a couple of years ago the head golf professional at my favorite public golf courses in scottsdale talking stick (coore & crenshaw designed 36 holes, a 10 minute drive from modern yoga) calls me up & tells me that he would appreciate me doing him a solid & come out that friday to play a game with a sports guy guest...scott tells me that we will play as a twosome & that he will block out the tee times before & after our tee time to ensure nobody bothers us & that since shocky is a walker the guest will have his privacy riding solo in a golf cart (the guest apparently can't walk 18 holes)
tell scott sure no big deal
introductions are made on the putting green, it's bo jackson
so we play the back tees that day (which are 6800+ yards with firm/fast fairways), jackson can pound his drives but hits a couple drives 50 yards off line into the caca...bo tells me that since he got hip replacement surgery that a couple of times a round he can't clear his left side which results in blocked lost ball drives to the right which kinda drives him crazy...shocky shoots a 79 & beats bo by 5 strokes, jackson loses our 5 bucks bet but its never paid up after the round when we do our bro hug on the 18th green
we never talk about sports (which is a relief to bo but honestly its because i got zero interest in pro sports teams/athletes outside of our golden bear pga golfers)
interestingly when i tell him that i wuz raised by a tiger mom who tole me i could do anything in life, he shares with me that he wuz primarily raised by his grandmother who beat the **** out of him & that's the origin of his mental toughness/competitiveness
bo tells me the following story about his daughter morgan, this is a loose recollection of his words:
so his only daughter morgan is in high school & she's already one of the fastest girls in illinois (his primary home is in lemont a suburb of chicago which is home to the cog hill golf complex, jackson mostly plays public courses) & she already got a scholly offer to auburn which he's very proud of
anyways bo is not a dumb azz & he's heard thru the local chatter (his sons) that there are high school boys who wanna devirginize his pretty daughter so when morgan tells him that she's gonna go on her 1st date both morgan & his longtime wife linda are very anxious about how dad is gonna treat the young man when he shows up at the house
"daddy, please be nice to marcus"-morgan
"bo, do not ruin our daughter's 1st date, ok?"-linda
so marcus rings the doorbell & is welcomed into the house
bo says excuse me but can i have a moment alone with marcus in my study/hunting trophy room
morgan & linda share a nervous eye exchange & marcus follows a quiet bo thru the house to his man cave
they eventually arrive to the room & still without a word bo turns his back on marcus & walks over to his work table & pulls out a ginormous silver bullet & asks marcus how his name is spelled
a sweating marcus spells out his first & last name while bo writes something on the bullet with a special sharpie
jackson finally walks over to marcus (who is a star running back at the local high school) & tells him to open his hand
marcus complies with this request & bo puts the silver bullet which has the young man's full name inscribed on it into his palm & tells him:
"marcus, if you disrespect my daughter in any way i will hunt you down to the end of earth & put this bullet in your head, do you fully understand me?"
"yes sir, mr jackson!"
marcus brings his daughter morgan home on her 1st date at 9:45 pm
bo knows (dad of the year)#