The Last Folk Hero: the Life and Myth of Bo Jackson by Jeff Pearlman
Author:Jeff Pearlman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-09-03T00:00:00+00:00
Chapter 17
Mixed Royalties
During his September callup with the Kansas City Royals, one of the teammates Bo Jackson enjoyed chatting with was Greg Pryor, a thirty-six-year-old infielder in the final season of a decade-long Major League career.
The two shared little in commonâPryor was thirteen years Jacksonâs senior, as well as a married father of two daughters. But he was also comfortable in his status as a wizened guru. He knew his time was short, and wanted to enjoy it.
One day late in the month, Jackson plopped down alongside Pryorâs locker and pointed to the photograph of an oil well hanging within the cubby.
âWhat are you doing playing baseball?â he asked. âDonât you wanna be in oil?â
Pryor laughed.
âBo,â he said, âyou turned down $7 million in football money to take $500,000 for baseball. Who are you to talk?â
The numbers were off. But fair point.
âGreg,â Jackson replied, âIâm just sitting here waiting for the right time.â
He rose, patted the veteran on the shoulder and walked off. Pryor never forgot the words. âBo knew what he was doing the whole time,â he recalled. âThere was no doubt to that man.â
Within earshot, Jackson reassured everyone that he was a baseball player, and only a baseball player. He didnât miss football, didnât long for football, didnât even watch as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers endured a predictably miserable 2-14 season. Why, affixed to his lockersâfirst in Memphis, then Kansas Cityâwere 8½ à 11 pieces of paper with a handwritten warning: DONâT BE STUPID AND ASK ME FOOTBALL QUESTIONS OKAY!
Yet behind the scenes, mechanisms were at play. Back May 1986, Jackson and his two attorneysâRichard Woods and Tommy Ziemanâflew to Portland, Oregon, to meet with Karin Morlan, the head of Nikeâs âcleated promotions.â Thanks to the recent blossoming of Michael Jordan and the Air Jordan line of shoes, Nike was the place when it came to athletic apparel. Although Jackson was largely void of charisma, and still struggled with stuttering, he possessed something Nike craved: multifaceted sports talent. So while Morlan and Co. knew not whether Jackson would play football or baseball or (pretty please with a cherry on top) both, Nike longed for him to be the face of its upcoming shoe releaseââa bulky contraption sealed with a strap [that] looked like a castoff from the production of Ben-Hur,â wrote Michael Weinreb.
It was called The Trainer. Short for the cross-trainer.
Over the course of negotiations, Zieman and Woods insisted Jackson would not become a Nike pitchman unless the company forked over $100,000 per year for three years. This was astronomical dough. Jordan had received a five-year, $500,000-per-year deal that included royalties on Air Jordans and all Nike Air basketball shoes. But he was Michael frigginâ Jordan. Most of Nikeâs other athletes were lucky to snag $5,000 annually.*
Something about Jackson, though, was deliciously appetizing to the company. Sure, it all may well go wrong. He could stick to one sport, stink, vanish. But he could also wind up the second coming of Jim Thorpe. âBo was obviously a great athlete,â said Phil Knight, Nikeâs founder and CEO.
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