30 for 30 You Don't Know Bo: The Legend of Bo Jackson (2009– ) Online

Bo Jackson's story deserves a feature-length film. This documentary is very well done, but it left me wanting to see more.

I saw Bo do things that most people would think are impossible feats. There was the time when he outran a group of challengers who had as much as a 30-yard head start in a foot race from one end of Auburn's football field to the other. I also saw Bo at bat one day when some of rival University of Alabama fans were hurling ice and racial epithets at him from behind the backstop. Bo turned around, smiled and waved at the hecklers, and then hit a tremendous home run that sounded like a Howitzer going off. I also saw him with tears running down his cheeks after visiting his dying mother at UAB hospital in Birmingham. For all of his blessings, he is still as mortal as the rest of us are. He really is a fine human being in addition to being the greatest athlete to ever walk this planet.

30 for 30: You Don't Know Bo (2012)

**** (out of 4)

Another excellent entry in the ESPN series, this one here taking a look at the quick career of Bo Jackson who managed to become a star in both MLB and the NFL. Teammates, former coaches and other commentators talk about the impact that Jackson had through high school, college and then eventually in the professional leagues. A very good comments is mentioned that Jackson has pretty much been overlooked because he never set any records, won any major awards in the pros and there are very few clips of him seen today. The speaker goes on to say that you really had to be living in that period to get the full impact of what Jackson did and I think this is true but this wonderful documentary really lets people know who wasn't there what this man accomplished and what he could have done had he not been injured so badly. The documentary really does a fantastic job at reminding people of what a talent Jackson was and the viewer really gets a great idea of what that period was like. The marketing side of Jackson is also discussed in great detail and what he did for Nike is just as impressive as his playing career. Some of the best moments come from Jackson himself who talks about his career and we get an incredibly sad sequence where he talks about his first hit for his mother who had recently passed away.

Another great doc by ESPN and the 30 for 30 crew.

What I forgot is just how big Bo Jackson was in the late 80's. He might not of been as popular as MJ, but he probably came close.

Another thing is checking out his stats, he never was great or elite in either sport, but he showed flashes of greatness, with baseball being a better overall career.

What I didn't realize is Bo was thought of as a football player first, and no one gave any thought to him being a baseball player. Baseball is a sport where you see players nurtured for years and years regardless of physical gifts. Bo was basically able to step right in and make an impact with Royals almost immediately. He didn't use baseball as leverage, he seemed like he honestly enjoyed the game.

Finally, what's sad is Bo is probably the last of the all-around athlete. Today, players must choose between baseball and football. Bo wanted to play both because he was a specimen and it just seemed natural.

What Bo might be remembered for is the "Bo Knows" campaign. I remember when it first appeared and I was like "holy crap!" moment. It was hip, edgy, and effective. It was one of the great ad campaigns ever.

Bo Jackson was an exceptionally gifted and versatile athlete who was able to achieve iconic status playing both baseball and football alike in the late 1980's and early 1990's. This documentary does an excellent and affecting job of showing the man behind the large than life figure: Starting with his humble beginnings growing up poor in a small town in Alabama as an angry kid with a stutter (Bo would latter channel this anger into sports), then focusing on how he did track, baseball, and football in high school before going to college, and finally dwelling on how Bo became a beloved and ubiquitous individual due to the fact that he played (and excelled at) two sports with the Nike campaign cementing his super star status, one really gets a sense of what made Bo so remarkable back in the day (Bo's aptitude as an incredibly fast runner in particular gets addressed at length). Moreover, Bo himself comes across as a really modest, likable, and down to earth guy: He talks about his extraordinary athletic achievements in a disarmingly matter of fact manner and never seems remotely smug or arrogant, which makes it all the more poignant and devastating after a brutal hip injury abruptly curtailed his career as a professional football player (although to Bo's everlasting credit he did resume playing baseball in the wake of undergoing an extremely grueling rehabilitation process after having his damaged hip replaced). Although Bo never made it into either sport's Hall of Fame, he nonetheless left behind an impressive legacy just the same. A fine and illuminating portrait of a great athlete.

A very by-the-numbers summary of life in the spotlight for Bo Jackson. Though we get a few short sound bites from friends and teammates who knew him before he became a marketing slogan, the vast majority of this short film is spent breathlessly recounting his greatest hits in MLB and the NFL. There's plenty of material; Bo was truly one-of-a-kind and though his career flickered out early, for a short while it burned brighter than a supernova. I just kept waiting for something more than a long-form highlight reel, and evidently that wasn't the purpose of this exercise. An enjoyable trip down memory lane for anyone caught in Bo's thrall in the early '90s, it's not particularly intimate or revealing.

Director uses his-self as an "Expert" on Bo. Should have probably spent more time behind the camera.

I love the 30 for 30 series and was excited to watch the Bo Jackson episode as the man was a movement in his day and to some extent his movement still carries on. With regards to this documentary, the expert opinions were overdone. It was a nice roster but it draws away from the reason we tuned in. To focus on the movement rather than the reason why the movement surrounding Bo Jackson was successful is to do Bo an injustice. Here was an athlete that was so gifted at such a high level that he excelled above other pros in not one but two different professional sports. The funny thing about this documentary is that much of the focus was on the phenomena that was Bo Jackson but we get little of WHY he was so great. Nike knew that all they had to do is focus on Bo's greatness and then show the shoe and sell the shoe by drawing similarities. The Nike employees even explain that in the documentary! The director decided to go heavy on expert opinions and ignore an already proved path!

Give the people what they want! Keep your expert opinions to yourself! If I wanted to get someone's so called professional input on a football/baseball player id prob want it from someone who has something to do with sports

That being said, based on the subject you can't say it isn't worth the 5 stars I gave. Def Wanted to give more, def expected more