NEW ORLEANS — Former NFL wide receiver Torrey Smith had a quick answer when asked to put on a youth football camp in New Orleans this summer.
“Say no more,” repeating a phrase often used by his late friend and former Baltimore Ravens teammate Jacoby Jones.
Smith wanted to honor the wishes of Jones’ mother, Emily London-Jones, who was looking to restart the camp after a 10-year absence. The Jacoby Jones Foundation put on the camp from 2009 to 2015 as a way to give back to the community where Jones grew up.
Jones, a New Orleans native who won Super Bowl XLVII with the Baltimore Ravens during the 2012 season, died of a heart attack one year ago Monday, shortly after his 40th birthday.
So on a Saturday in late May, Smith found himself sweating in the New Orleans heat, attempting to corral a group of 317 kids ranging from ages 8-14.
He gathered them around after an afternoon of football drills in Pontchartrain Park, putting his arm around London-Jones, who spent the day fussing over the children, overseeing breakfast and lunch, handing out free shoes and “Jacoby Jones football camp” T-shirts.
She had a wistful smile on her face as Smith reminded the group to remember why they were there.
“This is Miss Emily, aka Mama Jones. We wouldn’t be here, literally, if it wasn’t for her birthing a legend in Jacoby Jones,” he said. “Y’all don’t know what she went through for y’all to be here.”
Then they broke down the huddle: “1-2-3, Jacoby!” They scattered in all directions, still full of energy after five hours of drills.
That energy was familiar to the group of loved ones who came to celebrate Jones’ memory. Pontchartrain Park was where Jones played youth football and is just 15 minutes from the Caesars Superdome, where he won a championship and set an NFL record with a 108-yard Super Bowl kickoff return.
When his friends and family are at the park now, they remember their Jacoby — the laughing, dancing, dynamo of energy — as if he were there himself.
Friends and family came from all over to honor Jones. Former Ravens teammates Ray Rice and Bryan Hall were among those who agreed to coach, with Smith overseeing the majority of the camp.
Greg Fassitt, a high school friend of Jones who won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints in 2009, attended for the first time, an experience he described as “bittersweet.”
“It also allows me to really participate in what it means to carry his legacy,” Fassitt said. “There’s so many kids that, like he and I, that grew up here, … We didn’t grow up having these [opportunities] where somebody could come and tell you, yeah, it’s possible, and following the lead.”
Jones’ cousin Cantrelle Larkins Jr., wore a replica of Jones’ high school football jersey, representing the former Marion Abramson High School. Many wore Ravens gear, and at one point during the camp, everyone passed out No. 12 bandanas to the kids, a nod to Jones’ signature look in his playing days.
“It definitely goes to show the power of a game and a person’s heart and energy and love that he gave,” Smith said. “Having an impact on so many different people.”
Jones is gone, but his mother and family are determined to make sure his kindness and generosity are not forgotten. Jones’ acts of selflessness, like when he once took the shoes off his feet to give to someone who didn’t have any, are part of that legacy.
Putting on the free camp was once his way of giving back to his community, and now they want to keep that tradition going.
“Whatever it takes not to let his name fade away,” London-Jones said. “Because he was good to people. And he loved people. And I want to keep it going.”
HOW IS JONES most often remembered? It usually starts with the Super Bowl kick return.
On Feb. 3, 2013, he stood deep in the end zone to receive the second-half kickoff of Super Bowl XLVII for the Ravens. Jones brought the kick out instead of kneeling for the touchback, and by the time he got to the 30-yard line, he had outrun the San Francisco 49ers’ coverage.
Jones ran the final 70 yards by himself, en route to the longest kickoff return in Super Bowl history, which put the Ravens up 28-6. London-Jones was in attendance with Jones’ infant son Jacoby Jr., and several members of the extended family.
“I was holding little Jacoby when he was running with the ball,” she said, gesturing a fist punch in the air. “I was doing this with the baby in my hand. ‘Run baby run!’ He was always a runner. When he would run, I would run, but I couldn’t run because I was holding my grandbaby. … When he got to the end zone and there were no flags, it was on.”
It was a moment made for the movies: New Orleans’ own returning to win a championship in his beloved hometown.
He also made a 56-yard touchdown catch and his 290 all-purpose yards set another Super Bowl record. Jones, who was named to his first Pro Bowl in 2012, helped the Ravens hold off the Niners to win a game also infamous for its 34-minute power outage.
Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome once credited Jones for the championship, saying, “We don’t win Super Bowl XLVII without Jacoby.”
Jones was also a critical piece of getting the Ravens to the Super Bowl at all. In the AFC divisional round of the playoffs, he caught a 70-yard touchdown from quarterback Joe Flacco with 41 seconds left in regulation, sending the game into double overtime, where the Ravens beat the Denver Broncos.
The following week they beat the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game to clinch their trip to New Orleans.
Rice recalled that Jones, who caught two passes against the Broncos, had dropped a pass earlier in the game, prompting linebacker Ray Lewis to take him aside and assure him the ball would come back to him.
“And look at it,” Rice said. “We needed him in the most clutch moment ever, and you could ride that off there because … nobody was going to beat us after those moments. I think destiny was on our side that year.”
Lewis would also give Jones a pep talk in the Super Bowl, walking up to him before the start of the second half to predict a big return.
“Ray’s kind of a larger-than-life personality. Jacoby then jogs out and he returns the kickoff,” former Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta said. “But it was incredible. And Ray kind of spoke it into existence. Jacoby with his speed and vision on that play obviously made it happen. But what a huge play.”
The power went out three plays after Jones’ touchdown, and the Niners scored two unanswered touchdowns in the third quarter before the Ravens recovered, fending them off with an intentional safety to run the clock out. Although Flacco was named the MVP, Jones stole the show.
“I don’t think anybody in Baltimore will ever forget how his play made them feel,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “Watching him play that kickoff return in the Super Bowl or the long receiving touchdown where he juked out like two dudes at the 5-yard line and skates himself into the end zone. And that’s just [in] a Super Bowl.”
When the game was over, Jones brought his family down to the field, holding his son in his arms for postgame interviews. When he was free of his obligations, he burst into the Ravens’ postgame locker room yelling and bouncing around so enthusiastically that he burst a blood vessel in his eye.
“You ask anybody who’s encountered, it’s the spirit, the mindset, the energy, always positive. So it was beautiful to see that story come full circle,” Fassitt said. “The Denver game and the most ‘unlikely’ person each time. So I think that’s a beautiful thing, part of his legacy that I’ll always remember, the same person from high school through long after.”
JONES’ SUPER BOWL heroics catapulted him into brief stardom.
He threw out first pitches and was given the honor of riding a Mardi Gras float along with Ravens safety Ed Reed, also a New Orleans native.
He placed third on “Dancing with the Stars,” where he showed off a love of dancing that dated back to his childhood.
People lined the streets early in the morning on Fat Tuesday to celebrate life and the local players, and with every corner the float turned, London-Jones could hear the chants get louder: “M-V-P. M-V-P. M-V-P.”
“That’s all you could hear,” said London-Jones, who also rode on the float. “I had chills just going through my body. … They were screaming out his name, chanting. Of course, he was dancing on the float. Oh, bet you knew he was going to dance. That was a crazy exciting time.”
But her favorite moments from those whirlwind days came in the lead-up to the game itself, when she cooked for more than 100 members of the Ravens’ roster and staff.
The tables were filled with the weight of the lemon pepper chicken, potato salad and bread pudding. There was gumbo and jambalaya and — of course — Jones’ favorite seven-cheese macaroni.
Everybody kept coming back for more, getting seconds and thirds until the entire spread was wiped out.
She loved those days — cheering him on from her end zone seats, where she’d whistle to let him know her location. If he scored on that side of the stadium, it was his mother who he’d run to first.
Once, in the final minutes of a 2013 game against the Minnesota Vikings, Jones was set to receive a punt but was chatting with his mom just seconds before the kick.
“He is talking to Ms. Emily in the end zone,” Harbaugh recalled. “I am screaming: ‘Jacoby, Jacoby, Jacoby!’ He kind of looks back and goes, ‘Oh, I guess we have to go.’ He turns around on the dead run and sprints as the kicker is kicking the ball; he is sprinting from the end zone, catches it on the dead run and takes it to the house for the [77-yard] touchdown.”
London-Jones missed only one of his games — 2013 against the Chicago Bears — when she was in the hospital. She was still prepared to get up and walk out, determined to fly to her son, but the doctors stood their ground.
“They did put me in ICU so I wouldn’t leave. They didn’t release me until Sunday after halftime,” she said.
London-Jones and her son both got tattoos after the Super Bowl win — her first, and one of many for Jones, who already had tattoos of New Orleans on his body.
He had one on his stomach to replace the photos of his grandparents washed away in Hurricane Katrina, another on his back with the address of the house he was raised in, the outline of the Superdome — later complete with the Ravens logo and the Lombardi Trophy.
Jones played two more seasons with Baltimore before being released in 2015, but he retired as a Raven after signing a one-day contract in September 2017.
“Jacoby, in the biggest game on the biggest stage, had his best game in his hometown,” Newsome said upon Jones’ retirement. “And that is surreal.”
When Jones retired, he bought a house in New Orleans right next to his mother, preparing both of them for the next phase of his life.
He coached wide receivers at Lane College, tight ends at Morgan State and most recently wide receivers at Alabama State. Before his death, he accepted a job as head coach of the Beaumont Renegades, an indoor football team that won the National Arena League title in its sole season of participation this year.
London-Jones said he had a “phenomenal gift” for coaching, teaching through his actions instead of yelling. At his funeral, one former teammate told London-Jones that, “Jacoby would bring a locker room to be as one.”
“He just brought kind of a happiness and a light to everybody around him and everybody fed off that, and he was liked by everyone,” Pitta said.
JONES’ PRESENCE STILL lingers in Pontchartrain Park.
When he died, a mural was painted in his honor on one of the buildings in the park, allowing Jones to watch over the next generation of kids.
On the day of his camp, one woman took a picture with the mural, explaining that she’d driven her children two hours for the opportunity to participate.
Another man, Eric Bridges, proudly displayed the Most Valuable Player trophy that he once won when he was a camper. That day, Bridges was there with his teenage son, who has his own dreams of playing football one day.
“I signed him up as soon as I saw it,” Bridges said. “I used to always tell them, bro, you go to camps and this is what you learn. You can learn a lot of stuff. You meet a lot of different players that you didn’t know. I met the first NFL players I ever met in my life, coming to this camp.”
Perhaps the next Jacoby Jones was in attendance that day in May. If that turns out to be the case, Hall, and Jones’ other friends, want to be there to witness it.
“Losing him last year was a shock to a lot of us, and we’re just out here honoring his name and it feels good to be out here to honor what he did,” Hall said. “He started as a kid like this. So we want to make sure there are opportunities for the same kids, because there’s another Jacoby Jones out here and we want to make sure he gets that opportunity.”
Ravens reporter Jamison Hensley contributed to this story.
