Blair Jones

Bryce Alderton

The dream ended for Blair Jones, but an opportunity waited on the

horizon.

Longing to play in the NFL since childhood, Jones, a highly

recruited offensive tackle on Newport Harbor High’s 1999 CIF Southern

Section Division VI championship team which went undefeated (13-0-1),

earned a scholarship to play at USC after he graduated in June 2000.

He redshirted that first year, sweating in the pads during

practices, anxious to get the call to play in the game the next

season.

The next season came, but Jones, an All-CIF selection his senior

season and two-time All-Newport-Mesa pick, was left behind.

Near the end of his freshman year, after he had gone through the

rigors of an NCAA Division I football practice, Jones felt a pain in

his right hip that occurred each time he squat on the line or moved

his feet laterally to get ready for a block.

He consulted two doctors and they saw Jones had two bone spurs

missing and cartilage that had worn down considerably. Jones had the

option of surgery, but that would mean cutting the femur in half and

rotating the leg, which would have sent him into a wheelchair for

one-and-a-half years while jeopardizing his ability to walk again.

“To be able to walk again, or drop football, it was a pretty easy

choice not to have the surgery,” Jones said last weekend as he

visited his mother Meredith at her Newport Beach home.

Jones is a junior at USC this year, majoring in international

relations and competing in another sport: rowing.

His older brother Brooks learned to row at the Newport Aquatic

Center and graduated from Loyola Marymount last spring, where he

rowed for four years.

Now Brooks is an assistant coach for USC’s club rowing team, which

doesn’t receive any financial assistance from the university.

Rowing’s club status allowed Jones to compete since he did not

play in another USC varsity sport. Under NCAA rules, an athlete would

lose his or her scholarship if he or she switched to play another

sport other than the one the scholarship was initially for at the

same institution, Jones said.

With a scholarship still intact, Jones has become fond of rowing,

even though it may not stack up to the thrill of knocking a

persistent defensive end on the football field.

“In football, I would get frustrated and mad on the field, so to

counter that, I could just go haul off and hit someone,” Jones said.

“In rowing, you have to calm yourself and be reliable with your

teammates. You can’t think about your screw ups. [Rowing] is one big

rhythm.”

Spending time with Brooks at the NAC and listening to his father

Bill’s suggestion not to “just sit around,” Blair gave rowing a

chance.

“I got to see [Brooks] row all the time and he helped so I

thought, ‘Why not try it?’” Jones said.

Progress has come steadily for Jones, who sits in the sixth seat,

near the boat’s stern where he said “the bigger guys” are.

Trimmed down to 235 pounds from his abbreviated college football

days, when he reached 300, nearly 40 pounds heavier than he was at

Harbor, Jones now does anaerobic and aerobic exercises in addition to

weight training.

“[Rowing] is on the complete opposite spectrum [from football],”

he said.

Crossing that spectrum has tested Jones’ mind as much as his body.

“It was pretty devastating,” Jones recalled of realizing he would

not have a chance to make it to the NFL as a player after suffering

the hip injury. “I had hopes and dreams of someday getting to play in

the NFL. Out of high school, the coaches build you up to be the next

greatest thing. One of the doctors said even if I got through the

surgery, I would never pass the physical to reach the NFL.

“It was tough at the time and it took months afterward to learn to

accept it.”

With that acceptance came another opportunity for Jones to

maintain ties to football.

For up to eight hours a week, Jones, 21, reviews tapes and makes

sure potential recruits have filed the correct paperwork for coaches

in USC’s football offices in Heritage Hall.

During Trojan football games in the fall, Jones was on the

sidelines, helping in any way he could. He got to fly to Miami in

January for USC’s victorious Orange Bowl game against Iowa.

“The [coaching staff] knows you are helping out, so it works out

well,” Jones said. “I miss [football], but still get a bit of it.”

Since rowing is more of a vertical motion with the legs rather

than a lateral movement, Jones’ hip feels just fine in the boat.

“It is the same notion as running or walking, your legs go up and

down,” Jones said.

Jones has endured both the lows and the highs of a promising

football career abruptly halted. But he hardly stopped and now he

moves on the water, no matter the direction.