Bo Jackson A Lot Of Money example essay topic

1,326 words
Bo Jackson Bo Jackson was born in a small town just outside Birmingham, Alabama called Bessemer. His father left his family and moved to the other side of the city when Vincent "Bo" Jackson was just a baby. He never did much to help Bo's mom of the rest of their very large family. He would come around very little and did hardly anything to support Bo's mom. Bo Jackson was one of ten children. His family lived in a two room house and they only had two beds for all ten of the children.

Some of the children would sleep on the floor, which was dirt, and the others would sleep two to a bed. Their mother slept in the kitchen in her bed. Bo Jackson would always sleep next to the furnace because their house did not have any heat besides the furnace. Bo would actually wake up with scars and burns because he had touched the scalding iron of the furnace during the night while he was sleeping. Their house did not even have running water, so they obviously had an out house. When they got a new out house one time everyone in the neighborhood came to see it because it had a tin roof and a fresh concrete slab floor.

The area that the Jacksons grew up in was an extremely poor neighborhood and hardly anyone had enough money to leave. Most houses, like Bo's, was very small and did not even have running water or any kind of heater or air conditioner. As a child and a teen-ager, Bo Jackson was a very strong, tough guy. He often used his size and strength for the wrong reasons and would bully other kids to get what he wanted. He would steal bicycles and other things just because someone else had them and he wanted them. There was not much other kids could do to stop him though because of his size.

Bo Jackson would often and almost always be able to deal with kids that were years older than him. He got into a lot of fights and trouble came along with it. His mother would whip him with a belt and threaten him so he would stay out of trouble because she had seen all her other children do the same thing as Bo and she had seen where that road led. Even though Bo's mom did her best to keep him out of trouble, Bo was too hard headed and stubborn to ever listen. He would often do something that someone told him not to do just simply because they told him not to. He was constantly getting in trouble during grammar school and on into junior high school.

He even almost killed someone two times. Both times someone had made him angry and he had a gun pointed at them but his conscience luckily got the better of him. Bo Jackson loved to play baseball and he could throw extremely well because he threw rocks all the time as a kid. He eventually played football also once he convinced his mom to let him. He also was on the track team during middle school.

The track team did not allow sixth graders to be on the team, only seventh and eight graders. Bo Jackson knew he was faster than all the others that were on the team and decided to go out to practice one day just to prove to the coach that he should be on the team. He went one day and outran everyone on the team and the coach allowed him to be on the team. Bo was able to take a lot of his anger out by playing football. He was great at all three of the sports that he participated in as a kid. In high school, Bo continued to excel at sports and he also stopped being as violent as he was before.

He decided that he was going down a path that was heading him toward jail and he realized that he had to change. By playing sports, Bo was able to harness his energy and anger and use it on the field to help him. He was great at everything he did in high school. He set state records in track and was one of the most sought after baseball players coming out of high school. He was also great at football playing tailback. He was big and fast and hardly any could ever bring him down.

He set records in football as well as baseball. He was a sports prodigy coming out of high school. Everyone wanted to know if he was going to play football or baseball in college because no one thought he could play both. He was offered millions of dollars by major league baseball teams like the Yankees. George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees, offered Bo Jackson a lot of money to go play in New York right out of high school.

Bo's mom wanted him to go to college to earn a degree and a sports scholarship was the only way for him to go. Bo also wanted to go to college instead of going straight to the pros. Colleges from across the entire nation were calling him and wanting him to play at their school. Bo wanted to stay in Alabama and once that got around, it was between Auburn and Alabama.

Paul Bryant at Alabama worked to try to convince Bo to go to Alabama and only play football and not play baseball. Bo had liked Alabama for all his life but he wanted to play baseball very badly, just as much as football. Auburn recruited him and the head coach Pat Dye told him that he could play baseball at Auburn if he wanted. He also told Bo that he was not going to give him anything, he was going to have to earn everything he got at Auburn. That was what Bo Jackson wanted to hear. He signed with Auburn that spring.

He was a tremendous success in college, both as a football player and as a baseball player. He pitched ninety mile per hour fast balls and he could run like the wind with the football. He led Auburn to a win over Alabama as a freshman and to a bowl birth while sharing playing time with Lionel James. He eventually went on to win the Heisman Trophy his senior year.

He also got married in college and had two children with his wife Linda. Their names are Spud and Nick. While Linda lived in Auburn with the kids, Bo was dealing with pro scouts for football and baseball. Everyone was asking if he was going to play football or baseball in the pros.

The answer was both. Nobody had ever played both sports and been successful but Bo did it. He played for the Kansas City Royals and for the Los Angeles Raiders. He was successful in both and continued to defy all beliefs that he could not play both sports at such a high level. Bo Jackson is a man that cares more for his family than anything in the world. He loves Linda and his kids more than anything.

His sports mean nothing compared to his family. As much as he has done for sports, he has actually done more for his family. He is a very inspiring person because of what he got out of and what kind of person he became..