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January 4, 2006
The workaholic running back tells Steve Rosenbloom what a privilege it is to be a Bear. I thought we would be capable of winning our division and winning the Super Bowl. Nothing's changed now.
Having a bye the first week and having a home game and being two games away from the Super Bowl, it's definitely a reality.
I'm a workaholic. I feel like the harder you work, the more you're going to get a break.
My heroes growing up were my dad and Walter Payton.
I used to sit in kindergarten and the first grade, and I remember drawing the Chicago "C." Sometimes I would get in trouble in class because we were supposed to be doing our schoolwork, and I'm in there drawing the Chicago "C" and coloring it orange.
It's a privilege to be here and it's a privilege to play the same position that he (Walter Payton) played.
My dad is one of those people who's a jack-of-all-trades. He's pretty much done everything growing up. He's worked in the coal mines. He was an anchor on the news in Johnson City, Tenn. He worked as a minority recruiter at the University of Tennessee. He's been a pool-installation guy. He worked at a maximum-security prison as a correction officer.
One of the things I picked up from him was being a mentally tough guy. He had my brother (Dallas running back Julius Jones) and I doing push-ups and situps since we were 8, 9 years old. We used to run up and down my hill every morning in the summertime. Even though we didn't have school, we'd get up every morning at 6 o'clock when my mom would go to work -- she worked in the coal mines too -- and we'd get up and down the hill, up and down the hill. I was in the 6th grade and my brother was in the 3rd grade. I always wanted to make sure my dad was proud of me.
Me, my brother and my sisters were always playing football in the house. Me and my brother especially. We broke a coffee table. We got a whipping for that.
You see the draft and you see guys who were getting drafted, especially the guys who were at the draft, and they have their suits and their families there. Everyone's excited and crying. That's a big moment. I always told my mom and dad that I was going to be in the NFL, I was going to be at the draft. For Christmas, growing up of course I didn't have money to get my parents anything, but I would write them cards and say one of these days I will buy you a house or a car. Every year. Then, just the fact that I was drafted, and I was at the draft and my family's backstage and I had my suit on and they called my name and I walked on stage with my hat and my family comes out there, it was like a dream come true.
But probably 20 minutes after the draft I realized where I was going -- to Arizona -- and that's a place I really wasn't excited about. As a matter of fact, before the draft, I met Brian Urlacher and some of the other guys who were top picks, and a lot of guys were saying, "I'm not going to Arizona; you are." We were going back and forth about who was going to Arizona, and nobody wanted to go there.
A lot of times in the NFL people don't understand it's not about talent; it's about situations sometimes.
Being in Arizona for three years was miserable, but I wouldn't change it if I could because I learned from it.
I'm a very spiritual person. God is the head of my life. He's the head of my family. No matter what situation I go through, I know he's either put me in that situation to learn from that situation or gain from that situation. The road for me in the NFL hasn't been a easy one, but I also look at it as a great thing to go through things that make me mentally tough, to understand the NFL, to understand the business, and also for my brother to see.
It really hit me that, wow, my brother's in the NFL before that game (when Jones and the Bears played his brother and Dallas on Thanksgiving in 2004). During warmups I went over and saw him and gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, "Good luck, man. I love you. Don't get hurt. Watch your legs. Watch your neck." I'm still trying to coach him up even though we're playing against each other. That's the first game that I stood up the whole game. Usually, when we're on defense I sit down. But when we were on defense, he's up. So I stood up the whole game and watched him.
On game days, I don't talk to anybody.
I wouldn't say I'm private. I'm a nice guy. I get along with everybody. I'm not going to disrespect you, but I'm not going to be disrespected either. If you ask my family, they'd probably say I'm the clown in the family.
Best piece of advice I've ever gotten is play like it's your last play. That's what my dad always tells me.
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January 4, 2006
The workaholic running back tells Steve Rosenbloom what a privilege it is to be a Bear. I thought we would be capable of winning our division and winning the Super Bowl. Nothing's changed now.
Having a bye the first week and having a home game and being two games away from the Super Bowl, it's definitely a reality.
I'm a workaholic. I feel like the harder you work, the more you're going to get a break.
My heroes growing up were my dad and Walter Payton.
I used to sit in kindergarten and the first grade, and I remember drawing the Chicago "C." Sometimes I would get in trouble in class because we were supposed to be doing our schoolwork, and I'm in there drawing the Chicago "C" and coloring it orange.
It's a privilege to be here and it's a privilege to play the same position that he (Walter Payton) played.
My dad is one of those people who's a jack-of-all-trades. He's pretty much done everything growing up. He's worked in the coal mines. He was an anchor on the news in Johnson City, Tenn. He worked as a minority recruiter at the University of Tennessee. He's been a pool-installation guy. He worked at a maximum-security prison as a correction officer.
One of the things I picked up from him was being a mentally tough guy. He had my brother (Dallas running back Julius Jones) and I doing push-ups and situps since we were 8, 9 years old. We used to run up and down my hill every morning in the summertime. Even though we didn't have school, we'd get up every morning at 6 o'clock when my mom would go to work -- she worked in the coal mines too -- and we'd get up and down the hill, up and down the hill. I was in the 6th grade and my brother was in the 3rd grade. I always wanted to make sure my dad was proud of me.
Me, my brother and my sisters were always playing football in the house. Me and my brother especially. We broke a coffee table. We got a whipping for that.
You see the draft and you see guys who were getting drafted, especially the guys who were at the draft, and they have their suits and their families there. Everyone's excited and crying. That's a big moment. I always told my mom and dad that I was going to be in the NFL, I was going to be at the draft. For Christmas, growing up of course I didn't have money to get my parents anything, but I would write them cards and say one of these days I will buy you a house or a car. Every year. Then, just the fact that I was drafted, and I was at the draft and my family's backstage and I had my suit on and they called my name and I walked on stage with my hat and my family comes out there, it was like a dream come true.
But probably 20 minutes after the draft I realized where I was going -- to Arizona -- and that's a place I really wasn't excited about. As a matter of fact, before the draft, I met Brian Urlacher and some of the other guys who were top picks, and a lot of guys were saying, "I'm not going to Arizona; you are." We were going back and forth about who was going to Arizona, and nobody wanted to go there.
A lot of times in the NFL people don't understand it's not about talent; it's about situations sometimes.
Being in Arizona for three years was miserable, but I wouldn't change it if I could because I learned from it.
I'm a very spiritual person. God is the head of my life. He's the head of my family. No matter what situation I go through, I know he's either put me in that situation to learn from that situation or gain from that situation. The road for me in the NFL hasn't been a easy one, but I also look at it as a great thing to go through things that make me mentally tough, to understand the NFL, to understand the business, and also for my brother to see.
It really hit me that, wow, my brother's in the NFL before that game (when Jones and the Bears played his brother and Dallas on Thanksgiving in 2004). During warmups I went over and saw him and gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, "Good luck, man. I love you. Don't get hurt. Watch your legs. Watch your neck." I'm still trying to coach him up even though we're playing against each other. That's the first game that I stood up the whole game. Usually, when we're on defense I sit down. But when we were on defense, he's up. So I stood up the whole game and watched him.
On game days, I don't talk to anybody.
I wouldn't say I'm private. I'm a nice guy. I get along with everybody. I'm not going to disrespect you, but I'm not going to be disrespected either. If you ask my family, they'd probably say I'm the clown in the family.
Best piece of advice I've ever gotten is play like it's your last play. That's what my dad always tells me.
At the Linc, the visiting team has a smaller locker room than Temple University and Temple, well, sucks.
