BALTIMORE COLT BERT JONES--THE RUXTON RIFLE
Bertram Hays Jones (born September 7, 1951) played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Baltimore Colts and the Los Angeles Rams. At Ruston High School in Ruston, Louisiana, he was given the nickname, "The Ruston Rifle." Jones played college football at Louisiana State University (LSU). He is the son of former NFL running back Dub Jones of the Cleveland Browns.
After setting all-time passing records at LSU, Jones was chosen in the first round (2nd overall) of the 1973 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts to be the Colts' heir apparent to Johnny Unitas, who was later traded to San Diego. His debut came on September 16, 1973 in a loss to the Cleveland Browns. During his eight-year tenure as the Colts' starting quarterback, Jones and his teammates enjoyed three consecutive AFC East division titles (1975–77). But in each of those years, the Colts lost in the first round of the playoffs. The 1977 playoff game (known as Ghost to the Post) is famous as the 4th longest game in NFL history; the Colts fell to the Oakland Raiders, 37–31. Jones missed most of 1978 and 1979 with a shoulder injury, and the Colts fell to last place in the AFC East those two seasons.
The 1976 regular season was Bert Jones's finest as a professional: he threw for 3,104 yards and a career-high 24 touchdowns, compiling a passer rating of 102.5. He was one of only three quarterbacks to achieve a 100+ passer rating during the entire decade of the 1970s, joining Dallas' Roger Staubach (1971) and Oakland's Ken Stabler (1976). Jones was thus honored by the Associated Press as 1976's NFL Most Valuable Player and NFL Offensive Player of the Year, selected All-Pro and named to the Pro Bowl team. He was also selected 2nd Team All-Pro following the 1977 season.
During an October 26, 1980 game against the St. Louis Cardinals, Jones made NFL history when he was sacked a record 12 times. This broke the record at the time held by many quarterbacks, including Jones' then back-up, Greg Landry, who had been sacked 11 times while he was a member of the Detroit Lions in a game against the Dallas Cowboys on October 6, 1975.
In 1982, his final season, he played in four games for the Los Angeles Rams before a neck injury forced him to retire.
In 1990, Jones participated in the first NFL quarterback challenge. He finished first in the retiree category and third in the regular competition (The regular competition taking the top three finishers from the alumni competition and adding them to the regular field of current QBs). Given his strong performance, Bobby Beathard, then the GM of the Chargers, wanted Jones to come out of retirement, but Jones was 39 at the time and chose not to try a comeback.
The widely respected scout Ernie Accorsi is quoted as saying that if Bert Jones had played under different circumstances, he probably would have been the greatest player ever. John Riggins has been quoted as saying Bert was the toughest competitor he has ever witnessed. On the eve of Super Bowl XLII New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, in discussing his choices for the greatest quarterbacks of all time, described Jones as the best "pure passer" he ever saw. (wikipedia)
Bert Jones' 1976 MVP Season
By Ben Lamers SB Nation Apr 16, 2015
Bert Jones quarterbacked the Colts for nine seasons and helped win the AFC East three straight years. He was also named the league MVP in 1976. Yet he often gets lost in the hierarchy of Colts signal callers.
Former Colts General Manager Ernie Accorsi has indicated that with a better team, and circumstances (Jones suffered his fair share of injuries), that Jones could have been one of the best QBs in NFL history.
In fact, Bill Belichick had this to say about Jones:
"As a pure passer I don't think I could put anybody ahead of Bert Jones. I know he had a short career and the shoulder injury, but when I was there and he was just starting his career, the success that he had and his ability to throw the ball as a pure passer and as an athlete, it would be hard to put anybody ahead of Bert Jones at that point in time."
In nine seasons with Baltimore, Jones only made it through five without injury, and in three of those seasons the Colts were AFC East champions.
It should come as no surprise that 1976 was Jones' best year as a pro. Let's dive into the numbers.
As always, we'll kick things off with passer rating. Jones finished the season with a 102.5 rating, and was one of only three QBs in the 1970s to finish a season with a passer rating over 100. One of the others was Ken Stabler, who also did it in 1976.
In passing attempts, Jones finished sixth in the league, well behind league leader Jim Zorn on Seattle. Jones also finished sixth in completions, with 207, which was only one behind Zorn. Vikings QB Fran Tarkenton led the league in completions with 255.
With such a high passer rating, one might think that Jones would have led the league in completion percentage, but not so. Stabler led the league with a 66.7% completion rate, while Jones was third (Tarkenton was second).
The one category where Jones does stand above the others, though, is in passing yards. Jones threw for more than 3,000 yards, and was the only quarterback to do so in 1976. With those yards came 24 touchdown passes as well. However, Jones' 24 scores again fell second in the league to Stabler's 27.
Jones did a great job taking care of the ball, though, only throwing nine interceptions on the season. Zorn led the league with 27, and Stabler tossed 17. I also wanted to point out that Jones was sacked a total of 29 times. I really only bring that up because I wanted to highlight the fact that Lions quarterback Greg Landry was sacked a whopping 55 times that season.
This is probably the first time where I find it difficult to say, purely from a QB perspective, that Jones might not have been the most deserving of the MVP. Yes, he had great stats, and led the Colts to an 11-3 record with the top rated offense in the league
But who had better stats? Stabler. And the Raiders went 13-1 with the second best offense in the league.
In past articles I said that Unitas got the nod because the Colts were a superior team (record wise) even if he didn't have the gaudy numbers. It would be slightly hypocritical to say that Jones deserved it in 1976 over Stabler. Stabler had (most of) the numbers and he had the best record in football.
But what happened as we journeyed into the playoffs?
The Colts had the second seed in the AFC, which drew the AFC Central champion, and defending Super Bowl Champion, Pittsburgh Steelers.
In a nutshell, the game didn't go well for the Colts. The Steel Curtain held the Colts to 170 total yards, while the Pittsburgh offense rolled up 526 yards, including 226 on the ground. Jones was held to 144 yards (99 yards in net passing), a score, and two interceptions.
Between 1975 and 1977 the Colts were AFC East champions three straight years. Three straight years they went one and done in the playoffs.
While I'm not sure that Jones had the numbers, or the record, to win the MVP in 1976, he was the leader of the last Colts team to have any success for a long, long time.
Catching Up With ... Bert Jones
By Mike Klingaman The Baltimore Sun, 9/20/12
Thirty-five years later, the triumph remains one for the ages. Behind by a mile, in a must-win game, the Colts stormed back to defeat New England and take the AFC East title. Trailing, 21-3 in the second half, Baltimore scored four touchdowns — the last on a 99-yard drive — to stun the Patriots, 30-24 in the last regular-season game and make the 1977 playoffs.
"What a great comeback," recalled Bert Jones, the quarterback who threw three TD passes and then marched the team the length of the field for the victory. "Why did we win? Because we had to."
It was the Colts' third straight division championship behind Jones, their tough, oft-battered leader whose injuries — and squabbles with team owner Bob Irsay — dampened a stellar career. In 10 seasons, he played with everything from busted ribs to a separated shoulder to, finally, a broken neck.
"My pre-game warmup was to put an 'X' where it hurt the most," Jones, 61, said earlier this week, from his home in Louisiana.
When healthy, he could light up a game. The Colts' No. 1 draft pick in 1973 (second overall) from LSU, Jones was groomed to fill Johnny Unitas' high-topped shoes. Unitas was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player in his fourth year as a pro (1959). Jones did it in three, passing for a league-leading 3,104 yards in 1976.
Eight times, he threw for 300 yards or more, including that game against New England in 1977 which then-Colts' coach Ted Marchibroda called "The greatest comeback in an important game I ever saw." Losing badly in the third quarter, the Colts struck back. Touchdown passes to Glenn Doughty, Raymond Chester and Freddie Scott pulled Baltimore within one point (24-23).
When a Patriots' punt backed the Colts to their own one-yard line, they rallied again, scoring the game-winner on a three-yard plunge by tailback Don McCauley.
During the contest, Jones said, "I remember seeing (New England safety) Timmy Fox standing on their bench, leading Colts' cheers in jest. After the game, I told him, 'I'll bet you won't work on those cheers again.' "
That game was the Colts' last hurrah. They lost to Oakland in the first round of the playoffs and never had another winning season before Irsay moved the team to Indianapolis in 1984. By then, Jones, tired of the owner's endless sniping, was gone, sent to the Los Angeles Rams in 1982 His first year there, he broke his neck, then retired from football and devoted his life to both family and the lumber manufacturing plant he'd bought near his native Ruston, La. in 1977.
The thought of coaching never entered his mind.
"Coaches are hired to be fired. I'd seen the schizophrenic life they have to deal with," said Jones, who opted for a settled lifestyle. Married 35 years, he has four children — a physician, nutritionist, environmental lawyer and businessman – and four grandchildren.
"Do I have regrets? I can't say no. I miss the strategic competitiveness of the game," he said. "But when I look where my children are, and the job I've done, I know I chose the right path."
Ever the outdoorsman, he still enjoys going quail hunting at the family's west Texas ranch with his father, Dub, 88, a former Cleveland Browns running back. When the spirit moves, Jones heads for the fishing camp he owns in Venice, La., to hook tarpon and redfish. On occasion, he takes old Colts' teammates on these jaunts, where they rehash old times.
"I remember that, as a rookie, I didn't have much money, so I'd go to Unitas' Golden Arm Restaurant for dinner, where he'd feed me for half-price," Jones said. "I went there often. John didn't know I'd rented a house, just three blocks away. Finally, (Unitas' teammate and business partner) Bobby Boyd said, 'John, you've got to stop feeding this guy or he's going to break us.' "
On the desk in Jones' office rests a Baltimore Colts' helmet on which three autographs are scrawled: those of Unitas, Peyton Manning and Jones.
That tells all, he said:
"There were two great quarterbacks who played for the Colts — and another one who sure enjoyed it."
