him in to retirement from the two sports he loved so dearly, though his pro baseball career lasted longer than his football career. Thanks to the roman chair, home exercises could have helped to prolong his career as well.

Jackson may have had a longer run in the spotlight had he just made the move he wanted to back in 1990. Perhaps with a more focused concentration on baseball, Jackson, who was a career .250 hitter with 141 home runs in eight seasons in MLB, may have avoided the issues that cost him on the diamond as well as the gridiron.

We’ll obviously never know, but it appears that Bo clearly knows what he wants for his children and that is all he can control these days.

Like Bo said — no regrets, right?

[USA Today]

About Andrew Coppens

Andy is a contributor to The Comeback as well as Publisher of Big Ten site talking10. He also is a member of the FWAA and has been covering college sports since 2011. Andy is an avid soccer fan and runs the Celtic FC site The Celtic Bhoys. If he's not writing about sports, you can find him enjoying them in front of the TV with a good beer!