Bo Jackson Talks Wild NFL Stories, Beers In Royals Clubhouse & Athletic Career
44 min
•Feb 17, 20262 months agoSummary
Bo Jackson discusses his legendary multi-sport career, his principled stance against Tampa Bay, his time with the Kansas City Royals and Los Angeles Raiders, and launches a new podcast focused on men's health issues like prostate cancer awareness.
Insights
- Integrity and principle-driven decision-making can override financial incentives—Bo turned down a $7M contract to maintain his values
- Team-oriented culture and camaraderie in sports have shifted toward transactional, individual-focused mentality in modern professional athletics
- Men's health stigma remains a significant barrier to preventive care; peer-to-peer communication and platform leverage can drive behavioral change
- Athletic excellence and competitive drive transcend sport selection—Bo's intensity remained constant across football, baseball, and track
- Generational differences in work ethic, celebration, and team bonding reflect broader cultural shifts in professional sports
Trends
Rise of athlete-led health advocacy platforms addressing underserved male health demographicsShift from team-centric to individual-centric professional sports culture and compensation modelsIncreased athlete entrepreneurship and podcast/media ventures as post-career income and legacy vehiclesGrowing emphasis on mental health and vulnerability in traditionally masculine professional environmentsGenerational divide in player mentality: legacy/winning-focused vs. transaction/individual-focused athletesDecline of traditional team bonding rituals and their replacement with digital/transactional relationshipsAthlete activism and platform use for social health awareness and preventive care messaging
Topics
Multi-sport athletic careers and NCAA eligibility rulesProstate cancer screening and men's health advocacyProfessional sports culture and team dynamics evolutionAthletic integrity and contract negotiation principlesBaseball vs. football: sport-specific culture and training differencesAthlete mental health and pressure managementGenerational shifts in professional athlete mentalityPost-career athlete entrepreneurship and podcastingNCAA recruiting and coaching ethicsWorkplace culture and team bonding practicesMotorcycle safety and athlete risk managementAll-Star game competition and performance pressureAircraft emergency response and team dynamicsSalary inflation in professional sportsCancer prevention and early detection strategies
Companies
Kansas City Royals
Bo Jackson played baseball for the Royals, discussing clubhouse culture, beer in the locker room, and All-Star game e...
Los Angeles Raiders
Bo Jackson's NFL team where he played football, rode motorcycles, and developed relationships with teammates like Lyl...
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Team that drafted Bo Jackson but he refused to play due to unethical recruitment practices involving a private jet an...
Auburn University
Bo Jackson's college where he played football and baseball, starting as a freshman against Alabama after rejecting Al...
University of Alabama
Recruited Bo Jackson but told him he wouldn't play until sophomore/junior year, leading him to choose Auburn instead.
Chicago White Sox
Team Bo Jackson played for; featured in story about plane engine failure and beer keg incident at Iowa airport.
People
Bo Jackson
Hall of Fame multi-sport athlete discussing his NFL and MLB careers, principles, and new men's health podcast venture.
Chris Long
Host of Green Light podcast interviewing Bo Jackson; former NFL player and son of Howie Long.
Howie Long
Chris Long's father; former Raiders defensive end who played alongside Bo Jackson and served as his pre-game alarm cl...
Al Davis
Oakland Raiders owner who drafted Bo Jackson in supplemental draft and allowed him to play both football and baseball.
Hugh Culverhouse
Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner who received a middle-finger Polaroid from Bo Jackson to signal his refusal to play for th...
George Brett
Kansas City Royals teammate known for humor and professionalism; played alongside Bo Jackson in MLB.
Wade Boggs
All-Star game teammate who hit a home run following Bo Jackson's All-Star game home run.
Mark McGwire
All-Star game teammate on American League roster with Bo Jackson during All-Star competition.
Kirby Puckett
All-Star game teammate on American League roster with Bo Jackson during All-Star competition.
Frank Thomas
White Sox teammate who reacted fearfully during emergency plane landing incident over Iowa.
Willie Wilson
Kansas City Royals center fielder who suggested Bo Jackson drink beer before at-bats to stay loose during slumps.
Lyle Alzado
Raiders defensive end described as polar opposite to Bo Jackson; played together and later attempted comeback in 1990.
Marcus Dupree
Top-ranked high school running back recruited to Oklahoma; Bo Jackson compared his recruitment experience to Dupree's.
Herschel Walker
Georgia football player credited with pioneering the diving-over-the-line play that Bo Jackson later adopted at Auburn.
Tony LaRussa
Manager who selected Bo Jackson to lead off in All-Star game due to speed and power hitters behind him.
Pat Kerwin
NFL executive who turned in Tampa Bay's draft card, signaling Bo Jackson would not play for the Buccaneers.
Quotes
"I compete like a rabid animal in everything I do. Everything I do. I refuse to accept defeat."
Bo Jackson•Early in episode
"Man's integrity is worth everything. And if you can't have that, then I don't want to associate with you, period."
Bo Jackson•Mid-episode
"The games now is just a transaction. That's all it is, a transaction. I'm here for one thing, collect my check."
Bo Jackson•Mid-episode
"I said, draft me and find out. Watch me. Watch me. Draft me and find out."
Bo Jackson•Discussing Tampa Bay refusal
"Pressure will bust that pipe eventually. Too much pressure builds up and you can't handle it."
Bo Jackson•Men's health podcast discussion
Full Transcript
I even sent Hugh Culverhouse a picture of me shooting on the bird. Really? I swear to God, I had my roommate take it. I go up and get me a Miller Lite. Chug it. Walk back down the tunnel. Get by the manager, Bert, in his face. And he's like, that smells good. Get up, get on deck, get up to the plate, and hit a bomb. Yeah. I compete like a rabid animal in everything I do. This is a real treat. This is a guy I've heard a lot about. This is a guy I met when I was a little kid, but I get to meet him again now. All-star, pro bowler, absolute legend, Bo Jackson. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, kid. I appreciate it. It's great to see you. Oh, yeah. I'm quite sure that your dad has given you all a lot of stories about me. I've heard a few. I've heard a few. Actually, your dad was the only one right before the game, before we go out on the field to start the game. Because we would come in from pregame, and I'd take my pads off. Now, I had the ritual where I would lay down, take my pads off with the jersey, lay down, let my pads be my pillow, and I would go to sleep. Within that time from when we'd come off the field until the game starts. And everybody would get up and go, and they would walk past me. And I'm asleep. I'm literally damn near snoring. and we call your dad tight. Somebody that's going out first just try to wake me up but your dad's, oh no, no, no, no, no. Let that motherfucker sleep. Let him sleep because we know when he wake up, he gonna be ready to go. So he would be in the last group to go out so he walked by and kicked me. Hey boss, it's time to go. I get up, put my pads on, don't even strap in. Just put my helmet on and go out on the field. They strap me in. But your dad would always say, no, no, no, no. Don't wake him up. Let him sleep. He was your alarm clock. Let him sleep. That's incredible. That's incredible. Yeah. Well, it's funny because, yeah, I think about my dad like a damn superhero. You know, like, everybody thinks about their dad that way. Yeah. But, like, he was kind of a real-life superhero. And one of the only guys, really the only guy that ever gets talked about in the same light by him is you. And I think there was a lot of respect. And it seemed mutual. so it's pretty cool to hear the stories and kind of what y'all were like as young dudes. Oh, we were – man, but I tell you, just to be on the same team, to have all these guys, Rob Martin and all those guys, your dad, Bill Paquille. My godfather. We had fun playing. Yeah. We had fun playing, and we would enjoy each other. We would laugh. But when it got down the nut cutting time, oh, we strapped on it and we went and played. And we left everything on the field. Meaning, nobody celebrated until the game was over. And we had to win. Because if not, everybody was pissed. We got to fix what we did wrong and go out next week and tear somebody a new asshole. And that's just the way we were. That's the way we played. We played, if we won by one, that was good enough. As long as at the end of the game we had a W on the board. But you got to give 60 minutes. If we see that somebody's not doing what they're supposed to do, we get on them and say, hey, if you can't do your job today, go sit on the bench and we'll put somebody else in. And your dad was a leader of the defense. He was a leader of the defense. and all the guys like that, we fed off of them. And we would always tell the defense, you get us the ball, we're going to make you look good. Give us the ball, you go out there and get the ball for us, we're going to do everything that we can to award you. We're going to try to put six on the board for you. And we had fun doing that. And you look at – I look at the way the game is played today instead of back when we played. And it's different. It's a different era. It's a different game. It's a different type of player. Everything's different. The salaries are ten times as big as what they were back when we played. And everything is just different. I watch a little bit of it every now and then, but I don't. You kind of get away from it. It was our job. Yeah. And I bet whenever your dad don't go out to work, he don't sit around and watch it. That's right. He don't sit around. And when he do watch it, it pisses him off like it does me. Right. Because it makes it almost seem like. But I know it's a different era, a different game, different play. But it makes us think, hey, don't piss on the game that I used to play, that I gave my life for. Don't disrespect a game like that. What do you think is the hardest? change in the way football is played and business is conducted to see as you look at it now? To make a long story short, the games now is just a transaction. That's all it is, a transaction. I'm here for one thing, collect my check. I don't care if we win or we lose. I'm going to make my play, do my dance. It doesn't care, I don't care if we win or lose it. It's about me. It's not about us as a team. It's about me, me, I, I. And that's sad to see the game go that way, especially when we played. If we lost, everybody was pissed off. If we won, we all celebrated. Not to show you up, but celebrate it to the point to where we were happy to where going into the next week, that gave us confidence of the next game, the next week. and you don't see that. Yeah. You don't see the camaraderie. The way my dad put it was like football is like, you know, 23 hours a day really tough. Absolutely. It's a grind and you got to dig deep and it shows you who you are as a man. But you play it for those little moments where you can, after a win, celebrate with your guys. And it might just last for a night, but that's what makes the game being worth played. Absolutely. we go out there and give 60 minutes. It's worth those other five or six days of beating each other's head in, getting bruised up, getting beat up, getting yelled at by the coaches, getting cussed out by the coaches. That don't happen anymore. And it just made us better. It made the win better for us. And we can go out. I think our team night was on Thursday night. We'd go out to a little bar, a local bar there in El Segundo. And everybody would come out. And you just came out and stayed for 15 minutes, which is what I usually did just to be a teammate. Come out, stay for 15 minutes, hell, I go back home. Show face, yeah. Show face and go back home. Yeah. And that was me because I'd never been the type that'd go out and party. You haven't been a party type. No. Yeah. And that's got to be tough in L.A. I mean, not tough if that's just not who you are, but there's a lot of distractions in L.A. And I tried to keep the distractions to a minimum. Yeah. My only distraction when I was out in the Raiders was my Harley. You had a motorcycle. Yeah, I had a Harley. So did they not put that in the contract that you couldn't ride her? That kind of predated all that? No, they didn't put that. How did you like to ride that Harley? Did you ride it up and down? Me and some buddies, we go up through Topanga Canyon. Yeah. We'd ride everywhere. We'd ride down to Anaheim, go up by the lake and ride. No way. So forth and so on, yeah. And Al didn't care? No. Al was going to let you do what you had to do. He'd let you play baseball and let you ride a motorcycle. Al said, look, if you show up to play and play well, hey, as long as you're careful, I don't mind. But I didn't ride it every week. Mervyn Fernandez would ride his motorcycle. his motorcycle to practice. Really? Yeah, he had a crotch rock. And he would ride his motorcycle to practice. That's pretty amazing. And, you know, the thing that struck me about you, Bo, was it seems like you're really content in living your life outside of football. I think I saw a quote where you said, and I might be butchering it, but football or sports was never the center of my universe. It was never the center of my universe. It always plays third or fourth somewhere down the line. It's family, friends, business, sports. But it doesn't change the way you compete. It doesn't change the way I compete. No. No, I compete like a rabid animal in everything I do. Everything I do. I refuse to accept defeat. Did it make kind of having to distance yourself from baseball and football a little bit easier, knowing that you're kind of grounded in who you are off the field? it all goes back to that state i said earlier that sports always ranked third or fourth on yeah on my list so so it wasn't hard for me to once i got injured it wasn't hard for me to accept that and move on because i had planned to be out of sports by the time i was 32 You had it in your head. It was in my head. Yeah. And I was 28. So I was looking at playing probably for another two years, three years max, and I'm good. But, hey, the man upstairs got ways of working things out for you. Yeah. And I haven't looked back. The other thing that struck me was how principled you seemed to be because, you know, for a lot of people, the contract that Tampa offered you when they drafted you won, And I actually talked to Pat Kerwin this week who said he actually turned that card in. I said, I'm interviewing Bo this week. He said, I turned in the card. And they said to me, he's never playing for y'all. And I know the background with the private jet story and everything. But it seems to me that like, you kind of people now say standing on business you know which is basically like I standing on my principles It seemed to me like that was very important to you in so many impasses in your life Very important. Man's integrity is worth everything. And if you can't have that, then I don't want to associate with you, period. if you do like you said the stuff that Tampa did to me was underhanded and they lied to me how can I play for you when the first thing you did is lie to me and then you screwed me over you lied and you sabotaged what I believe in and then I just told him I said look you screwed me out of you screwed me out of my senior year in baseball I'm going to screw you out of first round draft pick. They said, well, you can't turn in this because we're going to offer you one of the biggest contracts, which was over a $7 million contract. You aren't going to do that just to play for a million dollars. I said, draft me and find out. Watch me. Watch me. Draft me and find out. So for me, it wasn't about the money because I know I can make the money with anybody. But I'm not going to play for you. because if you disrespect me, and I'm not even employed for you, you disrespect everybody else you play with. You play. I said I can't go down that aisle. I can't go down that road with you. Do you think if all things were equal and say there wasn't that scenario with, and for the people listening, I guess it was they sent a private jet for you for a visit and you were under the impression that it was under compliance. But it wasn't. It wasn't. And so it cost you your senior season playing baseball. And I think they did that on purpose because that year word out that the three or four top players that was going to be picked in the baseball draft was Will Clark, Raphael Melrose, Bo Jackson, and somebody else. Yeah. And they knew that. So they said, well, we need to make him ineligible. So we'll know he to play football. And by them lying to me, they screwed up Rawley. Do you think if everything was equal and you had two comparable contracts, opportunities out of college, like I guess some people don't consider because of that that you might have just liked baseball more? Or is that, you know, a leap of logic there? No. I played baseball for one reason. and that was because I wasn't going to go to Tampa. Yeah. And I had to sit out the next season. Yeah. And I wasn't just going to sit around and do nothing. Right. I might as well play baseball. I've been doing it since I was a little kid. Yeah. And I said, so that's what I'm going to do. And a year later, is it a year later, Al Davis was at the draft? It was a normal draft, not the supplemental draft that he drafted? No, I think it was a supplemental draft. And what's the pre-draft process? First off, what's the pre-draft process ahead of the Tampa thing where they're, I mean, I guess you said it, they're calling your bluff. But, like, did you make it abundantly clear through back channels that you're not going to play for them and they just kind of powered through it? I even sent Hugh Culverhouse a picture of me shooting him the bird. Really? I swear to God, I had my roommate take it. They left that out of the box. With the Polaroid camera. But with the Polaroid camera. And I sent it certified mail to where he had signed for it. And he got it. I'm not lying. I'm serious. To let him know that I'm not playing for you. Do you know how much that Polaroid's probably worth? Yeah, if they still got it. Somebody got it if he didn't pair it up and put it in the garbage. It's unreal. Yep, there's a picture of me in my dorm room at Sewell Hall, Drew. That's no longer there. Yep. Hey, that's so good. So, did you ever get to play the Bucs when you were with the Raiders? I wish I had them. Man, I bet you had it circled every year. I wish I had them, but I was still playing baseball. Yeah, yeah. I was still playing baseball, so yeah. So, a year later, when Al drafts you, what was the pre-draft process like there with the communications? Because to me, not knowing enough, I look at it and I'm saying, he was willing to pay you a lot. Why did he wait so long to draft you in that draft? He was the one to pay you like top. Yeah, because I probably would have got drafted by Dallas or the 49ers before the Raiders. Got it. But everybody wasn't sure that I was going to come and play football after I signed the baseball contract. Because I was already in less than a year, I'd already made it to the major leagues. Right. How was he going to turn down that and come and play for us? I never said that I was going to play one sport. What feels better, 500-foot walk-off home run or a 95-yard touchdown? Actually, they both give you the same feeling. People always ask, which one of the sports that you like best? I said I like the sport of picking up my paycheck. I'm a Hall of Famer picking up my paycheck. First in the 15th. It doesn't matter which sport. I got some guys like that on my production team. Yeah. They love it. They love that paycheck. They can't wait. When you were with the Raiders, did Alzado come out of retirement for a second and try to make the – I read that he played in 90. I think that was my – yeah. But I think it was after I got hurt. Because I got hurt in 90, December. January of 90. So this is after. He's the other guy my dad tells the most stories about. You and Lyle. Very different stories. Lyle, we were polar opposites. Yeah. Yeah, we were polar opposites. Very different stories. 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I can't wait for that. or breaking down film ahead of a show. Zone easily gets me locked in. With its smooth feel and variety of flavors, Zone is always on our game day roster. Whether you like a fresh mint flavor or you're into citrus flavor, check out their roster of options. Use promo code GL20 at nickokick.com slash zone for 20% off at checkout. At Auburn, I was always interested in Marcus Dupree. And I know you're about the same age, maybe. We'd come out of high school at the same time. So you're getting recruited probably everywhere. And I know Marcus is a highly touted recruit. Were you aware of each other at the time? Marcus Dupree was a number one high school running back coming out of high school at that time. And I knew that he was going to go to Oklahoma, and I was going to go to Bama. But they told me that I wouldn't give a chance to play until the end of my sophomore, beginning of my junior season. So I said, screw you. I went to Auburn. And the coach that was screwing me, he said, Auburn hasn't beat Alabama since 1972, and they never will. So I shook his hand, thank you for coming to see me. But in my mind, I'm looking at him smiling, but in my mind I'm screaming at him saying, you got to be out of your fucking mind that you think I'm going to come and sit on your bench for two years or three years and wait to become a starter. And I remember him saying that, let's explain this day, Auburn hasn't beat Alabama, and they never will. That turned out a big fall. So I signed with Auburn. I signed a letter of intent with Auburn two weeks later. Went to Auburn, started as a freshman, Alabama-Auburn game. I know you're probably going to say this, but I shoved it up his ass. if you say it. I shut it up his ass. To the tune of 200 yards or something like that. Yep, it was almost 260. I shoved it right up his ass. Scored. You don't, hey, you don't forget anything, do you? I don't forget anything, no. I love that. No, I don't forget anything. I love that. I love that. But the Marcus Dupree thing was so interesting to me because he said one of the schools that recruited him, they offered him an oil rig. Like, it was crazy the stuff that, you know, this is it. No, probably Houston. Yeah. or Texas. It was probably Texas. I'm wondering how crazy some of the pitches for you were. There weren't, because I think I was ranked the third or fourth best running back in the state of Alabama. No way. That was a guy that Auburn signed who was a number running back in the state named Allen Evans from Enterprise High School. And he was a five-star. And they ranked me as a three-star because I had two other backs in the backfield with me. that was just as fast as I was. We were three of three members of our four-by-one state champion relay team on the track team, and we won the state for three or four years straight. That's crazy. So I was, because the other two back, I wasn't ranked as high because they scored just as many touchdowns as I did. But I was bigger and faster than both of them. They were fast, but not as fast as me. So they both got scholarships to go to smaller colleges. And I got a scholarship to go to Auburn. So I got a baseball question for you. You played with George Brett. Was he a pretty funny guy? One of the most nicest, funniest guys to play with. You ever see the video of him talking about shit in his pants? Yeah. Is that real? Yeah. Some of the things guys do, some of the things she... That's so baseball. With football you got five six days of intensity And then you go out and you go to war for three hours and you got to start over that four or five days of intensity. Baseball, if you're not laid back and relaxed, it'll drive you crazy because we got 162 games. Yeah. So we're playing almost every day. in our off days we're usually flying to the city to where we're going to play next so we're loose everybody's got to be loose I can remember what we would do if a ball player was in a slump which we get in at times and I went 0 for 2 in a game my first two at bats I think I left three guys on the base and two at bats piss so what you do I told the manager hey I'm going up to the locker room I'm going to the freezer and we got a we got a refrigerator in the locker room I got nothing but beer in it because that's what Ballsville drank I went up in the middle of the game because I'm in the hole so I'm batting third the inning we come in walk out the field I tell her I'm going to the coot I go up and get me a Miller light chug it walk back down the tunnel get by the manager Burke up in his face. And he's like, that smells good. Get up, get on deck, get up to the plate and hit a bomb. So by the time I come back around the bases, they sent the clubhouse guy up because it's in the middle of the summer and we play on turf. So we got ice. So we got ice boxes where we put our feet because we had cleats. When I come back and sit on my chest, to sit on the bench, I go to put my feet in my ice bucket, they got a six-pack of milk in there. So, Willie Wilson, who was the center field, he said, drink one of them motherfuckers every time before you get up the bat. He's chugging to go up and hit some shit to Louisville, Kentucky. That's incredible. So, that's how loose baseball was. Everybody didn't do that, but everybody make their own fun. Yes. But we have fun when we're winning. Right. And when we lose, nobody's happy. But if you're winning all the time, it's the best sport on the planet. Because you can be as loose as you want. Right. A lot of pressure, though. You might get three at-bats in a game. A lot different than being on the field and getting maybe 17 carries. Yep. You know? You got to perform. You got to make it. And folks always say, were you angry when you snapped the bats? I said, yes. I was pissed off at myself because I left runs on the bases. I wasn't mad because I struck out. I was mad because I didn't get those guys in. It's the same way. Four down and one, and you can't get that one yard. So that's how that was. Speaking of fourth down and one or fourth and goal, were you the first guy to go over the top? They made a really big deal when you told a coach at Auburn, hey, I don't think they'll expect it. I'm going to jump over the line. No, I told them that I was a seventh and fifth high jumper in high school. Yeah. I said, let's not. But I think Herschel started that at Georgia. Herschel did, yeah. Diving over the top. And I said, hell, if we can't go through them or around them, let's go over them. Yeah. And we installed the play. That's wild. So the All-Star game where you hit a bomb, and then I guess Wade Boggs followed you with a bomb too. How cool was the All-Star game? I mean, like, your All-Star game MVP, like it feels like it means something to baseball players, the All-Star game in a different way than the Pro Bowl does. At least now the Pro Bowl is unrecognizable. But like, you know, it's for what? Home field in the World Series or whatnot. Was the All-Star game intense back then? Do you remember it being intense? It was very intense. Because it's the American League against the National League. Yeah. And we had dominated for years, the American League. We just tear the National League up. And we end up winning. But the reason I left off, the reason I led off was because the guys behind me was Wade Boggs. We had Mark McGuire. We had all Kirby Puckett. Nothing but horses behind me. Most of those guys would probably be in the Hall of Fame right now. We were just stacked. And he said the reason, Tony LaRusso said, the reason I'm going to let you lead off, look at the firepower behind you. If you get on base, we're going to get your ass in. And if you got speed, you'll probably score on a single. As soon as we get on base, we're doing hit and run. We're running. We're going to get in a position where we score, and we end up winning. Was stealing bases like an art form? Stealing bases back then was a must. You don't see guys, except De La Cruz, you don't see too many guys still in baseball. Or doing hit and runs now in baseball, or sacrifice months. You don't see that now. Everybody's trying to hit the home run. Oh, yeah, yeah. Hit it out the park or strike out. Yeah. You get guys making $7, $8 million a year, and they're batting .241. Not great. Batting .241. Not great. No, that's not great. No. That's like somebody making minimum wage. That's like a guy on the scout team that you know don't supposed to be in the game making $7, $8 million a year. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Yep. And not saying anything bad about that. No, but it's the going rate. That's the going rate. It's the going rate. Yep, things have changed drastically. So the travel, I heard a story about a White Sox plane that had some trouble. Do you remember this story? Blue Ninja. Yeah. Coming from Anaheim, California. Can you tell me about that one? Well, I think it was a Southwest plane. We were about two hours from Chicago, and the engine blew at about 34,000 feet. And I was sitting in the cockpit, because we were on a charter plane, talking to the pilot. It's the best seat in the house. Another pilot was in the back doing something. and we were talking about military planes, the P-51 Mustang. And I was telling the pilot how the P-51 Mustang killed more military pilots than under the plane in military history because the torque of the engine made that plane want to roll over and dive into the ground. So you have to wrestle with it at low altitude. Right when I said that, boom, the plane wrong. He's spinning around. He said, oh, shit, we just lost number one engine. He said, go back and tell everybody to fasten your seatbelt. Sit down. Sit down and fasten your seatbelt. Now, this was before my hip surgery. I turn around as I'm walking to the back of the plane. The plane's dark. You can see the glow, the orange glow off the right side of the plane as I'm walking back down. Orange glow from fire? Orange glow. The engine was on fire, yeah. You're kidding me. And he said, I got to put this engine out. Go tell everybody to sit down and be quiet. So as I'm walking down the aisle, they said, I said, the pilot said, everybody sit down and shut the fuck up. That's what they said I said. Oh, it sounds inaccurate. And I don't remember saying that. But as I'm walking down the aisle, all the white guys up there had turned red. all the Latin guys had their rosaries out praying. All the black guys turned white. And Frank Thomas was sitting back in his seat. Oh mama, he was like Fred Sanford. Oh mama, oh mama. So we sat down and we landed at that little airport in Iowa where a United flight in the early 80s, in the, was it the early 80s? Mid 80s crash. A big plane crash. We landed on that same runway. taxi to the gate. The airport was closed because it was a small airport. We go into the little airport. Now, they got kiosks all the way down the hall. Water and beer. So I'm thirsty. We're on our way out the door to go to Denny's. But I checked because I want some water. And somebody said, check the beer spickers. I said, these beer spickers are locked. Go to this one locked. Walk down the hall, this one's locked. get to the third and a distance lot, get to the fourth one, and beer started flowing out there. I didn't drink beer at the time. So we went to Denny's, and those guys got the big cups. They filled in, they drained a keg of beer. So when we come back from Denny's, the cops are standing there, and my teammates are standing there with cups, with beer. There he is, he broke it. I'm like, broke what? Said, Mr. Jackson, did you break the lock off of the beer spigot? I said, that wasn't a lock on it. I admit I went back there looking for water, and they told me to check the spigot. Like, I checked all the other spigots, and they were locked. This one wasn't locked. So we went to a dentist. I said, smell my breath, see if I smell like beer. And they were soft. The airport charged the White Sox, I think like $700 for a keg of beer. That's crazy. it's around $700. That's nasty. That's real nasty work. That's unreal. And half of the guys, they opened their car rental place. They rented cars and drove home. You had guys on the plane, you had guys on the plane calling buddies as we got into where we can land. They were calling buddies and said, hey, if I don't make it, I want you to go to this secret bank account and take the money out and give it. You had guys just scared because it was shaky. My dad said they lost an engine going to Buffalo or something, and it was the same kind of thing. Yeah. Bill Paquette praying in the aisle and that sort of thing. You take creatine, Nate? I do now. Yeah. You know who doesn't take creatine? Who's that? Rob Ninkovich. You can tell the way I threw him around in San Francisco. Hey, Ninko. You impressed me My back still feels it having to wrestle with that motherfucker He always wants to wrestle but he doesn know I take Create creatine So it doesn't just help you stay strong. I really have always had trouble keeping weight on. Even when I played, I used to go weigh in with two-and-a-half-pound plates. But now I don't have to do that. I just take Create gummies. I've increased dosage to the 7 to 10 grams a day range. I'm not a doctor, but it's one of the most studied supplements of all time. And it's not just good for muscle retention, for performance in the gym. You know, your boy's 40 now, so I really need my creatine. It's also good for cognition. I really will take it sometimes in the afternoon and feel a lot better. You know, that last night before I went out on, like, fumes, I popped a couple of Create gummies. I felt nice and strong in the club. I felt wide awake. I felt like cognitively I could have done anything I needed to do. I thought I could have solved the fucking Rubik's cube. Joe Tooney walks up. He's like, hey, can you do this? Yeah, I took my gummies today. So anyways, it's a good habit. I feel great when I'm on it. And these are tasty gummies. Healthy brain, cognitive effects as I get older, very important. Muscle maintenance, keeping this physique. You know what I'm saying? and your physique looks phenomenal thanks you too thank you this ad break is brought to you by Smirnoff the exclusive vodka of the Green Light podcast for Super Bowl 60 we had a blast celebrating the launch of a Lely's collaboration with Smirnoff this past weekend it was great to get back with some of my Patriot teammates like Rob Nikovic, Ligarablunt and the Butter King aka Bo Allen to celebrate this moment we'll be rolling out some recap content. So be sure to check those out when they're released. Please drink responsibly. Smirnoff. Number 21 vodka distilled from grain. 40% alcohol by volume. The Smirnoff Company. New York, New York. Please do not share with anyone under legal drinking age. Smirnoff. Let's talk about my future podcast. Yeah, let's talk about it because you're in the podcast game now with me. Well, I'm trying to get in it. I'm learning, and it's funny because it's not about sports. It's about men's health. Yes, sir. I'm quite sure your daddy can relate. As we get older, our bodies don't work like they used to. Take, for instance, last October. This past October, I had prostate surgery. I had my prostate taken up, and I'm cancer-free, which is a good thing. But we as men, we don't talk about our personal problems like women do. Your mom can get with her girlfriends, they go out and have lunch, and they talk about all their problems. We as men don't do that because we think it makes us weaker, and we don't want our buddies to look at us as being like that. And I started Bono's Men's Health to peel the layers from that onion. We need to talk about everything, all about medical issues. Prostate cancer, colon cancer, bladder cancer, you name it. Men have breast cancer. Yeah. But the only time we talk about those issues is when we're in the doctor's office with the doctor. And sometimes we don't even tell our families because we don't want them to worry. my mother she never told us about her cancer until it was too late but as far as men are concerned we don't talk about those issues we keep them to our cells they eat at us like battery acid from the standpoint especially with something like prostate cancer if you don't get it taken care of you're looking over your shoulder every six months I wonder if it's back I wonder if it's spread. I wonder if it's just laying dormant right now because the thing about cancer, cancer is just like Mother Nature. Both of them are undefeated. Mother Nature does whatever she wants, whenever she wants, however she wants. We just got to be smart enough to get out of her way. Cancer is the same thing. Unless you cut it out, it's going to continue to come back. So you can treat it with chemo. You can treat it with radiation. It's going to eventually come back. And I didn't want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder to see if it's going to rear its ugly head again. Because the thing with me, just like your dad, I love my grandkids. I want to be around to raise my grandkids. Spoil the hell out of them and send them back home to you. give them whatever they want. Like I said, jack them up on Skittles. Yeah, make it harder on us. And Mountain Dew and send them home. Buy them whatever they want. Because they're going to say, like my two grandsons, Papa is my best friend. And I love that. I love that. So when you get old, and God bless you with grandkids, you'll know what I'm talking about. and you'll know what your dad feels when you bring the kids over and they sit around and talk and play. That's what it's about. So me, I want to make sure that I let men know, hey, that there's an avenue out there. There's a place where you can go and discuss this. Because we just know women talk about everything and they aren't afraid to not talk about it. But we, as men, it's taboo for us. You can't sit around with your friends. It's the instinct to withstand everything, which is kind of a man instinct. It doesn't make us better or worse. It just makes us probably more stubborn. We can't let the world know that we have a weak side. We can't let the world know that, hey, I'm not perfect. nobody's perfect. And for me to use my platform, to use my name, to make men around the country aware of this, because a lot of men know that they got issues, but they're afraid to go to the doctor because they don't want that doctor to tell them the bad news. Was it hard for you to step out and talk about this with your— After I had my surgery, no. So the first thing I did was I called teammates from high school. I got all my teammates that I played baseball with. We got on a Zoom call. I told them about it. And half of them say, hey, believe it or not, but I got a prostate exam next month. I got this done. I've had this done. But they never talk about it. Right. And they say, I think what you're doing is going to be great for men around the country because we don't talk about that. We should. It makes life a whole lot better. And there's a mental health aspect to this too. There's a mental health aspect to where, hey, if you don't, I'll put it to you like this. If you don't talk about these type of issues, pressure will bust that pipe eventually. Too much pressure builds up and you can't handle it. We're strong in everything, but we weren't made to handle pressure like that to where we keep all this medical stuff to ourselves. If we can get with somebody, the professionals, because in my podcast, I bet almost every podcast I'll have a doctor on. Someone that knows more than I do. Because I just know what I've gone through. I'm not a professional. I'm not a doctor. But I'm privy enough to know, hey, if you got issues, get it checked. Have a professional look at it. Because I can't diagnose you, but I know someone who can. And if you don't have the proper insurance or the proper finances to get this done, we have this fund set up here to where we're going to help pay for that PSA test. We're going to make sure that your doctor is going to give you a friends and family discount. because, number one, he wants a business. And if I'm going to advertise him and about his business for free, he got to give us something back, which is give you a discount. I'm trying to get ahead of it. I'm 40 now, man. Hey, you got to get them done. Yeah, I'm starting to realize, man, that the years go faster the older you get. Listen, and you got to realize, go back and check all the symptoms that your grandfather, your grandmother had, because they're going to pass those down. And colon cancer and prostate cancer runs in my family. And if I didn't get my, if I had ignored some symptoms when I was 21 years old, I probably wouldn't be here. I'd probably be dead from colon cancer. Well, I hope you're going to save some lives doing this. That's my goal. That's going to be awesome. That's my goal, to use my platform to help guys get over this hump. And I call it putting some sunshine in somebody's cloud. Are you excited to kind of lead the show a little bit? Listen, I'm very excited. I'm very excited. It's almost like Christmas. It's almost like Christmas. Giving somebody a gift. It's like helping somebody with the gift of life and knowledge. Like they say, knowledge is power. Yes, sir. So I want to spread that around. Thanks for doing it. I'm super excited. Thank you, brother. I'm super excited and I really appreciate you coming on, Bo. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure for us, man. I heard a lot about you. My dad respects the hell out of his man. Oh, tight. Tight is tight. They called him tight. Yeah, I called him tight. Because he was uptight. He was tight. He's always been uptight a little bit. Called him tight. It's so good to hear, dude. Yeah. I appreciate you, man. Call your dad tight. I appreciate you, big guy. Bye.