Bo Doesn't Know Championship Games

If you're of a certain generation, you're well acquainted with the phrase, "Bo knows..." usually followed with a sport. It was part of a Nike advertising campaign that used Bo Jackson, a man who played in both the MLB and the NFL, as the spokesperson. It showed him playing a variety of sports, with major athletes of that sport saying, "Bo knows (the sport)." The exception was hockey, where Wayne Gretzky just says, "No." It ends with Bo Jackson playing the guitar, terribly, and then it cuts to Bo Diddley (the famous rock and blues guitarist) saying, well, watch it for yourself.

It's a pretty brilliant ad, and it's timing was perfect.  The first time it aired was in a commercial break that happened during the 1989 MLB All-Star Game, right after Bo Jackson got a home run.  Basically, it was a huge win for Nike.

The thing is, despite winning a ton of awards both as a baseball player and as a football player, Bo Jackson never won a title.  Which isn't to say he wasn't one of the most versatile athletes that ever lived, but... well... Bo don't know championships.

To find another athlete as versatile we have to go far, far into the future from Bo before we find... wait, Deion Sanders?  Wasn't he playing the same time Bo was?  Bo played baseball from '86 to '94 and Sanders played from '89 to '01.  Bo played football from '87 to '90, Sanders from '90 to '05.  Huh, looks like we don't have to go too far into the future after all.

Not just that, but Sanders did better.  Or at least, his teams did.

Jackson only made one foray into the post-season of baseball, and they were defeated by the Blue Jays, keeping them out of the World Series (1993).  Sanders made it to the World Series twice, but never won.  The first time (1991) he didn't get to play in the series because it conflicted with his NFL contracts (he renegotiated those parts after that), and the second time (1992) he made it to the World Series again, but ended up losing the series in game 6 (to the Blue Jays, strangely enough).

The closest Jackson came to the Superbowl was in his final year, when the Raiders lost the AFC championship (to the Bills), whereas Sanders actually won the thing twice.  In a row.  Once with the 49s in the '94 season and once with the Cowboys in '95.

So what, they're both great athletes that are, to this day, still super-impressive.  What's the big deal?

Well, originally I wanted to make a post about how Sanders was the only person to ever play top-tier football and baseball, but that quickly came undone in the researching of it.  Plus, those "Bo Knows" ads kept coming back to haunt me.  So what's the fun fact then?

Deion Sanders is the only man alive who has earned both a World Series ring and a Superbowl ring (two of them).

That's a lot of tacky jewelry for one man.

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Sources:
World Series ring image taken from StadiumPage.com
Super Bowl ring images taken from SportsPool.com
Wikipedia articles on Bo Jackson, the Nike Bo Knows ads and Deion Sanders