Earlier today, former pro football and baseball player Bo Jackson joined filmmaker Michael Bonfiglio and ESPN Films executive producer John Dahl on a media conference call about the upcoming 30 for 30 documentary You Don’t Know Bo. Here is the replay.

Transcript:

THE MODERATOR:  Hello, everyone, and welcome to the ESPN Films 30 For 30 conference call on our next film in the series:  “You Don’t Know Bo.”  On the call today we have film director Michael Bonfiglio, 30 For 30 executive producer John Dahl, and we are still waiting on Bo to call in, but we’re confident that he will be in here.  For now please direct questions to Michael and John, and we will let you know as soon as Bo dials in.

“You Don’t Know Bo” will be the final film in the fall slate of 30 For 30 docs, and it will premier Saturday, December 8 at 9:00 p.m. eastern on ESPN immediately following the conclusion of the Heisman Trophy presentation.

JOHN DAHL:  We’re really excited to bring this story to the 30 For 30 series.  Mike Bonfiglio, our director, has done a fabulous job, I think, of bringing an artistic approach and a very focused approach on the legend of Bo Jackson to the film itself, and we thought it was a good time to tell this story.  Bo just turned 50 last Friday.  We’re now 25 years removed from his famous game against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football, one of the greatest single performances in Monday Night Football history, and we’re 30 years now past Bo over the top in the Alabama‑Auburn game of ’82.  In an era of specialization and in an era of sophisticated marketing campaigns, we thought it was a fitting time to tell his story.

Q.  Mike, when this project started, what was the process of Bo’s involvement and was it clear that he definitely would be helpful?  Was there some concern there?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  You know, it wasn’t clear when we initially started, it wasn’t clear whether or not we’d have his participation.  Maybe John could even speak to that a little bit better.  There were some signs from him that he was inclined to participate, but it definitely took a bit of convincing.  But once he chose to participate, he was fantastic.  He gave me a good amount of his time, was incredibly candid in the interview, and he was just terrific to work with.

I think we had planned to move forward with the film with or without his participation because the story could be told without him, but obviously having him be part of it just took it to a completely different level that I think ‑‑ we’re seeing Bo in a way that I don’t think people have really seen him before, and I think it’s a lot of fun.

Q.  I’m just curious about the title of the film, “You Don’t Know Bo.”  It was kind of interesting, I was talking to my wife who’s 39, and I said, we’ve got to watch this, this looks really interesting, and she goes, “Who’s Bo Jackson?”  I said, “You don’t know who Bo Jackson is?”  I’m curious through the course of making this film and you mentioned he just turned 50 and it’s been 25 years since he did all these great things, was there any source of anonymity with Bo these days or do you still feel like his popularity ‑‑ is his legend outgrowing his popularity?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  Yeah, totally.  Let me talk about the title a little bit.  I came up with the title probably in the late summer, and we had been banting about a couple of different working titles, and I sort of landed on this one in thinking about a couple of different things.  First of all, obviously it’s an acknowledgment of the Nike campaign, the Bo Knows campaign, but it’s also the idea that ‑‑ I remember I was talking to my 13‑ and 16‑year‑old cousins who are big sports fans and I was telling them that I was working on this film, and they’d never heard of Bo.  And I talked to more people, people in their early 20s, and they’d never heard of Bo.  You mentioned your wife, who’s old enough to know Bo but didn’t know who he was.  That was a very interesting thing to me, that this guy who was so incredibly famous for a brief period of time, he was one of the most recognizable names and faces in the country, people don’t know who he is.

I think that there’s an incredible enthusiasm for him by fans, but he ‑‑ I think if you know who he is, you assume everybody else does.  But in actuality, I think because he is not in any of the Halls of Fame, he’s not a record holder in very many areas, he is at risk of being forgotten a little bit, and I think that that was part of this film.  The impetus behind this is to celebrate how exciting he was and what he did to us as fans and as people and as a culture.  So to me, the title plays on a couple of different levels.

What was the second part of your question?  Does he have a level of anonymity?

You know, I think he’s recognized all the time by people, but I don’t think it’s ‑‑ I’m certain it isn’t what it was in 1990 where he couldn’t walk down the street without being mobbed by people.  So I think right now he lives a pretty private suburban life and goes to the grocery store and lives a very normal life, and I think he does kind of blend into his community.

Q.  I’m curious in your research and compiling all the footage and information from over the years with Bo from his days at Auburn to the highlights from baseball and the NFL, was there a certain play or certain moment that really jumped out at you guys, like wow, that was one of those moments that maybe you knew about, maybe you didn’t know about but maybe something that really stood out?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  There were so many.  That’s one of the exciting things about Bo is that you look at his highlights reel from either sport in any year that he played, and it’s like more spectacular than so many players amass in a whole career.  He just did these spectacular things over and over again.

I have like my personal favorites are probably the wall run in Baltimore when he vertically ‑‑ horizontally runs across the outfield wall.  It’s just insane to me.  But there were just so many.  John, I don’t know if you have a favorite.

JOHN DAHL:  Well, there’s two that jumped out at me in the film.  One was the throw from the warning track to Harold Reynolds at the plate.  I still just can’t believe it when I see it.  And the other one was his first Major League hit.  It was just kind of a routine ball that he hit up the right side of the infield, and he didn’t just barely beat it out, he easily beat out what should have been a routine ground ball, and in those two days you definitely got a sense that there was something different about Bo Jackson.

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  One more thing about the throw, as we were going back and compiling the footage and working with Major League Baseball and NFL Films and stuff, that play you don’t actually see him throw the ball because it was so unexpected that that was actually going to happen.  I’m just assuming, that they didn’t really even cover it, because Reynolds was going to make it, and it was just ‑‑ the way it was covered in the broadcast, they’re just on Reynolds running.  You don’t even see Bo throw the ball.  I thought that was sort of interesting.  You see Bob Boone catch it, but not literally the throw.

Q.  Just wanted to ask you guys, you mentioned you didn’t know if you were going to have Bo’s cooperation up front but you thought you could tell the story without it.  What did he add to the story, and did he realize how big of an impact he had on the sporting landscape?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  What I think he adds to it is an incredible amount of sort of ‑‑ sorry, I’m just getting a message.  It seems Bo is in an area where he has bad cell service.  He should be good in about five minutes, so he’ll be joining us, which is exciting.

Sorry, back to your question.  I think that he adds a great level of personal story telling.  What surprised me the most about Bo is what a good story teller he is.  He’s just really, really eloquent and just spins a good yarn, and he’s fun to listen to.  But to get his perspective on some things and also to understand what motivated him in certain places.  I mean, I think he’s still an enigma, which to me the title “You Don’t Know Bo” also plays on that level.  He’s still a pretty enigmatic guy, as open and candid as he was with us in this film.  You still wonder what motivates him and what was behind some of the decisions that he made.

I’m sorry, I’m losing track of the question.

Q.  In terms of popularity, when you read about guys like Mickey Mantle, didn’t realize basically the impact he had, he never really realized it.  Does Bo realize the impact he had?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  I don’t think he cares to be honest with you.  I don’t think that he thinks about those kinds of things.  I think that he looks at his career as ‑‑ his athletic career as a time that he enjoyed and that offered him a great number of opportunities, and then it ended and he moved on.

I don’t think he really thinks about his legacy in that way.  So whether or not he realizes it, that would probably be a better question for him, but I genuinely don’t think he cares, which is amazing to me.

Q.  I’m curious whether you think, and maybe you addressed this earlier, but I’m curious whether you think a phenomenon like what Bo was in the late ’80s could happen today with the saturation of media coverage.  Would there be overkill or was it just a perfect instance of phenomenal athlete in the right place and time?

JOHN DAHL:  Yeah, I think things are so specialized now, it would be tough.  I mean, it’s interesting, when Bo was emerging, just shortly after his emergence as a two‑sport star, you had Deion Sanders, then eventually you had Brian Jordan, so there were a couple other athletes that did attempt it and did have some success with it, but I’m not so sure we can see a Bo Jackson again.  There are athletes ‑‑ I think of like Lebron James.  Could Lebron James play another sport?  I would argue that you think he could, football as a tight end seems like a pretty good match for him.  But I’m just not sure any athlete nowadays is willing to put their body through that to that level.  There’s been a lot of discussion this year, this season in particular, about concussions in the NFL and the impact of that, and so you look at playing in a grueling sport like the National Football League and then playing another sport, I’m not so sure athlete is going to be willing to do what Bo did ever again, but who knows, maybe it will happen.

Q.  You guys are speaking a lot about the impressive feats that he had during his career.  How much do you guys focus on his injury and what was your reaction to the injury after seeing all these highlights and spectacular plays?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  Well, the film definitely tells the story of the injury.  You know, I hope that ‑‑ you guys after you see the film, you’ll be a better judge, but what we really tried to do was really make you feel that injury and the tremendous loss that that was to the whole world of sports and fans and people who just loved Bo.  I hope we succeeded in that.

But yeah, it’s definitely, definitely there.  You know, the sense is almost one of heart break when he gets injured and you finally realize that he’s not going to be the same anymore.  But even post‑injury there were a couple of triumphs.  When he came back with his artificial hip, and I believe he was the first player ever to play Major League Baseball with an artificial hip, his first at‑bat was a home run, and he had promised his mom before she had passed away that if he did rehab well enough after the hip replacement to play again that his first hit would be for her, and he walks up to bat, and it’s like something out of a Hollywood movie.  He hits it out of the park.  He still, even after he was injured, blew people’s minds.

Q.  Mike, I was just wondering, those of us who have worked with him in the Chicago area know about his history of chronic stuttering.  Was that touched upon in the film?  Bo has often said that he kind of taught himself how to overcome that.  Was that touched upon in the film?

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  It is, yeah.  We mention it.  Just once again, I think Bo is about to join.  Bo is on the phone driving between Birmingham and Auburn, and there is a lot of bad reception areas there.  So we might lose Bo at any time, and if we do, please don’t take it as Bo hanging up on your question or anything like that.  We’re happy to have him aboard the call, and I just wanted to let everybody know he was now on.

BO JACKSON:  Hello, guys.

THE MODERATOR:  Hello, Bo.  Thank you for joining.

BO JACKSON:  You’re welcome.  Thank you.

Q.  Bo, I’m in Tampa, Florida, and obviously you’re still talked about here 25 years later about the situation with you not signing with Tampa Bay.  Was there any point ‑‑ I know that you were adamant, and I saw the film, and you said that when you lost your eligibility it devastated you to the point of tears.  But was there any point where you actually did consider signing with Tampa Bay or once you lost your eligibility you knew there was no chance you were coming to Tampa no matter what the money was?

BO JACKSON:  No, no, no.  This was after.  I didn’t make my mind up that I wasn’t coming there until after all of that eligibility stuff happened.  I found out that they didn’t check with the NCAA, and they looked me in the face and told me that they did.

Now, my visit there, I met with some of the veteran players for Tampa Bay.  They actually took me to dinner.  We went out, and to make a long story short, they said, man, if you play in the coming year, they are going to run you to death, and that ‑‑ I am not sugar coating it or trying to make it sound bad, but these are words from veteran Tampa Bay players that was already there, engrained in the system.

But that kind of weighed on my mind a little bit.  But three days later when I found out that I was ineligible to play baseball because they lied to me and told me that it was okay to get on the plane and go take my trip because I went on other trips also, but I flew commercial, and they said, sure, we checked, everything is all right, and that kind of didn’t sit well with me.  I figure if I’m honest with you, please have the respect for me to be honest with me, also, and they weren’t.  And that kind of sealed the deal as far as, no, I wasn’t interested in Tampa after that.

Q.  I was talking to your director before you came on about the title of the film, “You Don’t Know Bo.”  I mentioned how my wife is 39 and she’s never heard of you.  There are generations of kids growing up now, and even kids that are in college and maybe in their 20s who probably don’t know who you are.  What do you think about that?  Because you were so popular 25 years ago, 20 years ago.  Are you hoping that this might help with your legacy or do you not care about things like that?

BO JACKSON:  Well, listen, my three kids are in their 20s, and it’s kind of comical.  My three kids, I think they were ‑‑ how old were they?  They were eight, six and four, and they didn’t realize that daddy was Bo Jackson until they saw daddy get thrown out of a baseball game in Chicago and I kind of lost it a little bit and threw the garbage can out on the field and bats and the bubble gum tray and so forth and so on.  So it really doesn’t bother me that people don’t know who I am.  It’s kind of nice in a way.

But no, I had my fun in the sun, as you could say, and I am happy.  I would not go back and change a thing in my life of sports.

Q.  When you first heard that they were interested in doing this film, what were your feelings about helping out?  Mike mentioned earlier that at first it wasn’t entirely clear if you were going to help out or not.

BO JACKSON:  Well, first of all, I am very, very busy, and my first concern was that how much time was this going to take up, because I’m busy trying to handle some ‑‑ I’m busy trying to handle some business out west, trying to deal with things here and so forth and so on.  And once they told me about the time frame that they needed me, I restructured my schedule so I could allow them to have that time with me.

But as far as everything else, hey, the people that are in the film talking are the people that did all of the work.  I just one day went and sat down for an hour or so and I talked, I answered questions, and I left and went back home and did what I was doing.  So it really wasn’t that hard for me.

Q.  Would you say you consider yourself a very private person?  You obviously have not been out seeking the spotlight a lot since your career was over, but would you describe that’s just your personality or something more conscious trying to avoid things?  What’s the biggest reason we don’t see you out there a lot like some other former athletes?

BO JACKSON:  Well, it’s probably because I am ‑‑ don’t get me wrong, I love my privacy.  I love my privacy.  I am out there in the public, but if I’m out there, I’m not out there to be seen or to be noticed, if you get my point.  I’m not out there at ‑‑ I don’t do the bar scene, I don’t do the nightclub scene.  If you see me out in public, it’s usually at the supermarket, service station or on the golf course.

Q.  I’m curious if you’ve seen Robert Griffin III and what you think of him?  How much football do you watch, pro football?

BO JACKSON:  I seldomly watch football, but the true players that I watch honestly, if I do sit down and watch, and usually what I see I see on the news unless my wife makes me watch the football game with her, and she physically makes me watch.  I try to keep up with what Cam Newton is doing, and I keep up with what RG3 is doing.  I’m a fan of both of these young men.  I think they are two of the most talented, most dangerous players in the NFL, and I think that they will set a lot of records in the days to come.  If they can stay healthy, they will set a lot of records.

Q.  What do you think of RG3’s game and what his talent is and how much fun it is to watch him?

BO JACKSON:  Well, the kid is dangerous.  He is a smaller version of Cam Newton.  He’s dangerous.  He can beat anybody with his arm, he can beat everybody with his feet, and the thing about it, he does it with a smile on his face.  He’s having fun being a leader, and that’s all that matters.

Q.  Looking back, what was the toughest aspect of playing two sports at a high level?

BO JACKSON:  What was the toughest aspect of playing two sports on a high level?  Simple:  Going to the supermarket and shopping and trying not to be recognized.  That’s it.  Because I am the cook in the family, I do all the cooking.  I don’t allow my wife around sharp objects, so I do all of the cooking.  So in turn, I have to go to the grocery store because I know what I need, I know what to get and so forth and so on.  And sometimes she goes with me, and sometimes back when I was doing both sports, that got a little hectic going to the supermarket in Kansas City, going to the supermarket in Los Angeles, and that was about it.  Everything else was just fine.  I had no problems with actually both sports and so forth and so on.  It comes with the territory as far as being recognizable and noticed.

Q.  I just got a question.  You are synonymous with the Nike campaign and obviously the name of this film kind of plays off of that.  This campaign back in ’84, you were synonymous with Nike.  Do you think in the 30 years that have passed the effect that Nike has had on college sports has been positive or negative, in other words, the amount of money that’s been poured in by Phil Knight, the control they have over AAU teams.  What’s your feeling on the role that Nike has in college athletics?

BO JACKSON:  Listen, I think Nike, and not only just college sports but all sports, are good marriages, period.  If you’ve got a quality product out there that everybody wants to wear or use, that’s great.  That’s great.  If you make a quality product that someone wants to pay for to wear, that’s good for both sides.  The consumer is getting a good product and the manufacturer is making a profit.  That’s a win‑win for everybody.  And what Phil Knight and Nike has done for all sports is great, and I can tell you this:  If Phil Knight hadn’t have done it, somebody else would have.

Q.  Of course you won a Heisman Trophy and two of the guys in Cam Newton and RG3 both won Heismans.  We may be on the verge this coming weekend of having the first freshman to win a Heisman Trophy.  Have you seen Johnny Manziel play and what are your thoughts about a freshman potentially winning the Heisman?

BO JACKSON:  You know something, it has never been done in the history of college sports.  If it’s done, that’s great.  But you’ve got people out there that’s voting that just will not vote for a freshman.  He has to have a little bit more dirt in his cleats to do ‑‑ and that’s what I am saying is that there are writers out there that believe that he should have a little bit more dirt in his cleats to win an award like that.

And I think if he stays healthy, if he don’t win it this year, trust me, he will before he leaves college.  He is a talented kid.  He is a talented young man.  But I have actually watched film.  If he makes it to the professional level, I will be watching three quarterbacks in the future.

Q.  If you had to sum up why you were such a phenomenon at the peak of your day, what would be a few words you would use or a few sentences you would use to sum up why do you think you were such a phenomenon?

BO JACKSON:  I don’t ‑‑ I would never call myself that.  I’m just being me.  I think you all labeled me as that, or the phrase that most of my buddies, my teammates, used, a freak of nature.  But the stuff that I was doing throughout college and through my short pro career, I was doing that when I was a teenager, when I was 12, 13, 14 years old.  It was normal to me.

My people, my friends and people that I grew up with and parents of my friends, they would say, oh, we used to see him do that all the time.  That’s nothing new.  And that was normal for me.

So as far as doing the dual sports thing, that was just a way to keep me out of trouble.  Idle time with me is the devil’s workshop, and if my mother was still alive, she would tell you.

Q.  Let me ask you one follow‑up.  I guess when I said “phenomenon” I was going along the lines of not only being a sports athlete but transcending pop culture, going into the Nike commercials.  And when Nike did approach you, what did you first think about this big campaign they were going to do with you that I think in my opinion took you to another level?  Do you agree or disagree?

BO JACKSON:  I agree with that to a point.  It could have been Nike, it could have been Adidas, it could have been anybody, it could have been Converse, could have been anybody.  But you have to perform to get that notoriety.  You just can’t go and put your name on a shoe and become an overnight sensation.  You have to prove it.

I just heard Pat Sullivan say last night, what he told one of his players is that if you want nice things in life, earn it.  And back when I was playing, that was my job.  I never saw it as, hey, I’m transcending an era here and I’m a pop icon or whatever or I’m this person.  I saw what I was doing ‑‑ and I’m not blowing smoke here.  I saw what I was doing; it was my job.  I had fun playing in college because I had no responsibilities or anything like that.  But once I left college, playing sports became my way of life.  It was my source of employment.  It was my way of keeping a roof over my family’s head, putting food on the table for my family.  So I looked at doing both sports as my job, and I took it that way.

MIKE BONFIGLIO:  Can I maybe jump in with a follow‑up as to why Bo is such a phenomenon and transcended athletics.  When people watched the things that he did on the field, it expanded their imaginations.  When you see something that you don’t think is humanly possible, it makes you dream differently, and that’s what Bo did.  When people saw him, it completely captured their imaginations and expanded their consciousness in a way, and that I think is the main reason why he was such a phenomenon that transcended athletics.

BO JACKSON:  You could say that.  (Laughter.)

Q.  I’m curious, of all the highlights and all the great plays that you’ve had over your career, if you had to relive one, what would it be?

BO JACKSON:  There are several, but the one that stands out for me, in a perfect world, if I could go back and hit the home run that I promised my mother, if I could get the hit for my mother, it really wouldn’t have to be a home run right after my hip surgery.  If I could go back and have her there to witness me walk back out on the field and just swing the bat, I didn’t even have to hit the ball because I promised her that I would get back.  And the first hit would be for her.  It could have been a dribbler down the first baseline.  It wouldn’t have had to be a home run, but just getting a hit and having her there in the stands, that would be ‑‑ that would actually be the crowning moment of my sports career, my sports life.

Q.  Is there any truth to the crazy idea about the Mayan calendar and the end of the world coming on December 21st?  What would you want to be doing on our last day?  Is there some particular meal or movie or book, music or pastime you would want to be doing?

BO JACKSON:  If I knew the world was coming to an end?  I would do anything man would do, want to spend those last minutes with my family and my loved ones.  That’s all.

Q.  What did you think of the movie?

BO JACKSON:  What did I think of the movie?  My wife and I sat in the kitchen and watched it on her laptop.  It was nice.  It was very, very nice.  There was only one discrepancy in the whole film, which is fine, and I’m kind of embarrassed because it has to do with the killing of the pigs, but that ditch that I jumped wasn’t 40 feet, it was more like 20 feet.  But I did jump that ditch and run home and still got busted for it.  So yes, that was ‑‑

Q.  Over the years it grew to 40 feet, I guess.

BO JACKSON:  It has actually grown from 20 to 40 feet.  I am quite sure if you ask somebody 10 years from now, it’s going to be 50 to 60 feet.

Well, guys, thank you for having me on.  I appreciated your questions.  I hope I satisfied you with the answers that I gave.

THE MODERATOR:  Thank you for calling in. The film will premier Saturday, December 8th at 9:00 p.m. eastern on ESPN.  And if you’re looking for a transcript of this call, it will be available later today as well as a replay posted on ESPNmediazone.com.

 

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