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In our view: Bo’s Biggest Trophy

Father's Day message is motivated by sports star's touching comment

The Columbian
Published: June 20, 2010, 12:00am

One of the many unresolved debates in the sports world is whether Bo Jackson was best at football or baseball. The jury not only is still out, it has adjourned permanently.

Football purists will point to Jackson’s 1985 Heisman Trophy, his status as No. 1 choice in the 1986 NFL draft, and his many accomplishments with the Los Angeles Raiders. Baseball fans will point to his four 20-home-run seasons and his spectacular defensive skills while playing for three Major League teams. Historians only complicate this debate, citing the fact that Jackson was the first athlete to be named an All-Star in each of America’s two most popular (arguably) sports.

What does Bo have to contribute to this discussion? “I would say my greatest achievement in life right now, my greatest achievement period is — and I’m still trying to achieve it — is to be a wonderful father to my kids.”

Today we use Jackson’s choice of his children over football and baseball as motivation for an especially robust: Happy Father’s Day!

Many fathers spend many hours teaching children about sports. For the first few years, the father is the best athlete the child will ever touch. But as children grow into adolescence, they drift toward that cruel, classic betrayal: “The older my father gets, the better he used to be in sports.” No matter, kids and dads still love sports together. Playing them, watching them, arguing about them.

So it should warm the hearts of fathers everywhere to learn that Bo Jackson — one man who reached twin sports pinnacles that cannot be climbed by ordinary fathers — is eager, proud and happy to descend from those heights and bow the knee before his children.

Although today’s message is aimed at fathers, here’s a last-minute suggestion to children and wives who might still wonder how to honor those special men: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in America today there are more than 14,000 hardware stores. We suspect most of them are open today, and if you don’t know a chuck wrench from a wood rasp, a gift card might suffice. Consider the seasonal timing involved here. We’d like to say spring will arrive any day now, but the truth is, Monday is the first day of summer.

More likely, you’ve already presented your Father’s Day gift, so the best strategy now might be to shower Pop with choices about where to go and what to do for the rest of the day. His dual answers might be “to the recliner” and “nothing.” Today, indulge him.

Here are a few other Father’s Day numbers, courtesy of the Census Bureau:

1.7 million — Number of single fathers in 2009; 15 percent of single parents were men.

158,000 — Estimated number of stay-at-home dads; these fathers cared for an estimated 290,000 children.

$2.8 billion — Amount of child support received by custodial fathers in 2007; they were due $4.3 billion. In contrast, custodial mothers received $18.6 billion of the $29.8 billion in support that was due.

36 — Percentage of children younger than 6 who had 15 or more outings with their father in the past month.

6 — Average times children 3 to 5 were read to by their fathers in the past week.

And our favorite statistic on the list: 66 — Percentage of children younger than 6 who are praised three or more times a day by their fathers.

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