This Breakaway Runner Can’t Find Daylight

Anthony Jones simply shook his head and smiled when he spotted a friend watching him and his football team, the Inland Empire Blitz, practice one recent weeknight at Ontario High School.

Somehow, Jones looked out of place standing next to a semipro teammate who had arrived at practice with a female companion, a cooler and a lawn chair for her to sit on.

“Right away you can tell that he doesn’t need to be out here with us because he has so much talent,” said tight end Chad Stokes, a teammate and former U.S. marine. “He’s an NFL-caliber player who approaches football seriously. We all respect him because we know that he is making the most out of the situation just to get a chance to produce somewhere else.”

But in the world of football unemployment, sometimes practicing on dimly lit fields after a local peewee team workout is the best you can get.

Just ask Jones, who two years ago was considered the best Division III running back in college football after rushing for 1,480 yards and 19 touchdowns in eight games at La Verne.

He was a finalist for Division III player of the year, and his coaches often told him he was that rare athlete good enough to make the giant leap from a small college to the NFL.

Jones primed himself for workouts in front of NFL teams. After his agent had told scouts that he was on par with then-UCLA standout Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Jones produced his best marks when the two players tested together before the draft.

Even if he wasn’t drafted, Jones figured he would get a tryout in an NFL camp or a chance in the World League of American Football or Canadian Football League.

He worked out twice a day, in the morning before his job at a rental car agency, then after he finished his second job as a security guard.

“You have to give Anthony credit because he is a very, very dedicated young man,” said his father, Larry Jones. “He has continued to work out and take care of his body. We talked about what he’s going to do when he can’t play ball anymore and to have a backup, but as long as he’s being positive and staying out of trouble, that is OK with me.”

Even after he wasn’t drafted, Jones still considered himself NFL material. He dropped his 40-yard dash time from 4.67 to 4.58 seconds and increased his weight from 200 pounds to 215.

But the teams that had seemed interested said they didn’t need any more running backs or that he wasn’t the type of back they were looking for.

Jones continued to work out last season. He stayed in school and graduated with a business degree from La Verne last spring.

One weekday morning in April, Jones thought his chance had finally arrived. He got a call from a new agent saying the San Diego Chargers wanted to sign him.

For most of the day, Jones’ head was in the clouds as he waited for a contract to be faxed to his parents’ home in Ontario. His agent eventually called back with bad news.

The Chargers had thought that he was his former La Verne teammate Anthony Rice--a wide receiver-defensive back. The Chargers withdrew their offer.

“The whole thing [was] just so strange to me,” said Jones’ agent, Ron Brown, a former USC and Raider linebacker who represents several NFL players. “I had never experienced anything close to this. They actually had faxed a contract to us.”

The Chargers said Jones did not fit into their plans because he was not the speedy running back they wanted. With the chances of an undrafted Division III player being one of the 1,590 players on an opening-day NFL roster being less than 2%, San Diego wasn’t concerned about overlooking a can’t-miss player.

Jones’ response was to work out even harder.

“I know that there are some people who say I should give up and [get a full-time regular job],” Jones said. “But if I didn’t think that I was good enough, I would have given up a long time ago.”

Jones, 24, still lives at home with his parents and two younger brothers and, as this NFL season nears the midpoint, realizes his NFL dream has all but passed him by. But he won’t give up on football. An opportunity with any paying league would be good enough now.

Jon Kingdon, a 19-year veteran scout with the Oakland Raiders, one of the few teams that considered signing Jones, says that the running back’s biggest problem is that he played at a small college.

“It’s a pretty big jump for Division III players to the professional level,” he said. “Nowadays, we only sign three or four free agents a year. . . . The odds of getting signed from a Division III school are a lot greater than for players from bigger schools. The more talented players go to bigger schools. That’s why we don’t find too many players in the league from smaller schools.”

Jones turned to the Blitz and semipro ball in August when Jim Valdez, an assistant coach with the team, suggested that he play because the team practices near his home. Jones was hesitant at first, but after spending more than a year away from the sport, he changed his mind.

Most play for fun at this level; some hope--most beyond hope--it’s a steppingstone.

“A.J. is probably our one NFL prospect,” Blitz Coach Bruce Sisson said. “The plan is for him to make our league’s all-star team. He’ll then play in a big all-star game in December where a lot of scouts come out to see. Then, they’ll get a chance to see his film and then, hopefully, someone will sign him. He’s still young.”

Jones has run for 1,306 yards and 12 touchdowns in seven games so far.

“Sometimes, I do ask myself, ‘What am I doing out here?’ ” he says. “And it gets frustrating when we don’t have enough players to even have a full practice.”

But encouragement from friends, who also have sought NFL tryouts, has helped.

“We have to support one another,” said Jon Nielsen, a former quarterback at Claremont-Mudd College and current workout partner with Jones. “We’re not stupid. . . . We know what odds we are facing. But you only have a small window of your life to be an athlete, and we’re just trying to take full advantage of this time.”