The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Yale’s Rouse watches Jones become a sensation
Melvin Rouse had football practice Sunday, so Yale’s junior cornerback was able to catch only pieces of the Giants’ game on his iPhone. The full story, of course, already has caught New York’s imagination.
Daniel Jones replaced Eli Manning and in one afternoon everyone who mocked general manager Dave Gettleman for selecting Jones sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Duke — geniuses like me — fell quiet. In its place was the cash register caching of No. 8 jerseys flying off the shelves. In its place only four discouraging words could be heard: “It’s only one game.”
After Jones hit on 23 of 36 passes for 336 yards, a pair of touchdown passes without an interception, he was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Yet it was the second of two rushing downs, the 7yard run that dramatically lifted the Giants to a 3231 victory over Tampa Bay, that suddenly injected hope into New York’s football future. His media availability Wednesday after his first NFL start drew far more than the regular beat writers. Cameras whirring, media crowding, the moment struck at the heartbeat of the Big City’s new sensation.
This would lead Rouse, who has known Jones since the eighth grade in Charlotte, N.C., to make only one guarantee. None of it will go to his head.
“Daniel Jones is all about being consistent,” Rouse said. “He’s not going to be hungover on Week 1. He’ll be ready to get out there for Week 2 and be ready for the new challenge. That’s Daniel Jones.”
After transferring to Charlotte Latin School as an eighthgrader, Rouse started to practice with the varsity. That’s how he met a certain sophomore quarterback.
“He was 511. He was skinny Daniel,” Rouse said of Jones who reportedly weighed 148 pounds at the time. “A lot has changed, but what hasn’t changed is his demeanor. The same personality. The same focus. Humble. Just a hard worker.”
This will help tell you something about Jones and his family. Rouse lived in East Charlotte. Daniel lived all the way across town.
“We went to the same quarterback coach Maurice Flowers (the “Quarterback Whisperer”) and we’d
throw every Sunday,” said Rouse, who ran routes for Flowers as a wide receiver. “At first my mom would take me, but sometimes she’d be busy, so Daniel told my mom he’d take me every week, he’d come get me.
“We started bonding. Spent a lot of time together on weekends, throwing, building chemistry. Remember, at the end of the day, I’m two years younger than him. We weren’t in the same grade or knew each other that long. What we ended up doing in high school is a credit to all the hard work we did.”
Rouse would play in four consecutive state championship games. He caught 10 touchdown passes, made 60 tackles and had four interceptions as Charlotte Latin won the state title his senior year.
Jones had played in the first two of those state title games, finishing as Latin’s school record holder with nearly 7,000 passing yards and 96 total touchdowns. He had sprouted from 5foot11, 148 pounds to 65, 200 pounds.
It all happened in a Jif, or a Skippy, or something like that.
“He would just eat a lot of peanut butter,” said Rouse, 59, 175. “I thought it was so weird at the time. At college, I’ve seen guys do it now. He really did have this tub of peanut butter and he’d just keep eating it while we were playing on his Xbox. At 16 and 17, I’m thinking, wow, he’s really dedicated. Little things like that early on, you start thinking he’s going to the league.”
Of course, Jones didn’t even get an FBS offer and had committed to Princeton before Duke stepped in at the last minute. Jones had to pay his own way until a scholarship opened.
Rouse, recruited as a cornerback, was the opposite. He had originally committed to Duke his sophomore year before deciding to attend the Ivy League.
“Some things happened with Duke, and Yale was one of the first schools to actually offer me (there are no athletic scholarships in the Ivy League) and work me through the process,” Rouse said. “I really connected with the guys on my visit, it was like a family.”
Rouse knows something about making a big splash, too. First play of 2018, he returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown against Holy Cross. First time in Yale’s nearly 150year history a season opened in such dramatic fashion. Injuries would keep him out of five games, but he did catch 15 passes for 177 yards. With Yale deep at receiver, Rouse switched to defense this season.
“Coach Reno talked to me over the spring, it was suggested,” Rouse said. “Whatever I can do to make an impact with the team I’m going to do. I enjoy playing the secondary. I never really had a preference growing up. It’s fun to score, but at the end of the day, defense wins championships.
“We didn’t sustain that start last year against Holy Cross and lost. We didn’t want to make the same mistake this year.”
The Bulldogs didn’t. Rouse had a key pass breakup last Saturday in the 2310 win over Holy Cross and had a big 36yard punt return in the fourth quarter. So now it’s on to Cornell for Rouse and on to the Redskins for his peanut buttereating big buddy.
The Jones family, of course, is an athletic one of some note. Daniel’s dad Steve played basketball at Washington & Lee, while his mom Becca played hoops at Davidson. Oldest daughter Becca played field hockey at Davidson where Daniel’s younger brother Bates plays basketball. The youngest Jones, Rouse insists, is the best athlete in the family. A nationalcaliber soccer goalie, Ruthie, is a freshman at Duke.
“Oh yeah, Ruthie is the best,” Rouse said.
“Daniel’s definitely not the most athletic (in the family),” Rouse recently told the New York Post. “Don’t let him lie to you.”
Rouse laughs when that quote is read to him. Jones, who graduated from Duke with an economics degree and played on an AAU basketball team for Jay Bilas, is unrelentingly humble. This is more a matter of Manning siblingstyle teasing. It should probably come as little surprise a photo was recently unearthed from a decade ago where Daniel was wearing — you guessed it — a No. 10 Eli Manning Giants jersey.
“Daniel comes from an incredible family,” Rouse said. “Steve Jones is one of the best guys I know. When everything was going on in my life, he was a huge role model, a male figure I could turn to for advice … Moving schools, transferring, they reached out and made sure I was comfortable. I was just some random kid. I’m really appreciative.
“Mrs. Jones is one of the sweetest ladies of all time. She always wants to take care of everyone. I’m really thankful for having the chance to know and have a relationship with their whole family.”