Getting To Know: Thomas Jones

Full name: Thomas Quinn Jones

Born: August 19, 1978

Hometown: Big Stone Gap, Virginia, a small town in southwest Virginia, just over the mountains from Harland County, Kentucky. It’s an area where Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina come together at various angles. The 2000 Census said the population was 4,856 folks. He also spent time while growing up in Appalachia, Virginia, a town of less than 2,000 which was across the Big Stone Gap from the town of the same name.

Family: Oldest son of Thomas and Betty Jones. Both parents worked in coal mines, as their fathers did before them. His mother spent nearly 20 years working the night shift, retiring 10 years ago with a back injury. He has five sisters: Gwen, Beatrice, Knetris, Knetta and Katrice. His younger brother Julius Jones went to Notre Dame and was drafted in the second round in 2004 by Dallas. He’s played six seasons for the Cowboys and Seahawks.

High School: at Powell Valley High School, Jones set numerous Virginia high school rushing records including 3,319 yards in 1994, 49 rushing TDs in 1995 and 104 career rushing TDs. In the’94 season, he ran for 462 yards against J.J. Burton High School. Jones finished with 7,193 rushing yards in his career. He was also a four-year starter on the basketball team and won four letters in track.

College: left the University of Virginia as the school’s all-time rushing leader with 3,998 yards over his four years (1996-99.) That broke the mark set previously by Tiki Barber. Jones started 34 consecutive games, carrying the ball 809 carries, 36 rushing touchdowns and 40 total scores. He had 18 games with 100 yards rushing or more. As a senior, he was a consensus All-America selection, the first for a Virginia RB since Bullet Bill Dudley in 1941.

Education: earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in three years and played his senior season as a graduate student. He’s 15 credits short of a Masters in education. Six of the seven Jones children have earned their college degrees with Thomas and his sisters Knetris and Knetta attending the University of Virginia; Julius graduated from Notre Dame; Gwen and Beatrice earned diplomas from the University of Tennessee. The youngest sister Katrice currently attends Virginia. He established the Thomas Q. Jones Scholarship Fund, designated for students from a five-county area of southwest Virginia.

NFL Draft: taken in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft by Arizona with the seventh selection that year. Selected ahead of him were Courtney Brown, LaVar Arrington, Chris Samuels, Peter Warrick, Jamal Lewis and Corey Simon. Selected right after him were Plaxico Burress, Brian Urlacher and Travis Taylor.

On his preparation: “I really believe in my preparation. Obviously God has blessed me, kept me healthy and he gave me the will to do what I’ve had to do. I’ve had a lot of adversity I’ve had to overcome and God has blessed me by keeping me levelheaded and keeping me hungry. I do think I’ve definitely worked as hard as I can in the training room and the weight room to maintain my body, cleaning up any type of injuries I may have had so I can be fresh for the next week. I watch a lot of film, so I’m prepared and I know what to expect on Sundays. I think there are a lot of different things mixed together that have helped me be successful over the past four, five years, and I’m definitely not going to stop those things now.”

Off-the-field: owns a music production company, OuttaPocket Entertainment that he started in 2008. Said Jones: “The reason I started Outta Pocket Entertainment stems from my passion for music.  I come from a place where I was forced to listen to all genres of music.  I listened to everything from rap, r and b, country, jazz, soft rock, alternative and heavy metal.”

Tatoos: Many, including the words “Coal Miner’s Son” scripted across his chest.

Wheels: Jones owns a Ferrari-red 2004 Rolls-Royce Phantom with Asanti wheels, a 2004 BMW 645i Coupe, a 2005 Bentley Continental GT Coupe, a 2004 Ferrari 360 Spider F1 and a 2004 Range Rover HSE.