Viewed in
2012
Formats
HDTV (w/ ads)
Premise
30 for 30's documentary about Bo Jackson's mythical legacy.
Loved
The subject, the footage, the fond memories.
Hated
Re-watching that damn Bengals game.
Thoughts
I'm not going to lie. Bo Jackson was/is/will be my favorite athlete ever. Not sure how, but I still have well-conditioned poster of him from 1989 hanging on my wall right now. Much like how my affinity of 1980's/1990's video games clouds my judgement of Wreck-It Ralph, my idolization of Bo will make it very difficult to review this documentary fairly.
I loved everything about this piece. Obviously, it was a fond walk down memory lane, but it also had some cool footage that I had never seen, such as the mind-boggling clip of him running perpendicular to the wall Matrix-style, simply because he ran out of room chasing a flyball and didn't want to crash into the wall. There was fun highlights of him dominating competition in both sports, with Bo himself reminiscing on those moments. More Bo eye candy included his Nike commercials, his "football as a hobby" quote, and of course, "Tecmo Bo".
Not surprisingly, I felt like there wasn't enough highlights. But that added to the myth; they're brief glimpse of lightning, never completely bottled. The documentary had interesting perpectives about Bo's flash-in-the-pan career, in terms of our current steroids cynism, 24-hour sports cable channels, shoe marketing, being a sensation prior to the internet age. Current day Bo himself was just as fascinating, as a low-profile, grateful man who would've extirpated Katniss in an archery death match.
So yeah. Obviously, his fans should love You Don't Know Bo. But I hope casual sports, documentary fans will enjoy it and learn about one of the greatest sports what-ifs of recent memory.
Personal
Somehow, I never knew his fateful injury occurred on my birthday in 1991. How in the world did I not know that? Back then I memorized every player's number, position, height, weight, and college. I remembered where I sat when that sports tragedy happened, just like when Magic Johnson announced that he had HIV. Yet for two decades, I couldn't recall that damn Bengals playoff game happened to be on the easiest date for me to remember?
At the risk of sounding silly, I believe I repressed that fact until now. This was the power of sports on an eleven year old. Laugh all you want, but talk to any Star Wars geek who saw Episode V at a young age, and ask them if it didn't seriously alter their life. I'm no psychologist, but I wouldn't be surprised if I really did block that out, and might explain why I never liked my birthday.
