The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson by Jeff Pearlman

The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson Reviews

• 
  Brina

  I have long believed that baseball is America’s unique brand of mythology. After reading Pearlman’s volume on Bo Jackson, that belief is only intensified. Bo Jackson was one of the best athletes of my childhood and even starred in a cartoon alongside Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. Those three epitomized American team sports in the late 1980s and were rightly named the Toon Stars, super hero athletes who came to the rescue at the drop of a hat. In a blink of an eye, Jackson’s career was done, felled by a hip injury on the football field. He would never accrue the statistics or merit the accolades that his costars Jordan or Gretzky did; but, he was Bo Jackson. That is the feeling that Jeff Pearlman hoped to create here by bringing Bo Jackson’s career back to life. I was treated to one wild ride where I really did view his career as mythological. He also was made out to be a decent person off the playing field, one I wouldn’t mind having as a neighbor. My one regret is that Jackson’s main playing days came before I watched much football to appreciate his exploits. Even without Jackson’s participation on this project, The Last Folk Hero was a refreshing take on an extraordinary athlete.
  
  ⚾️ 4 stars 🏈
• 
  Jake

  Exactly what you would expect by combining the writing talents and enthusiasm of Jeff Pearlman with a subject such as Bo Jackson. Pearlman covers it all, the good, the bad and the ugly of Bo. The definitive Bo Jackson biography. This book had me going to YouTube often in hopes of finding the highlights referenced in the book, and Pearlman interviewed a ton (over 700) of people on the record for this one.
  
  Right up there with another great sports bio from 2022, Howard Bryant's "Rickey," as books that sports fan of a certain (or any) age should have on their Must Read List.
  
  Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the advance reader copy.
• 
  Lance

  Whenever an athlete can compete at the highest level in two (or more) sports, it is a very noteworthy accomplishment. When that athlete can do certain feats that even most stars in that particular sport only dream of accomplishing, that is when stories of incredible feats are told and passed down through the years. Vincent “Bo” Jackson is one of those athletes in which this was accomplished, and his story is told in this excellent book by Jeff Pearlman.
  
  Pearlman has made a very good career on writing sports biographies of famous athletes who may have a flaw or two, but has had either outstanding success in their sport, some great stories to share, a compelling story on the way to fame or, in Jackson’s case, a bit of all three traits. The “great stories” are feats of amazing athleticism by Jackson shared by those who have claimed to have seen them. This goes from his youth to high school sports (track and field as well as baseball and football) to college sports at Auburn (again, all three, although his fame there was for football) to the professional ranks. Because many of these stories have a “you have to see it to believe it” aura, that was the inspiration for the title which is very appropriate.
  
  The book also does an excellent job of portraying Jackson’s life and personality without the benefit of input directly from him. Pearlman does write that he did contact Jackson about the project and certainly wanted to talk to him, but Jackson declined. However, he did not give Pearlman any objections to writing the book, so the author went ahead and between his research and over 700 interviews, he ended up with a very entertaining and detailed book.
  
  Among these details are plenty of discussion about Jackson’s accomplishments at Auburn, the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders and in major league baseball, primarily with the Kansas City Royals, but he also spent some time with the Chicago White Sox and California Angels. He suffered a devastating hip injury that required a hip replacement and given the medical knowledge at the time, it was considered a near-miracle that he was able to resume his baseball career (his football career was not resurrected) with the White Sox. Mainly because his football career, especially with the Raiders, was shortened due to the injury, more of the sports accomplishments described are in baseball. That doesn’t diminish either the writing about nor the stories telling about Jackson’s feats in that sport as well as track and field.
  
  There is plenty of text about Bo off the field as well. Of course, the “Bo Knows” campaign by Nike is covered and that is quite entertaining as well as informative. The feeling of Bo being used for business purposes is not unique to him, but his views (as told by others such as teammates or friends) about team owners such as Hugh Culverhouse of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Ewing Kaufman of the Royals was very interesting. Jackson’s personality also makes for interesting reading. The easiest way to describe it would be complex as many people of all types of relationships with him have stories to share and they range from him getting very angry at people for seemingly minor issue to being very generous to strangers with his time, money or both. Something that is very consistent, however, is his dedication to family. This is true for both his mother and later with his wife and children. He vowed to ensure that his children did not grow up with an absent father like he did and he is keeping that promise, at least according to those who spoke to Pearlman.
  
  This is a complete book on the man that is all the more remarkable when one considers none of this information came from Jackson himself. Any reader who “knows Bo”, no matter if it is from sports, TV commercials or some other means, will find this book one that will be hard to put down and well worth the time to read.
  
  I wish to thank Mariner Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
  
  https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
• 
  Andrew Epperson

  Jeff Pearlman is undoubtedly one of the top sports biographers in history, and this largely stands as his best research work.
  I’m a Raiders fan, and I know Bo Jackson as a mystical figure who once wore 34 for the silver and black. Now, I understand he was more of a baseball player who also played football. Really, he was neither. Bo was Bo. He was an athlete in the purest sense, and had he not been injured, could’ve achieved greatness likely unseen in either sport.
• 
  Roger DeBlanck

  Having been in high school and played varsity sports during the pinnacle of Bo Jackson’s years of excelling at both baseball and football, I admired Bo’s athletic prowess and I clearly remember the Bo mania because I watched it in real time. Pearlman’s definitive biography of the incomparable Bo Jackson was a joy for me to re-experience my fond memories of awing over Bo as inspiration and motivation as I played multiple sports in high school.
  
  Pearlman brings drama, suspense, and humor to his splendid chronicle of the legendary natural athletic talents of Jackson while he also balances the narrative with a fascinating investigation of the complex son, man, husband, and father apart from the mythical accomplishments he performed on the track field, the baseball diamond, and the football gridiron. What makes Bo’s achievements so compelling is that, as Pearlman explains, Bo was indeed the last superman-like athlete to pull off his feats before the era of unlimited technology and endless cameras captured every angle of every play from little league to the Big Leagues.
  
  I love how Pearlman uncovered the complexity of Bo. He examines a hard life that gives us glimpses of Bo from childhood through his playing days as wild, reckless, cruel, mercurial, standoffish, defiant, selfish, and even at times frightening. He also examines a remarkable life that gives us portraits of Bo from childhood through his playing days as shy, sweet, kind, loving, undaunted, empathetic, compassionate, heroic, and selfless. In charting Bo’s career as a sports icon, Pearlman offers us both the superhumanness and humanness of Bo Jackson from his years of Herculean athleticism to his days as a humbled, fading star.
  
  Pearlman’s fluid prose and electrifying narrative capture Bo’s life like an unputdownable work of fiction—indeed like a myth carried on in the folk tradition of word-of-mouth stories. From Bo’s poverty-stricken childhood in Bessemer, Alabama with ten siblings in a small house with no father, to his talents at Auburn where he earned the prestigious Heisman Trophy, to his legendary performances before a hip injury shortened his career in the NFL and MLB, I immersed in every page of this riveting biography. Pearlman had me gripped to the challenges of Bo’s life the same way he had me reliving with delight the mesmerizing play-by-play spectacle of Bo’s unmatched talents of athleticism.
• 
  Trevor Seigler

  Americans love our tall tales, and especially our mythic beings imbued with powers far beyond the realm of mortal mankind. From Paul Bunyan to Luke Skywalker, pop culture abounds with tales of heroes who were gifted far more than any of us could ever be, but in real life "heroes" often seem just out of reach, unrealistic and fantastical. But a few real-life titans walk among us, and when I was a kid I knew of the best athlete to ever come around, a man who played two sports and could've played so much more (at least according to the Nike ads). He went down with a freak injury in the early days of 1991, and was never the same after. But his legend still resonates with those who were there, as well as subsequent generations who heard of him after the fact, who could've never seen him in action at the time but who can thanks to the internet. His name, of course, is Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson.
  
  Jeff Pearlman's "The Last Folk Hero" is a biography, to be sure, but it's also a recounting of Bo Jackson's legendary and ephemeral career, a period in time made all the more mythic by its fleeting nature. In less than a decade, Jackson went from the gridiron at Auburn to both the MLB and NFL playing fields, in a move that was unprecedented at the time and which remains so in many ways today. Had injury not come for him as it does for all sports immortals, could Jackson have been the best that ever was, in two sports? Impossible to say, but for the time that he was active, Bo was a force to be reckoned with.
  
  Pearlman, a legend in his own right in terms of his sportswriting, recounts the ups and downs of Jackson's impoverished upbringing at the hands of a single mother in Alabama, where being Black and poor meant that your options in life were limited. With minimal effort, Jackson managed to be a star in two different sports in high school, and when he arrived at Auburn University in the early Eighties, he continued to play both baseball (his passion) and football (which he was good at, but which never held his affections in quite the same way). After upsetting expectations by not taking the (NFL) money and running, he went to the Kansas City Royals and managed to be a name worth knowing during his brief heyday as a two-sports phenom. The numbers might not have matched up with the legend, but the legend was of a pure athlete who couldn't be contained by mere stats alone; Jackson was a force of nature no matter what he was doing.
  
  Pearlman goes over Jackson's brief moment in the spotlight with a fine-toothed comb, seeking out stories that seem too good to be true but also too good to ignore. In that way, he turns what could be a run-of-the-mill sports biography into an examination of our need for myths, and the costs when those myths come face to face with reality. For a moment in time, "Bo Knows" was the slogan of the era. But just as soon as he came into being as the legendary figure of myth, an injury on the football field decimated his left hip and caused his career to come to a slow, grinding halt. He'd hang up his football cleats after the injury, and spend a brief time in baseball before stepping away in the aftermath of the 1994 player's strike.
  
  Bo Jackson is rendered here in all his contradictions, all his faults and skills, and Pearlman is unfailingly honest about Jackson's personality (the harsh, bully-like tactics he used sometimes mixed with the moments of genuine warmth towards a teammate or heartbreak over a sick child's passing). Bo Jackson is, in many ways, one of the last mythic beings of American life, someone whose actions had to be seen to be believed, and even then you might not believe what you just saw. Jeff Pearlman has written, arguably, one of the best sports biographies in recent memory, and all about a man who had a short career playing two sports. But had Bo stayed healthy...well, that's a myth for another time.
• 
  Laura Rogers

  I was a graduate student at Auburn University when Coach Pat Dye and Bo Jackson were both there. It was an amazing time! Bo was an outstanding athlete and played several sports at the highest level. So, I was excited to read The Last Folk Hero. The research and writing were top notch (hence the four stars). However, Bo Jackson has been permanently knocked off of the heroes pedestal for me. I found his behavior as a boy and as a man abhorrent. It is inexcusable no matter where or how you grew up. If you want to learn more about Bo Jackson's amazing athletic feats, then this is the book for you. If you don't want to be disappointed in the man then this will be a tough read.
  
  I received a drc from the publisher via Netgalley.
• 
  Dave

  I really couldn’t put this one down.
• 
  Angie

  When I was a kid, we used to go to my grandparents' house every Saturday. My grandpa always had a ballgame on, and I used to sit and watch the Royals with him and read his back issues of Baseball Digest and The Sporting News and became a huge Royals fan. The Royals of my youth were a fun team to watch, mostly, and no one was more fun than Bo Jackson, though I was too young to appreciate just how special an athlete he was.
  
  Pearlman's biography of Jackson highlights just how special Jackson was as an athlete--it is filled with famous athletes with long careers describing some Jackson feat like, "I never saw anything like that before", "I will always remember that", "No one else could even come close", and "I still can't believe it." Unfortunately, due to injury, we only got to glimpse a few years of that potential.
  
  Jackson did not agree to be interviewed for the biography and is a relatively private person, so we don't get as much insight into him as a person--especially during and after the injury cut short his career. Much of what is here is from his childhood and early career--how we was raised by a single mother, struggled with a stutter, became a childhood bully, juggled two fiances (!), and his many accopmlishments in baseball, football, and track. At times, Jackson could be very generous and kind, at others prickly and mean-spirited, and mostly private and standoffish. So, I guess, human.
  
  This biography is best read with YouTube open, ready to watch highlights from Jackson's career.
  I had a lot of fun watching everything from Auburn football plays to The Throw, to scaling walls and mammoth homeruns, to Nike commercials and even his TecmoBowl dominance!
  
  A side note: Pearlman attributes the title to Joe Posnanski, who called Jackson the last folk hero because so many of his legendary accomplishments took place before replays were ubiquitous and shared on the internet (and many taking place in practices or pre-games and not televised at all). Though I have no complaints with how Pearlman told Jackson's story, I can't help but wish we had Posnanski's bio of Bo, instead.
• 
  Tyler Burton

  A delight. Should be considered the definitive Bo Jackson biography.
• 
  Shaun

  Well researched and well written biography of a "Folk Hero". A lot of things I knew about Bo, but a ton I didn't were included. I think even non-sports people that enjoy biographies would get something out of this. Shame that Bo didn't want to be involved, but that doesn't take away from Pearlman's work.
• 
  Aaron Brown

  Pearlman always writes an entertaining sports biography and this is no exception. Bo Jackson is a legend and Mr. Pearlman does him justice. Lots of nuggets, revelations, insights and stories.
• 
  Geric

  Jumping into this book, I was hoping that this wouldn't be another one of those vehicles that would only kiss an athlete's ass and make him a superstar when he was just a regular ballplayer. With someone like Bo Jackson, though, if you've been following sports for awhile, you've probably heard the crazy stories like him breaking a bat on his leg and running up a wall. This book sums it up all and then some.
  
  I have another of Jeff Pearlman's books in my Kindle shelf but this is my first foray into his writing. From what I gleaned off this book, he does his due diligence and research.
  
  Not only writing about the good, Pearlman also writes the bad. Not only was Jackson a gifted athlete, but he was also reclusive and often shunned the spotlight in favor of simply enjoying the sports he played. He displayed his gifts without asking for the accolades, and though at times the writing made it seem like Bo was about Bo, he was still the quintessential teammate and mentor/leader.
  
  Following his early formative years through high school to college and into the pros, this book paints the myth as well as the real human being. Those two are intertwined and Pearlman exquisitely unravels the two so that each are explained. At the end of the day, those Paul Bunyan-esque stories are just like that: you don't know if they really happened, but there are scores of witnesses who swear it happened. That's exactly how the book starts, with "eyewitness" accounts of what happened when a commercial plane full of Chicago White Sox players started to have engine trouble and in steps who else but Bo Jackson. Did he save the plane from crashing? Maybe. Maybe not. But this book explains everything that led up to that mythical status. No matter if these stories happened or not, the legend endures.
• 
  Aaron Wertheimer

  I've read and enjoyed other books by Jeff Pearlman, and found him to be a solid sports writer. But unfortunately this one on Bo Jackson is off. Tonally it's kind of a mess. He spends way too much time in the beginning trying to make some point about how Bo is a legend, but also human. It gets old fast. And then there's the major problem, namely, that Pearlman doesn't interview Bo for the book, instead relying on interviews with (many) people who know and had experiences with Bo, and transcripts of decades-old interviews with the subject. When Bo declined to be interviewed for the book, that should've been the end of this project. Especially because Pearlman seems to have some sort of unspoken beef with Bo, which comes through in his snide attitude toward the subject. There are some nice passages, such as the bit about Bo's character in Super Tecmo Bowl, but there are simply too many moments where he seems to want to cut Bo down, or to show how he was occasionally kind, but often an asshole who was disliked by his teammates. Which may have been true, but he focuses on the negative too much, instead of having any type of insight into where Bo's gruff personality may have originated. Pearlman makes obnoxious references to Bo's penis on multiple occasions. Come on, there's no need to put that type of stuff in here. I mean, Bo is alive and well, so you can't exactly create a definitive biography on a subject who won't give you an interview. Pearlman's apparent disdain for the subject ends up making this bio very uneven. It left me with a sour taste.
• 
  Sera

  I loved this book. The author follows the life of Bo Jackson from his early childhood to present day.
  
  Remember "Bo Knows"? I sure do. Bo was the first modern day athlete to play two professional sports within the same year. What I didn't know was that Bo was also an excellent track and field athlete, who participated and won the decathlon. Bo was not a distance runner, but his amazing speed in the sprint events and his tremendous jumping ability in those events, led him to being able to avoid the distance events while still giving him an opportunity to win.
  
  It was fun to read all of the "he did what?" moments throughout Bo's career. The book also provides solid insight into Bo the person who would as easily kick your ass for making fun of him to visiting a sick child in the hospital or organizing a bike a thon to raise money for families in Alabama after a terrible hurricane devastated that state. Hard on the outside, Bo was also super soft on the inside. He also didn't really care that much about sports. He just showed up and did his thing with little effort or time invested in training. Bo Jackson was truly the last folk hero of sports, and he did it (like everything else in his life) his way.
  
  If you like sports or have an interest in Bo Jackson, this book will entertain you and teach you a few things along the way. I highly recommend this book.
• 
  Jaclyn Hillis

  “Bo Jackson was better than us. That’s it, that’s all, no debate.”
  
  Have you ever heard of Bo Jackson? He is one of the greatest multi-sport athletes of all time. But he was also kind-of an asshole.
  
  He was a womanizer in college, and those parts were hard to listen to. But I respect him settling down when he found out (one of) his girlfriends was pregnant. And they’re still married today - wow!
  
  I hate to say it, but his career-ending injury (in football, at least) humbled him. He wasn’t the best teammate, and never seemed to want to put in the effort off the field (because he didn’t need to). Then when you have to go to PT or your career is most definitely over, you make changes.
  
  The injury details and physical therapy aspects were my favorite part of the book. Sorry, it’s the athletic trainer in me. I can’t help but think of how much would be different if he was playing today instead of in the early 1990’s.
  
  I’m so glad I saw this one advertised on television while I was working out at the gym, because I knew I had to have it. And I’m glad I read it. I learned so much about the man, the myth, the legend Bo Jackson!
  
  ———
  
  CW: racism, absent parent, infidelity, animal cruelty, injury detail
• 
  Ken Heard

  You read Jeff Pearlman books because he's Jeff Pearlman, not because of only the subject. Whether it's the 1986 New York Mets, Barry Bonds, the Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Lakers, Roger Clemens or now Bo Jackson, the book is going to be fantastic.
  
  I never really was excited about Bo Jackson when he played. I wasn't a Kansas City Royals fan and I didn't follow the Oakland Raiders. Now, after reading Pearlman's book, I realized how great Jackson could have been had he not suffered injuries, had a better attitude toward practice and was more of a team player rather than an egotistic person.
  
  Despite Jackson not granting interviews with Pearlman, the author writes a complete look at the player from a near-fatherless childhood to his devotion to his own children. He also shows Jackson's warts... the refusal to sign autographs, his crudeness (read about how Jackson plays ping pong and what he uses for a paddle), his whining about injuries and his battles with teammates.
  
  But he also shows the heart. Jackson befriends kids in hospitals, pays for funerals and cares for the downtrodden. Jackson is a complex enigma and Pearlman shows that.
  
  I also liked the way he wrote much of the book in a sort of mythical feel, replicating the legends and stories of Jackson's feats.
  
  I knew when I saw Pearlman had a new book out, regardless of the subject, I would like it. I was definitely not disappointed.
  
• 
  Chris

  How do you write a biography when the subject does not provide much in the way of support? Well, Jeff Pearlman found a way. What initially appears as hagiography is an objective account of Bo Jackson’s life.
  
  I’d always been a fan of Bo’s but after reading this book I find him less admirable. The stuff of tall tales, in real life he could be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One minute a bully, the next a mentor you would die for. Indeed a complex man.
  
  One thing is clear, probably the greatest natural athlete the world has seen. But lazy. Didn’t apply himself. Let’s not forget he wasn’t an Olympian like Jim Thorpe.
  
  I don’t believe this account left anything out. It shows the real Bo Jackson. And unlike Jim Thorpe, Bo knows how to get over and not be exploited.
• 
  Andrew

  Who knows Bo? Jeff Pearlman does! Pearlman writes a compelling biography of Bo his triumphs and failures and particularly the what might have beens. Pearlman brings the enigmatic Bo to life(as best as possible—Bo is notoriously tight lipped) and equally as interesting brings Bo’s team mates and the owners of the teams he played for to life. It is these characterizations that really make the book zing. That as well as Pearlman’s writing style—full of sarcasm, wit, and insight. He is my favorite writer who writes about sports. I’ve read his USFL book and will read all of his other books in short order. You should too.
• 
  Caitlyn Price

  From an Auburn/Bo Jackson fan perspective, as well as from a reading perspective, this was an incredible book. So much work went into it, and at times it read like a novel. I loved hearing from so many different people who had met Jackson over his career. This was such an enjoyable reading experience!
• 
  Grace Carbone

  One of the best sports books and just general non-fiction books I’ve ever read. A fascinating man, who was a good guy despite any surliness or cuteness he exhibited (and continues to exhibit). Genuinely devastated that this book had to end, which is a good indication that you’ve just read a great book.
• 
  WM D.

  The last folk hero was a good book. At first I thought I was surprised by what I was reading but as I got further along I realized that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read a sports book anymore.
• 
  Greg Holman

  This was long, but really dug into almost every aspect of his career, both good and ugly!
• 
  David Kateeb

  Another fabulous piece of work by the great Jeff Pearlman. What a legend Bo Jackson was.
• 
  Dachokie

  Bo Jackson was finishing his college career as I started mine, so I was able to witness his athletic exploits in real time as an adult. While the Bo v Boz was probably the most infamous, he ALWAYS seemed to provide SportsCenter with with video fodder throughout the year (him climbing the outfield wall is my personal favorite). Then, just as it seemed Jackson was only teasing us with his bag of tricks (and you always felt the best was yet to come), he disappeared … and I mean, he really disappeared.
  
  Save a highly watchable ESPN “30 for 30” episode several years ago, Bo Jackson has become mostly a memory for those old enough to appreciate his athletic greatness. Perlman’s book is both timely (as Jackson just turned 60 a few days ago) and well-deserved. Jackson was both great, flawed, different, and enigmatic. This combination of traits may define him as “human”, but this combination also makes his story more interesting and worth telling. Perlman does an excellent job of meshing the immortal and mortal qualities of Bo Jackson into an engrossing, humorous and enjoyable read. Yes, it IS a sports-dominant book, but it’s a deep-dive into the man behind the myriad of so many myths (some being true). Perlman’s writing style is fun, engaging and really flows. What I thought would possibly be a 440 page slog, ended-up being something I wanted to read at every opportunity.
  
  I always appreciated Jackson the athlete and loved Jackson the Nike icon (the “Bo Knows” era is arguably the fun high-mark in Nike’s history). But Bo Jackson, the person, is what really provides the book’s mojo. Perlman broadly expands the spotlight shining on the athletic field and gives us highly detailed glimpses into Jackson as a son, teammate, husband and father … and while the ugly frequently rears its head, the good always wins. The book reveals Jackson to be a much deeper and complex person than we saw on TV and almost the antithesis of the superstar athletes we see and hear today.
  
  I’ve always pondered the “what if” scenarios had Jackson been able to retire from sports on his own terms and I thought that was why I missed his presence. But Perlman’s book reminded me that it was how Jackson separated his public/private life that I miss the most. The celebrity athletes of today seem to force their private lives and opinions on us 24/7 via social media and “look-at-me” antics on and off the field of play. Jackson wanted none of that and boy do I miss those days!
• 
  Erikka Durdle

  Fun story. The author was very enthusiastic about his subject.
• 
  JS

  Jeff Pearlman can’t write a bad book, but this was as good as his best - The Bad Guys Won. Everyone in my generation seems to remember/love Bo Jackson, and this book gives great insight to his story. Highly recommend