MR. FIX-IT
Car fanatic Jones blossoms into standout guard for Buckeyes
Bernadine Jones remembers the gaze of her son. It was when he was a toddler and looking out on the traffic from the front stoop of their home in Brooklyn. The cars zipping by captivated Matt Jones, who learned to spot all types of vehicles like an auto encyclopedia.
“Once he would see the logo,” Bernadine said, “he would tell you the car.”
She found it an innocent hobby to indulge, gifting him Hot Wheels toy cars or driving him around the borough in their Toyota Corolla. It was his favorite car.
But football was different. For as much as Matt liked playing the game and pleaded to join an organized team, his parents held off until he reached middle school.
To Ian and Bernadine Jones, immigrants from Caribbean islands, the sport was largely unfamiliar. They instead watched cricket or soccer on weekends. Football felt too brutish for a boy.
“I was afraid at first,” Bernadine said.
Her preference was for him to go out for basketball or soccer and stay away from piles of tacklers. “Football was so rough,” she said. “I used to say, ‘Imagine one person falls and everyone jumps on them.’ That’s how we used to look at it.”
It took convincing from his older brother, Dwyll, who played in high school, to persuade them to sign him up for their Pop Warner affiliate, asserting it was a valuable activity that could instill toughness.
That decision laid out a decade-long path to his present role as the most tenured offensive lineman at Ohio State, a right guard who remains a critical presence for a rebuilding unit that will shape whether the Buckeyes return to the College Football Playoff this fall.