Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: No Average Joe
11/2/2016 5:11:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsports.com Special Contributor
HE IS NO AVERAGE JOE. HE IS JOE JONES, HUSBAND, FATHER, GRAD STUDENT AND, OH YES, THE WILDCATS LINEBACKER AND AN INTEGRAL PART OF THEIR SPECIAL TEAMS AS WELL. AN INTRODUCTION. . . .
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HIS TYPICAL DAY goes like this. He wakes around five, which is before his wife and baby stir. He departs his Evanston apartment for the football facility, where he eats breakfast and undergoes treatment, watches film, attends meetings and eventually heads out to practice around eight. He gets more treatment after its conclusion, and maybe puts in some extra film work, and then he heads home, where he spends some time with his wife and his baby. He may also do some school work in this interim, or maybe watch some more film. But, no matter what, he leaves at 5:15 for the downtown campus, where he has classes in finance or accounting or organizational behavior that last from 6:15 to 9:15. He now heads back home, arriving there around 9:45, and, he says, "I eat dinner and hold my baby for a little bit. Starting to be able to bottle feed her now, which is awesome. She was a breast fed baby. I've been able to bottle feed her twice now. It's been fun to be able to partake in that part. Then go to sleep and wake up and do it all over again."
PAT FITZGERALD SAYS, "He hasn't taken any time off, which is unbelievable. He hasn't asked. I'd give him whatever he needs, quite frankly. I told him about sleep being overrated leading up to it, and I think now he realizes exactly what I was talking about. But he's handled it incredibly well. You can't say enough. He's mature beyond his years. Very, very happy for he and his wife. The baby's healthy, doing well. It's a lot on his plate. But he's handling it great."
"Yeah, I do a little bit," Jones says with a chuckle when asked if he indeed does know now that sleep is overrated. "But she's actually—a lot of people obviously say you won't get much sleep. But she's been a very chill baby. On average, she wakes up once or twice a night, which is a blessing. I'm like, 'Hallelujah. I need it.' She's three weeks and two days old now, and she's had maybe one or two nights where she's woken up more than five times. But usually she wakes up, eats, she may lay there awake a little bit, but she won't fuss, and then she'll fall right back asleep. Two nights ago she slept for nine hours. I was like, 'Thank you, baby girl. I needed it. I needed it.' She's been a blessing. There have been moments where I've been like, 'I need you to go to sleep so that dad can sleep because dad has practice in the morning.' But overall she's been great. She's been awesome. God has definitely blessed us with a very chill baby."
STILL. He is getting by on some six hours of sleep each night. "If anybody were to have a kid on our team and handle it well, it's Joe. He's a great, great guy, and I can only imagine the kind of father he's going to be," says Nate Hall, who rotates with Jones at Sam. "He still comes to work everyday, still puts in the work he did before, and I'm sure he's putting in the work at home and helping his wife out."
"I love Joe," adds defensive tackle Tyler Lancaster. "I don't think I could do what he does. He's got a lot on his plate right now, obviously. But I'm happy for him and he seems genuinely happy. Even though he's probably tired all the time, he's happy. I love the guy. I'm happy for him."
"It's been rough. But I've embraced it," Jones himself says of his daunting routine. "I'm still learning how to get everything in, how to schedule. It would be easier if I just let my wife take care of our daughter and not necessarily spend too much time with her. But that's not what I want to do. I want to spend as much time with my child as I possibly can. So I'm still learning how to balance football, school, extra football, being a husband, being a father. It's been an amazing experience, I will say that. But it's definitely not easy."
HE IS FROM THE SMALL TOWN OF PLANO, which is some 57 miles west of the Loop, and he and his wife Amber met there at a church volunteer event when both were in the sixth grade. "She actually thought I was annoying at first," he recalls.
In the sixth grade? He is asked incredulously.
"In the sixth grade. Sixth grade through seventh and eighth grade," he insists, and now he laughs. "I eventually worked my way up. But we didn't start dating until the summer before my senior year." That was 2011. They were married in June of 2015.
THEIR BABY, Scarlette Elise, checked in at 19 1/2 inches and 8 pounds, 4 ounces at 4:20 on the morning of October 9. "I think it's the French spelling. But it's the spelling my wife liked, so I went with it," he says of the baby's given name. Elise, in turn, is the middle name of his mom and a family moniker that stretches back to his great, great grandmother.
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED is mentioned, and the question why is asked. Joe Jones smiles, recognizing the uniqueness of his situation, and then he says, "I felt it was right. Getting married, there were multiple things that went into it. I just felt there was no need for me to wait, at least in my eyes, and in her eyes as well. I know a lot of people would think, 'Why not wait 'til you're done with college? Why not wait 'til you're done with football? You've got all these things on your plate.' I obviously realized, yes, adding another thing to my plate would make it a little more difficult. But it would also help with some things. The fact that she's here rather than being away (in Plano). And outside of things like that, I love her. And I knew that she was the one I wanted to marry. Once I knew that, there was no reason to wait any longer to marry her."
And, if it's not too personal, why the baby now?
"No. That's not too personal," he says. "The baby wasn't planned. It definitely was not planned. But once we found out— I've always been excited to be a dad. Initially my plan was to wait probably another year or two before I had a kid, once I figured out where my life was going after college. But it happened and we embraced it. I love her to death. She's the second love of my life, next to my wife. It's been an amazing experience."
AS FOR HIS DAY JOB: He was a 200-pound running back in high school, who was recruited as a safety, who put on 20 pounds the summer before his freshman year, who was then switched to linebacker. (He now weighs 240.) Here he now spent a number of years laboring behind and learning from a series of estimable performers; Chi Chi Ariguzzo, Collin Ellis, Jimmy Hall and Drew Smith.
"They were all great mentors in front of me at Sam," he says. "I learned a lot from them, and was able to take reps when they needed to come out. I've had a big role on special teams. I love special teams. Special teams are probably my favorite part. Honestly. I obviously want to start on defense and play defense. But if I had to choose one, I could honestly say I'd prefer to start on all the special teams. I think special teams are a very big part— you know Coach Fitz says that's where our character lies. I love that. Now I'm on three special teams (kickoff, kick return and punt) and playing defense as well, so that's great. I get the best of both worlds."
Going through the process, waiting his turn— does that make this moment any sweeter?
"As much as I've wanted to be there in previous years where I thought I had a pretty good shot at starting and that not working out for me, being in this position, I definitely appreciate it a lot more than I did before," he says. "I accepted it and dealt with it and played special teams, but now that I'm here, I've definitely learned to appreciate the position a lot more— especially it being my fifth year, my last go-round. I'm trying to make every moment count, every game count."
"He's having a really good year," says Fitzgerald. "He's obviously had a ton thrown onto his life, onto his plate, from the standpoint of being a husband and now a father, and I think he's handled it absolutely incredible. I'm not surprised. Even if it is hard, he's not showing it, and we know as fathers, it is hard. Just really proud of him. I know his family is too."
HE HOSTED MATTHEW HARRIS on his official visit and the corners' recent retirement from football impacted Jones as well.
"It made me realize I had to take advantage of every opportunity that I get to play this game. It can be over like that," he says, and here he snaps his finger.
AND FINALLY: Back in 2011 filming for the Superman installment called Man Of Steel was done in his hometown of Plano. His mom Shawn Dowd made it into the flick as an extra. "You can see her for half-a-second. A gas station blows up and she's running away from the gas station," he says. He too applied to be an extra, this one a soldier. "I figured I was big enough to play that role. I didn't get it," he says.
No matter. He is no Average Joe. He is Joe Jones, a star in real life, and that is far more important.
