Jones Reveals Heartbreaking Details of Emotional Week

“Usually, after the game, especially at the game when you get a sack, the family calls and congratulates me or sends me a text,” Jones explained on Friday. “So, I was calling everybody like, ‘Hell, yeah! About time. We got the sack. Let's do it. This is the beginning.’

“And, it was like, ‘Call your mom. Call your sister.’ My hope was everything's okay, and unfortunately, she had a heart attack watching the game.”

Aunt Dawn

She was his Aunt Dawn, and she meant everything to Jones. He lived with her for five years while growing up in Houston, Miss. And knowing that his No. 1 fan passed away while watching that Giants game on NBC was heartbreaking, to say the least.

On top of those emotions were the difficult logistics that come with any unexpected loss of a loved one, planning a funeral at the church he attended as a youngster. And as an NFL player, he was obviously thinking of Kansas City’s game against an AFC heavyweight, Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the Ravens.

“Me and Coach Reid talked about it.” Jones said, “And more so it was about making my aunt’s funeral, and if that was a time frame where I could get back, I would try to get back. But they completely understood, and we came up with a plan around it.”

That plan

That plan involved several members of the Chiefs’ support staff, including athletic trainers who set up Jones with a plan to avoid dehydration. Senior director of team security Brian Shafar was key in arranging logistics that involved getting the All-Pro defensive tackle from a Sunday morning funeral in Mississippi, on a 90-minute flight to Kansas City, and arranging ground transportation through pregame traffic. Jones missed pregame warmups and arrived less than 30 minutes before kickoff.

But the NFL could’ve scheduled the game during coffee-break time on a Wednesday morning.

“For me, I don't really stretch before the game,” Jones said. “I'm a huge fan of Randy Moss. Stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready. And I get off the plane ready. I was ready to pass rush off the plane.”

Impactful to say the least

Kansas City needed it, too. Jones made at least three critical plays to help secure the win.

• Facing third-and-1 on the first snap of the fourth quarter, he fork-lifted 370-pound right guard Daniel Faalele into the lap of quarterback Cooper Rush, who barely had time to put the ball in Henry’s hands. Jones and Chamarri Conner dropped the running back for a 1-yard loss. Rush threw an incomplete pass on the next snap, turning over the ball on downs.

• Midway through the second quarter, Jones and George Karlaftis flushed Jackson out of the pocket and into the shoulder pad of Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum. Drue Tranquill pounced on the fumble, and the Chiefs declined Faalele’s holding penalty caused by Jones.

• And without Jones, the Ravens might’ve completed a critical second-quarter play. With the Chiefs up 13-7, Baltimore called a screen pass to Henry and had blocks perfectly set up for big yardage. But Jones got his big hand on Jackson’s toss to foil the play.

“Obviously, we were praying for Chris,” Patrick Mahomes said after the game, “and we love him and we’re just happy to have him here. And we can be his brothers and support him. I think it made guys step up and want to play even harder for him.

“For him to want to be back here with us in times that he is in right now, it speaks to the brotherhood that we have in the locker room.”