Thomas Jones stands by his locker in only his shoulder pads and pants, the dirt and grass stains and sweat and wet forming a river of grime that drips down to his toes.
This is not the scenario he, or any of his teammates, had imagined.
Not in the itinerary for a week that began in sunshine and ended in a swampy South Florida gloom.
“Right now I am just trying to stay positive about the season,” he says. “Otherwise you can drive yourself crazy.”
There is little doubt Jones and all of the Bears will drive themselves crazy anyway, reliving their 29-17 loss Sunday night to the Colts in Super Bowl XLI.
The highlight of the first quarter for the Bears running back is a big one. It is also was the only one–a 52-yard run to the Colts’ 5-yard line on a first down that sets up the team’s only offensive touchdown three plays later on a 4-yard pass from Rex Grossman to Muhsin Muhammad.
“I just don’t know how to explain it,” he says. “We just couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm. It seems like we kept finding ourselves in third-and-9 and it’s hard to convert those situations. It’s tough because then you start pressing.”
He is asked if their rhythm was affected by the loss of Cedric Benson to a knee injury late in the first quarter, if the battle was that much harder without his running mate.
“No,” Jones says. “Not at all.”
Last Sunday
Looking back, this is Jones’ Super Bowl moment.
He touched down in Miami with the rest of the Bears traveling party early Sunday afternoon and in a few hours he is host for a party for his teammates at the Forge Restaurant and Club on Miami Beach. But first he has a little business to do.
It is 5 p.m. when Jones “car guy” calls to say he is on his way to the running back’s home in Davie, Fla. Inside, Jones paces like a child on Christmas Eve, wondering what his new prize is going to look like.
He had ordered the Ferrari two months earlier. It was to be custom-made in orange with orange piping on the seats, orange wheel covers, T. Jones stitched in orange on the headsets. By then, Jones says, “I kind of knew” the Bears were headed to the playoffs.” The car guy offered to ship the car to Chicago, but Jones said no.
“I said `Don’t send me pictures of it, don’t send it up here. I don’t want to see it unless we go to the Super Bowl,'” Jones recalls. “Obviously, if we didn’t make it, I would have driven it when I came down. But I said I didn’t want to see it until we were in the Super Bowl.”
It is his gift to himself after seven years in the league, after his second straight 1,200-yard plus season. After each year, he says, he “does something nice” for himself. But for the kid who grew up collecting model cars, this is a biggie. And now it is coming up his driveway.
“I walked outside and I was like `Wow.’ I’m so excited. I made it to the Super Bowl and I have my car.”
What could be better? Well . . .
Monday
Sunday night is the only one of the week without a team curfew. Jones dances into the wee hours of Monday morning along with a healthy sampling of teammates including Rex Grossman, Lance Briggs, Devin Hester, Chris Harris, Roberto Garza and Kyle Orton before they go back to their regular “routine” Monday.
For Jones, however, Super Bowl week also means the first day filming a reality show, “Hanging with the Joneses,” with his brother Julius, running back for the Dallas Cowboys, and the beginning of a week filled with activity.
After meetings and practice at the University of Miami, Jones heads to South Beach and the Delano Hotel for a CBS Super Bowl pregame interview with himself and Julius. After that, there’s a business dinner at Prime 112 with Julius and his marketing people.
Tuesday
After both teams’ commitment to the annual Super Bowl media day at Dolphin Stadium, Jones is off to an appearance with Julius on ESPN’s “Cold Pizza.” Lunch follows and then it’s another Jones brothers appearance on “The Best Damn Sports Show, Period” down the beach at the Surfcomber Hotel. After that, it’s back to ESPN for a live taping of “Rome is Burning” at 4.
They are expected for a taping of “Total Access” for the NFL Network at 6, not more than a couple of hundred yards away, across the street from the Versace Mansion. But Thomas and Julius are able to squeeze in a little shopping at “Arrive,” one of Thomas’ favorite stores.
In the green room for “Total Access,” Jones sees Matt Hasselbeck, who wishes him good luck. After the show, it’s back to Prime 112, where the party runs into Jon Bon Jovi, Terrell Davis and John Elway as well as a Bears group that includes Grossman, Muhsin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian. Jones is in his element table-hopping.
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It’s the Bears’ regular day off, same as any other game week, and Jones says he is not concerned about over-extending himself this week.
“No, because I live here so it’s not a big deal for me to be running around Miami,” he says. “This is my third year living here, everything is second nature to me here. So I don’t have to worry about being distracted. We’re just doing the regular things you do. If my family was here, I’d be home with them.
“I’m here to help my team win the Super Bowl and there will be no better place to win it . . . where I can come in the off-season to relax and know we won the Super Bowl here.”
Wednesday
Super Bowl week is nothing if not media driven. There is another session for both teams this morning. The Bears are finished by 9 a.m., when they head to the University of Miami for practice and meetings. Jones stays late with several players.
Into the third day of taping on their reality show, centered around the “real off-season of an NFL player,” which the brothers hope will be picked up by one of several suitors including Spike, Fox and Bravo, the brothers are joined in Florida by their parents, Thomas and Betty, and five sisters.
Jones also aspires to get into acting, which he figures will be a natural transition from football.
“Growing up with five sisters, you have to know how to be a little dramatic,” he jokes.
There’s another taping for a CBS interview with the brothers, followed by a quiet dinner at home with the family and pizza ordered in, and Jones loves every minute of it.
“Doing these things with my brother is so special because it’s what we grew up dreaming about doing,” he says.
“The two running backs that we saw a lot when we were kids were Jamie and Joe Morris and we’d be playing in the back yard and I’m Joe Morris and he’s Jamie because he was younger. And we’d always ask our parents `What games would you come to if me and Julius were both running backs in the NFL?’ And they’d say `Well, we would just wear a jersey with his number and your number.’
“We used to do that stuff all that time. So for us to be in the position where we can actually be on these type of shows and do these type of things together as brothers is just an amazing story.”
On several occasions during the week, he says, the two glance at each other with looks of amazement.
“It’s kind of unbelievable that we would be in this type of position–two brothers from a small town,” Jones says. “I think a lot of people don’t understand that the chance of making it to this league through high school, college and injuries are very tough for just one person, especially for you to be a starter and a consistent guy every game. Me and my brother started all 16 games at running back in the same season and both of us had over 1,000 yards. So that’s an accomplishment beyond belief.”
Thursday
Jones is grateful for the regular game week routine.
“You have to be sharp, have to be on top of your game, know what you’re doing,” he says. “You’re in meetings, watching film, there’s no talk about the beach, Ferraris. We’re taking notes, watching extra film after meetings. The guys are mentally ready to play. It’s exciting. We deserve to be in this situation and it’s a situation we can take advantage of for the rest of our lives.”
Still, after work, there is time for some play. From 3-6 p.m., Thomas and Julius attend a cocktail reception with all the running backs represented by agent Drew Rosenhaus. A woman from “American Idol” performs at the party, but no one actually knows who she is.
Jones then has a quiet dinner on South Beach with family and friends. You get the idea he might like to be alone.
“Sometimes I’ll just sit at a restaurant on the ocean, have a drink and enjoy the view and the people,” he says. “I’ve had those [tranquil] moments in the car. Once you’re here [for the Super Bowl], it’s chaos.”
Friday
Jones takes advantage of the first day without media, but that doesn’t mean he escapes attention. After practice he strolls South Beach, where he is mobbed by fans, stopping to pose for pictures, to sign autographs and even to conduct an impromptu interview with Yahoo! Sports.
Jones is protected by a bodyguard hired for the week, mostly to fend off people during the filming of the interview show. Dinner at Harrison’s Restaurant on the beach follows, where the Joneses see Edgerrin James and Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney.
If some coaches might consider locking down their teams at the Super Bowl, Bears coach Lovie Smith isn’t one of them.
“We have curfew at 12 and he gives us a lot of free time because he knows that by him treating us like men, we’re going to play like men,” Jones says. “It’s great having a coach treat you like that. He doesn’t treat you like a kid, he doesn’t come check your room, have all these rules for this or that.
“He tells you what he wants and more than anything, if you break one of the rules, he’s more disappointed than anything and you definitely don’t want to disappoint a guy who has given you breaks. If you do that, he’ll fine you a maximum fine. That’s how he handles situations.”
“Once practice is over, you’re free until midnight. At 12, he wants you in the room.”
Saturday
After meetings and the walk-through, Jones spends the day on the beach, having lunch at an outdoor cafe. He is back at the team hotel by 11. Nerves the last 24 hours?
“It’s more excitement than nerves,” he says. “I’m anxious about the outcome of the game because I want to win so badly. It’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions.”
Super Bowl Sunday
Carla Oglesby, who’s in charge of the Joneses’ public relations and marketing for Arrei Management, visits the team hotel and says Jones is “very focused.” He was in his suit, getting on the team bus and he was very serious “but excited.”
It is Jones who revs up the team before the game. He never plans what he’s going to say and this does not change even for the Super Bowl.
“You just kind of say what comes to you, however you’re feeling and guys respond because they feel the same way,” he says. “I pretty much say what everyone’s feeling. Your emotions kind of come out. They are like your brothers, so it feels like you’re talking to your family right there. You’re all working together to try to accomplish the same goal and everyone wants it but . . . I don’t know, just them seeing me so emotional and so amped up and ready to play, they kind of feed off of that energy.”
Before he takes the field, however, Jones takes a moment for himself, dedicating the game to his parents, his brother and his sisters.
“Because this game is just a reflection of how my life has gone growing up with hard work paying off,” he says. “Just the tough situations my family has had to go through from when I was a kid until I was drafted and eventually it paid off. On Sunday, that will be something I’ll be thinking about, that my family is in the stands, watching me play in the Super Bowl.
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“We came from a town of 4,800, living in a house where my clothes were in a TV box, my sisters waking me up every morning and getting me ready for school because my mom was just on her way back from the coal mines. Those are the things that I’m going to be thinking about in the back of my mind.”
Four hours later, he is standing in the locker room, a game’s worth of exhaustion and debris covering his body, the questions coming at him like so many tacklers, but he tries to fend them off as best as he can.
He ends up with 112 yards rushing on 15 carries. But take away the 52-yarder in the first quarter and it’s 60 yards on 14 carries–54 yards after that first quarter.
“A loss is a loss,” he says. “Any time you lose a playoff game, it hurts the same.”
It is easy to believe him.
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`I just don’t know how to explain it. We just couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm. It seems like we kept finding ourselves in third-and-9.’–Thomas Jones
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