Celebrity Interviews

New York Jets' Thomas Jones Talks Football

New York Jets' Thomas Jones talked with Craig Roberts about his academic scholarship, whether or not Brett Favre will play football this year and opening the season against the Houston Texans.

On being honored for his contributions to minority academic excellence: I grew up in a town where there weren't a lot of opportunities, where, financially, there weren't many opportunities for people to make a lot of money. I was blessed enough to go to the University of Virginia and graduate in three years. Now, I give back to the community—I have [created] a scholarship—the Thomas Quinn Jones' First Academic Scholarship. It's $2,000 a semester to any student in my area of Virginia that qualifies to go to the University of Virginia. Right now we have 30 students that are on my scholarship.

On Brett Favre: You know, Brett is a great guy and we had a really good time with him out there. He brought a lot of energy to the team. He brought a lot of fun to the locker room. I played against him for three years in Chicago, too, so I've known him for a long time, but we had a really good experience last year. Things didn't really go the way we wanted them to as far as the team was concerned, but we had a good relationship and I wish him the best of luck with whatever he's doing now.

On Favre's future career moves: I think he loves football too much to quit. He had surgery and I think he's doing well now, so if he can play, more power to him. I wish him the best of luck.

On opening this season playing the Houston Texans: Oh yeah, definitely [the Texans have improved]. The Texans are looking to have a good year this year. Steve Slaton had a really good year last year. DeMeco Ryans has the opportunity to be one of the best linebackers in this league. I had a chance to meet Mario Williams and he's a great guy and a great player. They have definitely improved and they're looking to have a good year so it'll be a tough game for us.

On first-year coach Rex Ryan and new rookie quarterback: You know, right now we have a lot of new guys, new coaches. Everyone is just getting adjusted.  At the end of the day we still have the same nucleus of guys we've had for the past couple of years and last season we had some success there in the middle of the year. We're just going to try to build off of some of the things we did well last year and just take advantage of any opportunities we have this year. Everyone loves Coach Ryan—he's a great guy, he's player's coach. Everyone in the facility likes him—the trainers, the media staff, everyone—because he's a great person and a great guy. He's one of those people you want to lay it out there for.

On his independent music company: Actually, three years ago I started my own independent entertainment company. It's called Outta Pocket Entertainment. We have one artist—his name is Myko. We have a deal with Universal SRC—that's Steve Riffkin. He's one of the biggest moguls in the entertainment industry. We signed with his company. We have a song on the radio right now called ‘Give It To You' featuring Young Joc, a rapper from Atlanta. We have the video—it's on YouTube.