A star in both professional baseball and football due to his status as a two-sport athlete, Bo Jackson averaged 73.2 rushing yards per game during his NFL career while playing part-time for the Raiders and full-time in MLB.
In today’s NFL, where Tennessee running back Derrick Henry is leading the league in rushing at 110.5 yards per game followed by Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook (97.8) and Philadelphia’s Miles Sanders (86.8), Jackson believes he would be even more dominant than he was when he was playing in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Speaking with Deion Sanders on his Barstool Sports podcast, 21st and Prime, Jackson said he’d be averaging 350 or 400 yards a game if he was still playing in 2020.
“Nobody wraps up and tackles no more,” Jackson said. “With me being a ball carrier, my coach taught us, number one, he said, ‘I know you can run, but I’m gonna teach you how to carry that football.’ He said, ‘that football is like your newborn baby, don’t ever put it on the ground. And keep it away from the enemy.’ It’s like this — and I watch technique — I don’t see nobody hitting or wrapping up. Everybody’s running into each other and trying to use their shoulder pads to knock the ball carrier down. And I’m like, if I played during this era, man, I’d be averaging 350-400 yards a game … because nobody wraps up anymore. They run into each other with their pads.”
In 38 career games in the NFL, 57-year-old Jackson totaled 3,134 yards of total offense and scored 18 touchdowns while averaging 5.4 yards a carry.
O.J. Simpson holds the NFL record for rushing yards per game in a single season with 143.1 in 1973.
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