Byron Jones – December 10, 2020
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Thursday, December 10, 2020
CB Byron Jones
(Congratulations on the nomination. Can you put into words for us what it means to you?) – “Thank you. It’s just, when I came to Miami, the support staff that we have here and kind of how they help us, we reached out to community leaders and really made a difference. I think that’s what made the biggest difference. I know that when I come to work, I have a group of people that is really helping me pursue things that are important off the field and the Miami Dolphins since Day 1 have been doing a good job at putting me in contact, and my other teammates in contact, with people that can really make a difference in this community.”
(I know obviously this has been a year with a lot of social justice, and you’ve been part of the social justice impact committee. What about your background do you … to be active in that respect?) – “I think in – it’s really early 2020, where I looked myself in the mirror and asked myself, ‘am I doing enough?’ And that answer was no. And I never wanted to get back to that point. I just made a commitment to myself that I’m going to be a part of positive change instead of just being on the sideline and really waiting for someone else to do it. I often think everyone kind of knows what to do, but everyone kind of expects someone else to do it and I’m just taking the responsibility and holding myself accountable to really help. I’ve been blessed my entire life, so it’s really time to give back to people who are not as fortunate as me.”
(Congrats on the nomination. I do have a football question. Obviously the defense has played such a critical role here this season. What are your thoughts on the Chiefs and the threat they possess with all their weapons?) – “They have one of the best offenses I’ve seen in a long time – really weapons across the board. It’s just for us defensively, it’s really just sticking to our fundamentals – cover, rush, tackle. Just cover, rush, tackle; it’ll be okay.”
(If I could ask you about your part of that whole equation, there’s been a lot of conversation about you and CB Xavien Howard being the best cornerback duo in the NFL. You’re the highest-paid cornerback duo in the NFL. Is a game like this an opportunity to prove all that, to pay dividends on all that?) – “’X’ (Xavien Howard) and I, our main goal is to just play good, solid football every single game. We want turnovers, we want to put hands on receivers, we want to stay patient at the line of scrimmage. Regardless of who we’re playing against, our goal is always the same thing and that’s what we wish to accomplish and we’ve done a pretty good job to this point. But December football is where it really counts, and this is where teams really separate themselves, so we both have to step up and really perform these next couple of weeks, especially this week.”
(How would you say the level of community engagement by players in the NFL and professional athletes in general has changed over your time in the league and why do you think it has changed?) – “Truthfully when I came in, I didn’t have a really good pulse because I wasn’t really doing much in my community back in Dallas. But just to see coordinated efforts across different teams and different sports is – that’s what I think is really impactful, is when people organize and really push and pressure officials to make changes. And I think that’s where it’s most important, is getting everyone on board and really pushing them to step up to the plate essentially. I think that’s what has changed a lot in the past year, so that’s exciting. That’s definitely exciting. We know that it’s not a perfect country. There’s things that we can fix, so let’s fix them.”
(I know on the field in Dallas, you guys played a lot of national TV games, marquee games. This one feels like maybe the bigger game for the year for you guys. I know probably the talk is it’s just another game, but I’m sure as players you guys got to feel the levity of maybe an opponent like this. What do you maybe tell the guys about how to keep their cool but still show up to the moment?) – “We haven’t had a single conversation about that, to be honest. We’re just here to play football; so we practice at the same time every day, we meet at the same time every day. We know what the challenge is, but it’s nothing to get yourself overworked at. Just do what we’re coached to do, stay on our X’s and O’s and then we’ll be okay. That’s how football – if you get yourself all riled up, you start doing things that are outside of your character, so we haven’t had discussions like that to be honest.”
(How does one go about competing and contending with the speed of a Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill?) – “He’s got a special gear and they’ve got a couple guys on that offense who can really run. You’ve got to understand how he’s used on a weekly basis and truly try your best to limit his impact on the game. He’s going to get some – there’s no question about that – but our job defensively is to limit that as much as we can. So that’s the challenge. That’s the fun challenge for us. We probably haven’t seen speed like this in a while, so just play good ball and chips will fall our way.”
