Out of Bounds | Two sport athletes: double your pleasure

Gabe Mosca Columnist

A couple of weeks ago, everyone’s favorite poor-tackling, Jesus-loving, bling-wearing, high-stepping cornerback Deion Sanders, abandoned his spot at CBS commentating on football and went back to playing it. Sanders, a three-time champion with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers has joined the vaunted defense of the Baltimore Ravens.

In the first week of the season, Sanders was a non-factor. Cleveland spanked his Ravens 20-3. However, that does not even begin to take away from the incredible and certainly entertaining career Sanders has had as both a football player and baseball outfielder. As an outfielder with the Braves and Reds, Sanders was far from superstar material. He had flashes of brilliance, including a 50-steal season and a .533 batting average in the 1992 World Series, but he was primarily a purely mediocre player. But to play two sports at such a high level against such vicious competition is quite a feat. As athletes continue to specialize themselves in one particular sport at younger and younger ages, two-sport athletes like Deion Sanders will be few and far between. The Out of Bounds staff would like to take this opportunity to look at this dying breed. Here are some amazing two-sport stars, capable of dominating their competition on any stage.

Bob Hayes
“Bullet” Bob Hayes was one fast dude. In 1963 he set a world record by running the 100-yard dash in 9.1 seconds. I can’t drive 100 yards in nine seconds. He won two sprinting gold medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Months after that global domination, Hayes signed with the Dallas Cowboys as a wide receiver. After all, who was going to cover the fastest man in the world? In his first two seasons, Hayes led the NFL in receiving touchdowns. Other Olympic sprinters have tried to make the jump to football, but none had the success of Bullet. He remains the only person to have won an NFL ring and a gold medal. Somewhere, Hershel Walker weeps.

Dave Winfield
Sometimes potential energy is just as potent as the real thing. Baseball great Dave Winfield was a tremendous slugger for the Padres, Yankees, and Blue Jays. In 2001, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But my, what could have been. After starring at the University of Minnesota in both baseball and basketball, the 6’6” Winfield was drafted for baseball by San Diego, for basketball by the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and ABA’s Utah Stars, and for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. Can anyone possibly imagine being drafted by four professional teams for three different sports? Well, I DID get into Bowdoin. Score.

Jim Thorpe
Thorpe was an athlete of epic proportions. He is most famous for his domination in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics. But he also did a great deal else. As a football player at Carlise Indian Institute, his teams routinely beat the Army and Navy squads. He continued playing football later in life and was one of the key ingredients for the formation of the NFL. And just for kicks, he also played Major League Baseball for the Reds and Giants.

Bo Jackson
Bo knows. I admit it; I had a Bo Jackson “Double Trouble” poster hanging up over my bed when I was a young lad. Bo Jackson could have been the greatest running back of all-time. Instead, after winning the Heisman Trophy at Auburn, Jackson declined to be selected in the draft by Tampa Bay and signed a contract to play baseball with the Kansas City Royals (he had previously been drafted by the Yankees out of high school). As a Royal, Jackson made the all-star team in 1989 and was named the game’s MVP. But even though Bo was only a part-time football player, he left a large impact. In three seasons with the LA Raiders Bo averaged a whooping 5.4 yards per carry. And to this day, he is perhaps the greatest video game character ever made; in Nintendo’s “Super Techmo Bowl,” Bo Jackson destroys defenses.

Huh, and I think two IM sports a semester are a lot. Well, I bet Bo Jackson can’t, um, write about American foreign policy like I can. Somewhere, my father weeps.