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You Dont Know Bo: The Legend of Bo JacksonBy Jacob MyersThe documentary You Dont Know Bo, is the story about the life and career of one of the greatest athletes to ever grace this planet. Vincent Bo Jackson was born and raised in a small town in Alabama by his mother in a low economic social class. The documentary follows Bos amazing accomplishments in athletics that people did not know were possible, to the tragic but fluke injury that ended his NFL career and caused a decline in his MLB dominance. In this film Bo Jackson shows his success out of the slums and how he didnt fit into the mold of normal athletes, even with the ending of his careers.In class we have talked a lot about how success can be bred from our social class and those with money are the ones that succeed more often in sports. Bo Jackson came from a very poor family, with only his mom around, and being one of 10 kids in the house, it wouldnt be a surprise to see him stay in that same social class. Through football and baseball Bo found a way out of the slums and to a path towards success. As in the film Hoop Dreams we see that these boys are trying to accomplish the same goal, to succeed economically through sports, but their goal is for the NBA, placing education as a second priority. The difference with Bo is that he and his mom put an emphasis on his becoming one out of the kids who actually would go to college. Bo knows this as an opportunity and takes the educational opportunity sports has provided him. While he was still in high school the Yankees came and offered him a large contract to play baseball, but he declined them to go to college. Bos mom said we didnt need their money, we have been getting along fine without it. Bo was going to college. Throughout Bos life there has been tall, weird tales being told about him, as though he was thought of as a Paul Bunion figure. The odd thing about these tales was that 90% of them were true and factual. One of the reasons for these tales was just that Bo did what Bo wanted to and was always able to accomplish what he put his mind to. In class we talk about how deviance is all throughout sports. The best way to describe Bos deviance is most involved in informal deviance from the fact that he just walked to the beat of his own drum. He was not the norm in sports. In games he would accomplish feats that players on the other teams didnt think were possible, giving the appearance that somehow he was cheating the law of physics even though he was just doing what Bo did. Bo was against the authority that told him he has to be good at one thing only. Bo wanted to be able to be good at everything he tried and the scary part was that he did. To show how Bo didnt fit the norms even more was that he was and still is a very simple and humble man. He was there to work and do his job and enjoyed it as well. He didnt ask for fame and didnt let it increase his ego when it came. Nike stated the Bo knows campaign, about how no matter what it is, Bo knows it and can do it. This created him into a multimedia star even before there was multimedia and he just was still the same old Bo, Humble and simple. It was a tragedy when Bo Jacksons career came to an end. He was like a shooting star, was so bright but was gone too soon. In class we learned about the reasons for ending and changing sports careers. One of those was due to injury. That is exactly the reason for ending his NFL career, in his prime. He would have loved to keep on playing but it would be a struggle to play professional football with an artificial hip. He was able to play a few more years in the MLB, but called it quits after a couple of seasons. He was never the same Bo, but showed some glimpses of his incredible ability every once in a while. This diminished ability definitely influenced his decision to end his MLB career. Without this injury who knows what Bo would have been able to accomplish in professional sports. In my opinion Bo Jackson is the greatest athlete to grace the stadiums of professional sports. He is the only player to ever be selected for both a NFL Pro Bowl and a MLB All-star game. Just this feat alone shows how amazing Bos career in professional athletics was.