For sports fans of a certain age, Bo Jackson is as close to a God as there could be. His unique blend of size and speed made him a great football running back and a fantastic baseball player in equal measure, with feats on both playing fields that regularly made "wow" feel like an inept description.
Jackson's story as a professional athlete is also a story of what might have been. During a Los Angeles Raiders' playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals in January of 1991, he suffered a major hip injury that would end his football career and alter the course of his baseball career in an instant.
As notably noted by the man himself in the ESPN "3O for 30" film "You Don't Know Bo", based on what doctors told him, Jackson's sheer power as a runner made that injury worse than it might have otherwise been.
Bo Jackson makes surprising appearance on list of best draft picks ever
Jackson won the Heisman Trophy in his final season at Auburn, 1985. After an odd situation as he tried to navigate finishing his final college baseball season before making a decision on what sport he would focus on professionally, Jackson was taken first overall by the Tampa Bay Buccaneeers in the 1986 NFL Draft.
Jackson didn't really want to play for the Buccaneers after the aformentioned situation, and he ultimately did not sign a contract with them. So he made his major league debut for for the Kansas City Royals in September of 1986, and he was eligible for the 1987 NFL Draft.
In the seventh round of that 1987 draft, a pick No. 183, the Raiders and Al Davis took Jackson.
So technically, based on the team he actually suited up for and when that team chose him chronologically time-wise, Jackson can be callled a seventh-round NFL draft pick.
With that technicality in mind, while also questioning if it's allowed, Justin Melo of SI.com included Jackson on his list of the best seventh-round draft picks in NFL history.
"Is including Bo Jackson here allowed? He was technically the No. 1 overall selection in the 1986 Draft, but refused to sign a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A two-way baseball star, legendary Raiders owner Al Davis saw an opportunity and drafted Jackson in the seventh round of the following (1987) draft. He'll forever be considered one of the greatest athletes of all time who enjoyed a four-year pro football career, and a nine-year pro baseball career."
Long-time members of Raider Nation hold Jackson in high regard, and consider him theirs. So it's only right he get recognized solely as a Raiders' draft pick, and as a seventh-round steal even if his career was notably shortened by a major injury.