“He’s not going to play Division I football.” That’s what a Division I coach told Chris Cox, the defensive coordinator at Chris Jones’s high school (Houston High) in Mississippi.
The skeptic couldn’t even be bothered to meet Jones. He assessed Jones’s prospects as he watched the “lanky” player approaching. Confident he’d seen enough, the coach shook Cox’s hand, then got in the car and left.
By Jones’s senior year he was a Five-Star recruit who could have gone anywhere. But having committed to Mississippi State, Jones didn’t waver. After starring at Mississippi State, Jones turned professional with the Kansas City Chiefs. By all accounts he’s headed for the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
Jones’s story exists as a rejection of a number of things, including the NFL’s diversity policies. Commissioner Roger Goodell says that the league will maintain them. Jones shows why there’s no need.
Just ask Grok how many NFL players played their high school football in Houston, TX. Follow that with a similar search of the number of NFL players from Houston, MS. Jones is the only name that comes up. Which is the point, or should be.
Jones is living, thriving proof that if you’re talented, the NFL’s scouts will find you. Always. And it’s not just Jones. Think the recently deceased Larry Allen. Unlike Jones, Allen never rated a scholarship to an SEC school. Allen played at Sonoma State, and to this day is the only former player from the school to make the NFL.
No less than Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told the Washington Post’s Adam Kilgore about Jones that “He’s just as important as me and Travis are to this team.” The Chiefs have won three Super Bowls as those reading this know.
Jones is evidence that what the NFL is doing on the diversity front is performative, but much more important, unnecessary. As evidenced by the varied origins and colleges of the players, it’s easy to see that the NFL is already incredibly diverse. What choice does it have? As Jones and Allen and countless others remind us, a failure of NFL teams to search far and wide for the best of the best is the path to mediocrity.
What’s true about players is also true about coaches. The NFL is way too competitive for team owners to allow color to get in the way of hiring the best.
Jones is also a happy look into the future. In Kilgore’s article, Cox indicated that upon arrival at Houston High for the school’s summer workouts (no air conditioning in the field house), Jones never missed one, from 6 am until dusk. He just wouldn’t leave.
The future that Jones embodies is one where exponentially more of us will fall in love with our work. Jones is further evidence that no one is lazy, but all too many can’t find jobs that showcase their unique skills and intelligence. The bet here, and as argued in The End of Work, is that as technology automates more and more of what humans formerly did, that more and more people will find their correct vocation (as Jones did) and work endlessly. We’ve all got work ethic, and the only barrier to discovering it is a lack of economic growth.
Cox told Kilgore that “Statistically, Chris Jones should have wound up working at United Furniture in Houston, Mississippi. Pretty much every friend Chris had in high school is working at United Furniture in Houston, Mississippi.” It’s a good thing the NFL is highly diverse.
