CT native Jones highlighted dangers of football with retirement
Byron Jones left St. Paul-Bristol for UConn in 2010 and became an NFL prospect over four seasons as a Husky.
Jones, a New Britain native, was the 27th overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft on the heels of an unforgettable athletic showing at the draft combine. He became an All-Pro cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys before securing an $82 million contract with the Miami Dolphins in 2020.
Yet at age 30, Jones appears finished with football.
Jones abruptly ended his career with a February tweet that referenced his physical issues. He said he “can’t run or jump because of my injuries sustained playing this game,” contrasting his current state to his combine performance that included an unofficial world record for the standing long jump (12 feet, three inches).
What happened? Jones had knee issues and missed the entire 2022 season after having ankle and
Achilles surgery. The issues have apparently left a lasting impact on one of the great pure athletes to come out of Connecticut.
And his path has led to some in and out of the game to consider the toll football takes on the body.
“Unfortunately, we play a violent sport,” said UConn receiver coach Kashif Moore, who was Jones’ teammate at UConn. “A gladiator sport where guys do get hurt and injured. But he had a great career and he is a great person more importantly.”
Moore pursued an NFL career before moving into coaching. He remains committed to the sport.
But he also acknowledges the risks. His boss, Jim Mora, is a football lifer, the son of an NFL coach who has also coached at the highest level in college and professionally. Mora doesn’t know Jones, but he tweeted at him after the announcement in February.
“I have a lot of respect for his ability to step away from the game he has played his entire life,” Mora said. “That is hard to do. It just shows how intelligent and how self-aware he is. I just have a lot of respect for the guy.”
And Mora, the former coach of the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks, understands what Jones has endured.
“It is a brutal sport,” Mora said. “It takes a tremendous toll on these young men’s bodies. I don’t think that people have a true appreciation of what these players put themselves through.”
Jones played for Randy Edsall and Paul Pasqualoni at UConn. Pasqualoni, a Connecticut native, coached at Syracuse and spent time in the NFL with high-level players.
In high school, Jones learned under Connecticut coaching legend Jude Kelley at St. Paul.
“I am glad that he is getting out,” Kelly said. “Because he is still young. He was so good to so many people and he had a good run there with the Cowboys. I was sad that he couldn’t play this past year, but I was enjoyed when I heard that he is not going to play anymore, because he could be anything. He
could be a lawyer or a politician, anything. He is smart, he has charisma like crazy, and he loves people. When I found out that he isn’t going to play, I smiled.”
From his high school coach to NFL greats, Jones’ story has caused a ripple throughout football.
Jones’ initial tweet sparked the conversation about the NFL, as he looked ahead to the April draft while announcing the end of his career.
“It was an honor and privilege to play in the NFL but it came at a regrettable cost I did not foresee,” Jones tweeted. “In my opinion, no amount of professional success or financial gain is worth avoidable chronic pain and disabilities. Godspeed to the draft class of 2023.”
The reaction on social media was swift.
“I like almost cried reading this,” Jones’ former Cowboys teammate Dez Bryant tweeted in response. “Know this feeling and I got criticized and destroyed for speaking my truth. Thank you, Byron. You always been a real 1, this make me wanna continue to go hard to get my point across.”
Other players and people in the game responded, including Mora.
But while there was an initial wave of support, some in the game have a different view of the suggestion that the risk of playing football is not worth the potential reward.
“I respect Byron Jones, that is his experience, his opinion and he should share it,” Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Boselli said after being named the 2022 Walter Camp Man of the Year at the Omni Hotel in New Haven in March. “I am probably on the other side of the spectrum. I would have done anything to play the game and I have no regrets. My body is beat to hell, and I tell people all the time that if they let me do it all over again, I would.”
Boselli, 6-foot-7, played seven seasons at left tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars before his career ended in 2001 because of a chronic shoulder injury.
“The game of football has given me more than I ever gave it,” Boselli said. “There are aches and pains, it is harder to get out of bed, and I can’t do everything I want right now. But the tradeoff is worth it. I love what I did, and I felt like it was always my choice.”
Jones’ comments were directed toward his experience in the NFL, but his announcement highlighted the darker side of the game at all levels. There has been a focus on player safety, from youth football through the NFL.
What’s the experience in college? Jones spent five years at UConn, redshirting in 2010 before appearing in 43 games. He entered the NFL with no history of injury, but there have been players who carry lingering health issues into their professional careers,
Across the NCAA, there has been an effort over the last decade to better protect student athletes in all sports, with coaches and staff prioritizing health more than ever before.
“The mental health and physical health of our players has to be priority No. 1,” said Illinois coach Bret Bielema, who has been head coach at Wisconsin and Arkansas along with stints on NFL staffs with the Giants and Patriots. “I want to believe of all the D-I football teams, we are good about maintenance and understanding when players are at risk. Making them understand they need to speak up when something is bothering them. I think that is the biggest difference today, the awareness has to be through the roof.”
When asked if he believes that NCAA programs prioritize player health more than the NFL, Bielema responded, “I don’t know that.”
In 2014, the NCAA and U.S. Department of Defense partnered to launch a study on the effect of concussions on college athletes. In 2018 the study was expanded further to learn more about the long term health effects of studentathletes playing football. It was expanded a third time in 2021.
In 2022, The National Institute of Health published a survey study on the “Association of Playing College American Football With Long-term Health Outcomes and Mortality.”
The survey found that “former living players who completed a survey had a significantly higher prevalence of cognitive impairment disorders, recurrent headaches, cardiovascular disease, and hypercholesterolemia but a lower prevalence of diabetes. Although overall mortality among all former players was significantly lower than that in the general US male population, mortality from brain and other nervous system cancers was higher.”
The NCAA Football Rules Committee met in Indianapolis in February to discuss the possibility of shortening games to reduce injuries. One proposal included allowing the game clock to continue running when a team makes a first down, other than in the final two minutes either half.
At the professional level, players put their faith in the organizations they play for.
“At that level you try to do everything that you possibly can to maintain your body,” Moore said. “You trust in the staff and the organization, that they are professionals at the end of the day. You just control what you can control.”
Jones has been laying low since his retirement, with only one tweet since his announcement: highlighting his Connecticut roots with a post about the UConn men’s basketball team in the Final Four.
“I am super proud of his journey and what he was able to accomplish,” Moore said. “I am glad that he is using his platform to educate. I looked at that as an educational opportunity for him to let people know his experience, what happened and what goes on at that level.”