48 Hour Primer | Week 16

Anyone who has been let go or fired from a job will attest that the bitterness and resentment to a previous employer is often so deep-rooted it festers over a period of weeks, months and even years.

All that can be especially heightened in the world of professional football where being cut might not just mean a lost season in a career that has a short window of opportunity but, potentially, the end of the line.

All of those sentiments began to settle in for Tony Jones back on June 2nd when he got the ‘Coach wants to see you, and bring your playbook‘ message from the Edmonton Elks. And then less than a week later the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were on the phone offering him a football lifeline with another opportunity.

Saturday night in Edmonton, then, will be a bit of a full-circle moment for the 29-year-old linebacker.

“I’m just really excited to get back there and put my best foot forward,” said Jones after Thursday’s closed practice. “A lot of those guys, my old teammates, we still stay in touch… actually a couple of guys hit me up and said it’s ‘The Tony Jones Week’ so there’s a little rivalry going on. I’m fired up for it and will be fired up for game day.

“I played with those guys for a year, year and a half, and so you build up a brotherhood. They reach out still to this day, not just this week, and they tell me to keep going and vice versa. I will have a little chip on my shoulder because they released me; it puts a little extra fire in you. It amps me up a little bit more, makes me want to play harder.

“Then again, on the other side they took me in before as one of their own and at the end of the day it’s a business and things happen — I didn’t want it to happen — but you have to keep moving forward and that’s where my mindset is at.

“I love it here now,” he added. “I’ve said it before, my first year or two in the league I heard about Winnipeg all the time and their brotherhood and the brand that they stand for. And when I got here I felt it and saw everything I had heard about. This is a top-notch spot.”

Jones was first brought to the CFL by the Elks in 2022 after his first stint in pro football came with the Iowa Barnstormers of the Indoor Football League. A product of Texas Tech, he played in one game with Edmonton in ’22 and all 18 games last season before the release in June.

“I didn’t see it coming. A lot of guys didn’t see it coming, either,” he said. “I had some coaches even hit me up after and say they didn’t like the decision. I felt like I had one of the best camps I’ve ever had in my professional career. I was in that program for a year, felt like I knew the ins and outs. But, things happen. All they told me is, ‘We know we’re going to be playing against you at some point of the season so, best of luck.’

“Right when it happened I was frustrated in the moment. It was, ‘Why? What did I do wrong?’ I hold myself to a high standard and I had been checking in during camp asking the coaches what I could do better and trying to understand what everyone else was doing. I was doing that and out of nowhere the final cuts came and they released me. It was like the whole team hit me up after that. I got a few calls.

“But the older you get, the longer you’re in the CFL you realize how the business works. It’s frustrating at first but then you turn the page and hope there are better things on the other side.”

Scooping up Jones seems even more prescient for the Blue Bombers given the news from Adam Bighill on Thursday when he provided this update on his Instagram account:

“Guys like Adam… there’s lot of guys on every team that are basically irreplaceable and you just make sure the guys playing in those spots don’t try to be someone they’re not and just be themselves,” said head coach Mike O’Shea after practice. “They’re here for a reason, they can play football, they can help us win football games.

“… We’ve got a bunch of guys who can play. Once again, if you’re dressed defensively, you’re getting snaps.”

O’Shea said he has no doubt Bighill — who turns 36 next month — will play again because of “his work ethic, determination, grit, the amount of stuff he packs into a day — there’s nothing he does that he doesn’t attack.”

Meanwhile, Jones had already seen an increased workload with the injury to Kyrie Wilson — who could be back this week, FYI — and his emergence as a playmaker means there should be even more snaps in the defence. The club also has other options, too, in veteran Shayne Gauthier and the emerging Michael Ayers.

“We’d seen Tony from afar for a bit,” said head coach Mike O’Shea after practice. “We liked him and when you’re watching film against an opponent you notice guys and we liked what he can do.

“He understands the game of football. He’s got really quick feet and I like the way he moves as a linebacker, the way he fills, the way he can run. He’s pretty quick for a linebacker and he’s also contributed a lot for us on special teams.”

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