04/23/2025
I was a "Bert Jones " #7 fan back in the day. He was a QB with a shortstops gun arm โพ๏ธ๐
Bert Jones โthe Ruston Rifleโ was a quarterback for the Baltimore Colts and Los Angeles Rams. He was named the NFL Most Valuable Player in 1976 with the Colts.
Jones played college football for the LSU Tigers, earning consensus All-American honors in 1972. He was selected by the Colts in the first round of the 1973 NFL draft with the second overall pick. He is the son of former NFL running back Dub Jones of the Cleveland Browns. In 2016, Jones was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Jones was projected by NFL scouts to be the first quarterback drafted in 1973. He was chosen second overall by the Baltimore Colts to be the Colts' heir apparent to Johnny Unitas.
During his eight-year tenure as the Colts' starting quarterback, Jones and his teammates enjoyed three consecutive AFC East division titles (1975โ77). 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 fourth longest game in NFL history; the Colts fell to the Oakland Raiders, 37โ31.
The 1976 regular season was 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's Roger Staubach (1971) and Oakland's Ken Stabler (1976). Jones was honored by the Associated Press as 1976's NFL Most Valuable Player and NFL Offensive Player of the Year, selected first-team All-Pro, and named to the Pro Bowl team. He was also selected second-team All-Pro following the 1977 season.
Longtime 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 Jones 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 had ever seen.
NFL Most Valuable Player (1976)
NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1976)
First-team All-Pro (1976)
Second-team All-Pro (1977)
Pro Bowl (1976)
NFL passing yards leader (1976)
George Halas Award (1979)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1972)
Consensus All-American (1972)
First-team All-SEC (1972)
College Football Hall of Fame