Giants safety Chad Jones, the team’s third-round pick in the 2010 draft, suffered career-threatening injuries in a one-car automobile accident last June. Jones recently told ESPNNewYork.com that his recovery is going as well as he could hope for, and that he plans to return to football as a linebacker.
But Jones has a fall-back option that may be more appealing after 12 leg surgeries, and counting, presumably cost him speed that’s so necessary for a football player on defense.
Jones could turn back to baseball.
A 13th-round draft pick of the Astros in 2007 and the Brewers’ 50th-rounder in 2010, Jones was a flame-throwing left-handed pitcher on LSU’s 2009 NCAA title baseball team. A reliever, Jones posted a 2.70 ERA with seven strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings as a sophomore, and made three starts as a true freshman outfielder and designated hitter in 2008.
“I’m up for anything,” he told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Jones explained that he would need to recover strength in his left leg to resume his pitching career, but says he’s “confident” his 94 m.p.h. fastball would return.
Ultimately, though, Jones’ priority is to return to the gridiron in 2012.
“I’m still striving for the future,” Jones said, “and that big goal of being on that field and strapping it up in that New York uniform.”
