Giving back freely
Byron Jones returns to hometown to teach game, life lessons
NEW BRITAIN — Byron Jones grew up around the corner, on Slater Road.
He was so young the first time he rode his bike to the Police Athletic League fields on the corner of Osgood Avenue, he doesn’t even remember it.
“It all started for me here at PAL,” Jones said Saturday morning as he was about to begin his free football camp for area kids.
“My brothers came through this system. I started playing football because they were playing football. Seeing the community, the support, the love coaches have for the players really made all the difference for me. It really helped me fall in love with the game of football, and it led to my career.”
Jones lives most of the year in Miami Beach, near his most recent football address, but this thing between he and his hometown of New Britain, it’s a little different. He is financing the Osgood Shootout basketball event next week at the high school, saving that 30-year-old local institution, which offers scholarships, from disappearing. And he has been running this football camp for years, this time on the new turf at Al Beatty field.
“Being able to come back here and be a part of a single-day camp and help the kids enjoy life a little bit and have some fun on this new field the right way, it means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s really a selfish thing because I enjoy it probably more than the kids do.”
More than 180 signed up for the camp this year, and Jones planned football and life lessons for them, things he learned at PAL, at St. Paul High in Bristol, UConn and the NFL.
Jones, 30, arriving well before 8 a.m., was characteristically energetic and upbeat, though his football career is apparently ended prematurely and not on terms he would have envisioned.
Last February Jones posted on the platform formally known as Twitter that he could no longer run or jump, the skills that made him a a first-round draft pick, an All-Pro cornerback and one of the most remarkable athletes ever to come from these parts.
“It was an honor and privilege to play in the NFL but it came at a regrettable cost I did not foresee. In my opinion, no amount of professional success or financial gain is worth avoidable chronic pain and disabilities. …”
Jones was released by the Dolphins in March. He offered no updates about his health or football future; he wanted to keep the focus on his community. As for the raw emotion of his tweet at the time of the combine, which made national headlines and drew support from around the football and sports world:
“More than anything, I just want to make sure guys understand the cost of playing at this level, making guys realize it doesn’t come free,” he said.
Jones became the highest-paid corner in league history when he signed an $82 million deal as a free agent, $57 million guaranteed, in 2020, but remember this when NFL players, most recently and notably the Giants’ Saquon Barkley have their contract issues: It’s a career that can end any second, and players must cash in while they can.
Jones said he isn’t watching much football right now but is willing to share his experiences. On Monday he will visit UConn’s practice, and he’s excited about what he has seen going on at his alma mater.
“It’s really incredible,” Jones said. “One thing that really stands out to me is (coach Jim Mora’s) charisma, his ability to create a vision and have the kids believe that and work towards that.
“It seems like he connects with the kids on a deep level, and the kids really trust that. His ability to bring UConn up and make it something that kids want to be a part of, this Cinderella story, this university where we had success five or 10 years ago but fell off the train tracks, this generation of UConn athletes are the ones putting it back on the map, particularly with football.”
Right now Jones is simply enjoying life day to day and planned a day of activities with the kids who grew up in the neighborhood, his neighborhood, walking and running and riding their bikes on the streets he did. One of the items in his lesson plan came from Jude Kelly, his legendary high school coach.
“He would coach simple things,” Jones said. “One of the best things I learned was ‘do the right things even when no one is looking.’ I’m actually going to teach that today.
“As simple as throwing your trash in the garbage can, not on the ground, or when you’re driving, stopping at the stop sign even when no one else is on the road, simple things that compound to make you a good person, high character, it permeates through the rest of your life.”
Jones has left his mark in football, but he has so much more to offer, and for him passing it on in his hometown still means the most.
At UConn, the realignment blues
UConn athletic director David Benedict was watching football practice Saturday, his reaction to the earth-shaking conference realignment developments later in a week that began with optimism: “We’re focusing on what we can control, which is to be as successful as we can.”
Well beyond UConn’s control was the 108-yearold Pac 12 conference virtually disintegrating overnight after a lackluster TV deal was revealed, leaving teams other than UConn for the Big 12, though it had long been considered the (big) apple of Commissioner Brett Yormark’s eye.
Will the ACC expand now? Or will it lose teams like Florida State and Clemson and be compelled to come after UConn? Is the time ripe for a new football arrangement, now that schools like Stanford, Cal, Oregon State and Washington State are in a situation similar to what UConn was in 10 years ago? Will UConn, as an independent, be able to upgrade its football schedule with the schools left out in the cold?
Someday a better way than the NCAA’s Wild West, every-school-for-itself approach to conference alignment must be found. In the meantime, it’s worth repeating that when UConn had some control of its destiny, it put