Bo Jackson on Steroids? What If...

Before I get into the hypothetical, let me say first-I do not condone doping of any kind for any level in sports.  Not only is it cheating and can be harmful to your health, it sets a standard to all athletes that it's OK to do it as well. I don't like that both men and women competitors feel the pressure to dope just to feel they are in a "fair" playing field.

Furthermore, athletes are in the spotlight whether they like it or not. Outside of perfecting their craft, I believe professional athletes should set an example of an even higher level of integrity than their fans, simply because, fans strive to be like them. For all athletes that have made choices to stay clean, and have done the most with what they were given through discipline and sacrifice, you rule. There, enough on that.

With confirmation this week that Lance Armstrong had in fact used performance enhancing drugs, it made me think. If, arguably the best cyclist of all time could win a record 7 consecutive Tour de France Tour titles, how many would he have won if he wasn't doping? How many Home Runs would Barry Bonds have hit? Mark McGuire? Sammy Sosa? Would the Ultimate Warrior even have had enough energy to shake the ropes in a 'roid rage in Wrestlemania VII to come back and beat "Macho Man" Randy Savage, if he hadn't been taking steroids? (RIP Macho Man). Even though I believe doping is wrong, I can't ignore my primal instincts to think it's pretty cool that some people who have been given such amazing God-given physical attributes have also scientifically enhanced their bodies to be even bigger, faster, and crazier.

But, looking at it another way, what would have happened if other players went dirty too? What about some of my childhood favorites who presumably stayed clean throughout their careers? Would Kirby Puckett have actually won a MVP? Could Barry Sanders have reached 3,000 yards in a season with a little juice? What about the pear-shaped Greg Maddux? He is definitely one of the best pitchers in the last 25 years. Maybe he'd still be pitching and have 40 lbs more muscle? What about Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky? Is it even possible for them to have been any better?

That brings me to Bo Jackson. There were 5-6 years in the 1980's-early 90's where Bo Jackson owned the sports world, and he was easily the most talented athlete. He is still one of the fastest and most powerful athletes of all-time too. He is one of the few players in MLB history to have hit a home run over 500 feet, and he also holds the fastest NFL combine 40 yard dash time ever with 4.12 seconds. Due to his athletic prowess, Nike launched the "Bo Knows" campaign, which highlighted him dominating in every sport (except hockey.) During this time, Bo played outfielder for the Kansas City Royals, where he was one of the best young stars. When the baseball season ended in September/October, he would hop on a plane and go play professional football for the Los Angeles Raiders. Even coming out of a long MLB season and not in "football shape", Bo was still so good at  running back, he started in front of Hall of Famer, Marcus Allen. During this short time, Bo was in a league of his own.

As Bo Jackson still remains unlinked to any type of steroid use or doping of any kind, I got to wondering...

What would Bo Jackson have been able to accomplish if he would have taken steroids? How much better would he have been at, well, everything? What if we saw this dominance, got greedy and science would have taken it one step further to create a Steroid-injecting Bo Jackson clone? What is the least amount of Bo Jackson's that could have made a football team or baseball team competitive?

Seriously, think about this. A 1988 Bo Jackson-on steroids, cloned multiple times. You could call them Steroid Bo Jackson Clones or SBJC. I bet all you would need were 6 SBJC's to field a competitive baseball team. (2 outfielders, 2 infielders, a pitcher and a catcher).  In football, 3 or 4 SBJCs max because no one would be able to tackle or even catch one of these SBJC's. How would Tecmo Bowl been able to produce a Bo Jackson on juice? He was already 5 times faster than everyone else!!

Of course, steroids, and other forms of doping can have negative consequences for your body almost immediately. So, it's possible that Bo, and other great athletes could have actually been worse off if they had chosen the dark path. Still, I can only imagine What If...