Editor’s note: Last week the LPJ looked at the NFL experience of Ruston’s Dub Jones. This story is the second part of the “Keeping up with the Joneses” and looks back on the NFL career of Dub’s son Bert.
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By T. Scott Boatright
Nicknamed “The Ruston Rifle” during his high school playing days, like his father Dub Jones before him, Bert Jones was a second overall pick in the NFL Draft, going to the Baltimore Colts in 1973.
Like his father, Bert moved on from a stellar career at Ruston High School but while Dub only played one season for LSU before being transferred to Tulane.
Bert began his college career as part of LSU Coach Charlie McClendon’s two-quarterback system in 1970 and 1971, helping lead the Tigers to 27-8-1 overall mark in his three years at the school.
The Tigers also posted a 12-3-1 Southeastern Conference record under Jones’ direction, which included claiming the 1970 league title with a 5-0 record.
Jones became LSU’s first consensus All-American quarterback in 1972 when he threw for a school-record 1,446 yards and 14 touchdowns in leading the Tigers to a 9-2-1 mark and a berth in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. Jones was named the National Player of the Year in 1972 by the Sporting News and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy balloting following the season.
He led the SEC in passing as both a junior and senior and he capped his career with the Tigers as the school’s all-time leader in passing yards (3,255), attempts (418), completions (220) and touchdowns (28).
As Bert prepared for his NFL Draft Day, the Colts moved up to acquire that No. 2 pick via a trade with the New Orleans Saints, who picked up defensive end Bob Pollard, a 1973 fourth-round pick and Baltimore’s 1974 first round pick in that deal.
But the NFL Draft wasn’t televised until 1980 when the then still fledgling ESPN first broadcast the event, so Jones spent his draft day in his parents’ Ruston home waiting for the news.
“I was sitting at home with Mom and Daddy and somebody, I really don’t remember who, called and said that I had been drafted by the Baltimore Colts. The NFL Draft was not quite the same event that it’s become these days.
“Now I knew the Colts wanted me but (the Houston Oilers had the first pick. Baltimore tried up until the draft to trade up for the overall No. 1. So, the Colts worked out the deal for the Saints’ No. 1 overall pick. The Oilers had already drafted Dan Pastorini and Lynn Dickey a few years earlier, so they were set at quarterback, so they drafted (defensive end) John Matusak with the No. 1 pick, leaving me for the Cots with the No. 2 pick they had traded for.”
It didn’t take Bert long to turn the Colts around. Baltimore won the AFC East Division title three straight times from 1975-1977 but fell in first-round playoff losses in each of those years.
Jones’ best season was 1976, when he totaled 3,104 passing yards with 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions while adding 214 rushing yards and another two scores on the ground.
That year Bert chalked up a passer rating of 102.5. Only two other quarterbacks put up 100+ passer ratings in the entire decade of the 1970s — Roger Staubach in 1971 and Ken Stabler, who also did it in 1976.
Bert won the MVP and NFL Offensive Player of the Year awards in 1976 and was also elected to the Pro Bowl.
He made the Pro Bowl again the following year as a reserve.
“In 1974, we went 2-12 in Ted Marchibroda’s first year as Colts head coach,” Jones said. “But in 1975, after a rough 1-4 start, we won nine straight games to close out the regular season. We went from the worst team to the best team in one season, so that was a great run.
“Then we had another couple of great runs before I hurt my shoulder and missed about a year and half over the next couple of seasons. I probably should have just sat out that first season and let it heal.”
After playing a total of only seven games in 1978 and ’79, Jones played two more seasons with the Colts.
The day before the 1982 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Rams, who had gone 2-12 the previous season, traded the fourth overall pick and their second-round selection (24th overall) to acquire the then 30-year-old Jones.
But Bert played in only four games for the Rams that season before being forced into an early retirement due to a neck injury.
In 10 seasons on the NFL gridiron, Jones totaled 124 touchdowns, 18,190 passing yards, 1,429 rushing yards along with another 14 scores on the ground and a career passer rating of 78.2.
“What meant the most to me were my teammates, the stadiums I played in, the coaches I played for and played against as well as some of the opposing players,” Jones said.
“It was the competitive spirit of the NFL that meant the most to me.”
