Former Bengal Kevin Walker relishing life after Bo Jackson curse finally lifted
CINCINNATI (BVM) – When one hears the name Bo Jackson, a plethora of career highlights come to mind. There’s the wall-climbing catch he made for the Kansas City Royals in a game against the Baltimore Orioles in 1989, the nearly 450-foot home run he launched in his first MLB All-Star Game appearance that same year, and of course all the legendary runs he made as a member of the Auburn Tigers and Los Angeles Raiders.
Despite the myriad of amazing plays traversing two sports, the book on Jackson cannot be completed without a chapter on Kevin Walker. Unfortunately for both Jackson and Walker, that chapter would be the conclusion.
During a playoff game in January of 1991 between Jackson’s Raiders and Walker’s Bengals, the Cincinnati linebacker tackled the Raiders running back near the sideline. What came to be known as the Bo Jackson Curse in the 513 area code would live on in Cincinnati Bengals folklore. For Walker, he became part of something superstitious completely unintentionally and finds it amusing that it is still talked about today in some circles.
“It’s ironic that this is still a subject of conversation,” Walker said. “Going back to that very day, that was just a very routine play that was just on the sideline. There was nothing out of bounds late or anything like that. It was just a freak accident that when he was trying to break the tackle, I was pulled back.”
Initially, the Cincinnati linebacker thought very little of the play and assumed Jackson might have just taken an awkward tumble.
“At the time, I thought he fell on the football,” Walker said. “So I thought he maybe knocked the wind out of himself because he got up off the ground and he walked off the field. And in fact, I talked to him after the game, going up the tunnel and he said that he was a little sore, but he would be back next week.”
The Raiders would go on to win the game without Jackson and the star running back would never play again in the NFL and thus the curse was born. Cincinnati would not sniff another playoff victory until this past January and Walker would be forced into early retirement due to a career-ending injury of his own in 1991. The Maryland Terrapin graduate would quickly gain a new passion, however, after being forced to hang it up early at the age of 26.
“What I was up to was a whole host of things,” Walker said of post-playing career endeavors. “I had boys right out the gate and I had a daughter so three kids in 15 months so that consumed me right out the gate. I spent some time coaching Little League football, Little League baseball and I even coached four years at [Archbishop] Moeller High School so I got a chance to coach my son.
“I had an interesting perspective. And I think that coaching had an opportunity for me to utilize that platform to educate and perhaps make a difference in some of these kids’ lives. … My experience in high school, college, and even the NFL, what it took to reach that level, the type of commitment, commitment to doing in school, academically, that type of thing. So I think that gave me the platform to not only certainly impact my boys’ lives, who were very disciplined and great athletes and went to college on scholarships as well. So I think that you have that experience in the NFL certainly allowed me to raise a great message that makes sense.”
After his sons had moved on past the high school level, Walker returned home to the Garden State where he had graduated high school in West Milford, New Jersey, about an hour west of New York City.
“Now I spent 20 years in the construction and on the onset of the pandemic I actually embarked upon a career change and I’m now in the computer industry,” Walker said. “I worked for a computer reseller based out of New Jersey. I’m happy to be in a new business and we’ll go from there.”
Mostly separated from his football life and enjoying his newfound career interests, it always sits in the back of Walker’s mind about that faithful day in January of 1990. The curse that ensued after that infamous play is something that Walker actually finds quite amusing and fascinating that people still bring it up all these years later.
“Fast forward 30 years, we’re still talking about the curse and that play was the cause behind this whole thing here in Cincinnati, which is hilarious. I mean, the rituals and everything talking about the curse of Bo Jackson is why the Bengals have not won a playoff game since then, which you know, was 33 years ago something like that, 31 years?”
This past January, that curse was broken and then some as the Bengals reached the Super Bowl for the first time since 1988 before ultimately falling to the Los Angeles Rams. Despite the disappointing end, Walker was happy to be around the Queens City to soak in all the emotion of being around a decades-long curse ending.
“It was, it was great. I mean, it was a long time,” Walker said. “The excitement the electricity was back in the city was awesome for that next generation was never seen, and that’s talking about my boys are almost 30 years old they have never experienced a playoff win for the Cincinnati Bengals. … There was a text going around. And it really gets on my mind that no one in the history of the world has ever texted about a Bengals win. The last Bengals win was whatever it was in 1990… so it was something that gave you some perspective of how long it’s been since we’ve won.”
Walker reveled in the fact that there had been a whole generation of Bengals fans who have yet to witness a playoff victory for the team. He also, jokingly, added how great it was to finally return to public life in the southeast Ohio area.
“The best part of about it is the curse is broken so now I can come back out on the streets,” Walker said.
