5 things about Bo Jackson getting caught from behind
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series acquainting fans with the Raiders’ illustrious 60-year history as the team moves to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.
The online biography of former NFL defensive back Rod Jones consists of three paragraphs.
The first one summarizes his high school and college football career in Texas. The second is about the “terrible” contract he signed after Tampa Bay selected him in the first round of the 1986 NFL draft.
The third consists of one sentence. It said Jones’ claim to fame was catching the Raiders’ Bo Jackson from behind while Jones was playing for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1990.
Here are five things to know about the highlight of Rod Jones’ pro football career:
— Yes, Jones caught Jackson from behind. But it wasn’t until the Raiders’ two-sport star and rare combination of speed and power had run virtually the length of the field after taking a handoff, heading left, cutting back right and racing 88 yards.
Happy Birthday to our Rod Jones from Dallas Texas. Your Speed stopped Bo Jackson from Scoring and made us all Proud!!! Enjoy your day… https://t.co/4dzX8LbV45
— KimaleeDawn (@KimaleeDawn) March 31, 2020
— Raiders quarterback Jay Schroeder made a key block on Jones at the Raiders’ 14-yard line that sprung Jackson into the clear. But Jones was able to stay on his feet. He doggedly pursued the runaway freight train wearing jersey No. 34 before finally taking Bo down with a desperate dive just shy of the end zone.
You’ll appreciate this. Lifelong bucs fan. Bucs coming of a 2-14 1985 season have four picks in the first 40. They take Bo Jackson #1. You know what happens there. At pick #25 they take CB Rod Jones out of SMU.
— SC (@PullingGuard79) February 21, 2020
— After the official marked the ball, the camera showed Jackson grinning through his mouthpiece and facemask. A Bengals teammate was shown comforting Jones, flat on his belly. Bo then flopped down, too — as if he couldn’t believe that he didn’t get the touchdown, that Jones had run him down, or out of sheer fatigue. Or all three.
— Chortled analyst (and former Raiders tight end) Todd Christensen in the NBC broadcast booth: “He is going to be the infamous Rod Jones. He is going to be the one who can tell his kids and his grandkids ‘I caught Bo Jackson from behind!’”
He made everybody look bad. But Bengals DB Rod Jones did catch Bo Jackson from behind on this play at the one yard line. The call from NBC’s Todd Christensen and Charlie Jones (both RIP) here. https://t.co/LgJbHPbVp1
— DCRaiderFan (@dc_raider) March 4, 2020
— The humble Jackson later admitted it was fatigue that made him catchable. He said it felt like he was carrying a bear, his wife and the entire offensive line on his shoulders as he neared the end zone. “They were just lucky I didn’t fall down at the 20. I was running on fumes. There was nothing left.”
Bo Jackson is what would happen if Barry Sanders had a baby with a bulldozer, and then that baby tapped into Flash’s “Speed Force”.
Imagine making a guy famous (Rod Jones) because he was he only person to ever catch you from behind? https://t.co/R8nDVw5OyW
— Ryan Doherty (@RyanDoherty47) December 28, 2019
So it can be said Bo also knows exhaustion.
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.