It is funny how much circumstances can dictate outcomes. Particularly in the NFL, where just 0.023 percent of high school football players advance to the professional level, so many outside factors can influence a player’s success or lack thereof. One three-time Super Bowl winner started his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but unfortunate circumstances forced him to pivot to a long and successful career with the San Francisco 49ers.
“It was my first year in training camp. I was drafted by the Steelers. They said I was the tight end of the future,” said Brent Jones via the East Coast Red & Gold Podcast. “I got in a car accident two weeks later. I had a herniated disc, and I was put on injured reserve. And a month into the season, they said, ‘We’re not sure your neck is getting better, and we’re gonna release you. And so I came home thinking my dreams of playing professional football were over.”
Born in San Jose, just outside of San Francisco, Jones received some interest from his hometown team and went to training camp. He described the struggles of trying to break onto the 49ers’ roster and how he got his first opportunity while Russ Francis was hurt and John Frank needed a breather during practice.
In the end, Jones had an 11-season career with the 49ers that lasted from 1987 to 1997. He caught 417 receptions for 5,195 yards and 33 touchdowns and helped win three Super Bowl championships. He had another 60 receptions for 740 yards and five touchdowns in 21 playoff games. During the 1989 Super Bowl-winning postseason, he had three touchdowns to help power the 49ers to hoist the Lombardi.
He earned four Pro Bowl selections and made the second-team All-Pro list twice. Whoever told him he would be the tight end of the future in Pittsburgh was definitely onto something, but nobody could have foreseen the car accident and subsequent injury.
He was initially a fifth-round pick for the Steelers in 1986. The cruel reality for the Steelers is that he could have had a significant impact on their rosters in the 1980s and 1990s. The leading tight ends during those years for the Steelers included Preston Gothard, Danzell Lee, Mike Mularkey, Adrian Cooper, and Eric Green.
Green made a nice career for himself, including two Pro Bowl selections, but the tight end position wasn’t exactly a strong point of the Steelers’ roster during the years that Jones would have been there. He still holds the ninth-most receiving yards in 49ers history.
You can’t just assume he would have had the same stats in Pittsburgh during that time. The Steelers didn’t exactly have Joe Montana or Steve Young. But he would have been a big upgrade over what they had. If you took his stats and placed them on the Steelers, he would be in seventh place for all-time receiving yards. It’s just another missed connection and a product of unfortunate circumstances for the Steelers.
