Stephen Jones (born June 8, 1960) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

wide receiver who played ten seasons in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL) with the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

and

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Central Michigan University Central Michigan University (CMU) is a public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Established in 1892 as the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute, the private normal school became a state institution and renamed Cen ...

. Jones was a member of the Edmonton Eskimos team that won the

75th Grey Cup The 75th Grey Cup was the 1987 Canadian Football League championship game that was played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Toronto Argonauts. The Eskimos defeated the Argonauts 38–36, on Jerry Kauric's last ...

. He was also a two-time CFL All-Star and three-time CFL East All-Star.

Early years

Jones was born in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

, and started playing football at the age of seven. He played quarterback on the Beecher High School varsity football team, and played on the varsity basketball and baseball teams. Jones was also a member of his high school track team, competing in the 60 and

100-yard dash 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

College career

Jones was Central Michigan University's first African American starting quarterback, for three out of his four years at CMU. In his senior year he moved to split end and finished third in receiving. Over the course of his university career he won two

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) championships in 1979, 1980 and won MAC player of the week twice.

Professional career

Jones started his professional career as a late cut with the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

in 1983, and was with the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

for part of 1984.

Saskatchewan Roughriders

In 1984, Jones signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In 1985 he was traded to the Ottawa Rough Riders; however he was subsequently released that year.

Edmonton Eskimos

In 1986, Jones signed with the Edmonton Eskimos, and was the Western Division leader for kickoff return yards. In 1987, he was second in leading pass receiving with 55 catches for 1,147 yards and 8 touchdowns. He led Edmonton with 51 kickoff returns for 957 yards placing him second in the CFL for kickoff returns. That year the Eskimos went on to win the

over the Toronto Argonauts 38-36. In 1988, Jones caught 26 passes for 389 yards and led the Eskimos in kickoff returns with 31 for 635 yards, including one for 88 yards. In 1989, he played 7 games with Edmonton, recording 21 pass receptions for 374 yards. Stephen spent most of the season recovering from a shoulder injury.

Ottawa Rough Riders

In 1990, Jones finished the regular season playing for the Ottawa Rough Riders, ranking first in pass receiving and registered 59 receptions for 1182 yards and 11 touchdowns ranking him fourth overall in the CFL. He had a 20.0 yard per reception average and his longest catch was a 66-yard pass. He finished second with 11 touchdowns. Jones had 11 kickoff returns for 175 yards. He was also named an All-Eastern and CFL All Star this year. In 1991, Jones missed 4 games due to a hamstring injury, but still ranked second on the team in receiving with 661 yards on 39 receptions. He also ranked first on the team with 7 receiving touchdowns. Jones made 5 kickoff returns for 114 yards, and had 5 receptions for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. In 1992, Jones finished the season with 1,400 yards receiving. He registered 254 yards receiving against Toronto on 10 receptions. He tied a Rider single game record with three touchdowns receiving. Jones also led the Riders with 10 touchdowns. He also had three 100 plus yard receiving games (254 v. Toronto, 101 yards v. Sask. And 135 v. Winnipeg). He was named the offensive player of the game twice, and claimed the longest reception of the year against Saskatchewan with 55 yards. Again Jones was named an Eastern and CFL All Star, and Team MVP. In 1993, Jones was named All-Eastern All Star for the third time. He finished the year with 1279 yards on 74 catches and 6 touchdowns. He caught the game winning 56 yard touchdown pass with under 10 seconds to go at the SkyDome giving Ottawa a 26-25 win over Toronto. Stephen was named the Offensive Player of the Game four times. He also recorded seven 100 plus games and averaged over 10 yards per reception in 15 games. Stephen caught 9 passes for 157 yards against Toronto, and 8 passes for 144 yards against Winnipeg. In 1994, Jones started in nine games and finished second in Rider receiving with 591 yards on 32 receptions. He had three 100 plus yards receiving games. That year Stephen also had a single-game season high with 7 receptions v. Baltimore. In 1995, Jones began marketing and coaching for the Ottawa Rough Riders until 1996, where he then served as a guest football analyst for a local sports radio station.

References

*''Source'': Ottawa RoughRiders 1995 Fact Book, pp. 26–27 *''Source'': Canadian Football League - Facts, Figures & Records 1992, pp. 83–84
2011 CFL Individual Record Book
(pg.1; pg.7)

External links

Just Sports Statstotalfootballstats.comFanbase profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Stephen Living people 1960 births Players of American football from Flint, Michigan American football quarterbacks American football wide receivers Canadian football wide receivers Players of Canadian football from Michigan Central Michigan Chippewas football players Saskatchewan Roughriders players Edmonton Elks players Ottawa Rough Riders players Sportspeople from Flint, Michigan 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople