Who are the best athletes who have played multiple sports? Inspired by this tweet, I thought I would try to answer that question (and no, [autotag]Tim Tebow[/autotag] does not make the list).
I am limiting this list to “modern” guys who played professional sports since 1960, when things like professionalism in the major sports and integration became more common. So you also won’t see trailblazers like [autotag]Jackie Robinson[/autotag] or [autotag]Jim Thorpe[/autotag] on this particular list.
My criteria was to find athletes who excelled at multiple sports and reached the pinnacle of at least one. You won’t find guys who just scraped by in multiple sports here. Let’s get to it.
#1 Bo Jackson
The “Bo Knows” campaign was one of the most memorable and best sports advertising campaigns ever. And it was all driven by [autotag]Bo Jackson[/autotag]’s freakish athletic ability and feats, before he suffered a tragic hip injury after the 1990 season in a playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
[autotag]Bo Jackson[/autotag] won the Heisman Trophy. He was the first overall pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but stunned everyone when he opted to start his professional career in baseball with the Kansas City Royals. He then began playing for the Los Angeles Raiders a year later, and was an All-Star and Pro Bowler in both sports. In 1989, he led off the All-Star Game with a home run to dead center.
There’s also this play, which is one of the highlights of my youth in baseball, and this one where he ran through Brian Bosworth.