December 15, 2022 • 54 mins
Ep #9 of the NFL Players: Second Acts podcast. On the show, co-hosts former All-Pro Charles “Peanut” Tillman and Super Bowl champion Roman Harper talk with NFL legends about how they’ve found success in their post-NFL careers. Today, they’re joined by 12-year NFL veteran running back and current Hollywood actor Thomas Q. jones.
Thomas Jones was a bruising Pro Bowl RB who punished defenders on his way to 10,591 career rushing yards in his 12-year career. It was a career worthy of Hall of Fame consideration in 2022. Yet, when he left the game Thomas spent the first 10 months of his retirement drinking beer…all day, every day…starting with a Corona…at 6am! He joined Roman and Peanut to talk about the dark days of that struggle and how showbusiness saved his life. The man who chose acting over alcoholism also talks of how he channeled his football competitiveness into a thriving Hollywood career as Thomas Q. Jones the actor, producer, showrunner, and entrepreneur.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nice work. You know you guys are getting better saying
this Second Acts really messed up the first time. I'm
very intentional about it. Ya got it? I would invest
it up if it literally is not on top of
my head. I'm looking at myself like I'm not lying.
I would tell you best it up. I'm very intentional
about it. No, I can tell you really are like Rome,
(00:23):
I don't never forget your name, but I was thinking.
I was like, I was like, damn, I forgot his
name until until Yeah, I'll never forget your damn name
ever until I needed it. Everybody, what's going on? I'm
(00:47):
one of the hosts with the most put Tolman and
you're listening to the NFL Player's Second Acts Podcast. Our
special guest today Thomas Q. Jones. And I got my
guy with me as always Rome, And I want Thomas
Jones Arms Harper with me on the show. What's up?
What Up? What up? What's up? Brother? What's up? My guy?
(01:07):
And uh, I hear no lies in that statement. I
totally want Thomas Jones Arms. Well, let me let me
read a little bit about this brother. So Thomas Jones
the football player he played twelve years. He was my
teammate in Chicago for a couple of years, ran for
over ten thousand yard. He ranks UH twenty six all
time on the NFL rushing list, and when he retired
(01:29):
in two thousand eleven, he transformed from Thomas Jones the
football player into Thomas Q. Jones the actor, the writer
of the producer. I'll tell you what, Rome, I was
super lucky and blessed to have this guy as a teammate.
One of the biggest things that we did in Chicago
was not keep him there after we had our Super
(01:49):
Bowl run. He was one of those amazing locker room guys,
great savvy vette to kind of help bring up the
young pups in our locker room. And probably one of
the biggest mistakes we ever made in Chicago was letting
that man walk away. You know how it is, Peanut.
Every year, you know, those guys upstairs, they don't have
a real post or beat on what is going on
on a day to day basis inside that locker room downstairs.
(02:12):
And every team has this one guy that's kind of
like a glue guy that really helps getings going. You know,
he's a great leader. He really shows the young guys
what to do on a day to day basis and
what it really is to be a pro. And you know,
all of a sudden, you get the guys upstairs, the
GM the scouts there, like, man, we just got this
next guy in line. He's gonna be great. He's a
cheaper option, this, this, this and this, and it's like, no,
(02:35):
he was only good or the best version of himself
because you have the vet beside him, helps showing him
the way on a day to day basis, man, showing
the tricks of the trade. We see that every year. Man,
I watched that team, that Chicago Bears team go to
the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, you guys lost. And I love
what Thomas Jones brought to that team, that organization, and
uh it stinks. But now we're gonna hear more from
(02:57):
his side of the story too, So I'm looking forward
to him my man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's check that
out right now. Okay, guys, Peanut could not be here
with us to kind of conduct this interview. Thomas, I
hope you are understand that. But you know, as we
(03:19):
previously recorded and you were hearing the intro already, I
want you to hear this personally right now, Thomas and
I want to hear your reactions from what my man
Peanut had to say about you. I was super lucky
and blessed to have this guy as a teammate. One
of the biggest things that we did in Chicago was
not keep him there after we had our Super Bowl run.
He was one of those amazing locker room guys, great
(03:43):
savvy that to kind of help bring up the young
puffs in our locker room. And probably one of the
biggest mistakes we ever made in Chicago was letting that
man walk away. Wow. Man, it's I mean, it's early,
so hearing that it's you know, just hit me for
you know what I'm saying, like, just um, it means everything.
(04:04):
It means everything. Chicago is a second home for me.
It's where I really feel like my NFL career started
in Chicago, even though I was drafted by theres on
the Cardinals. Uh. Peanut with someone that I had a
really close relationship with. I watched him evolved and grow
to a Hall of Fame football player. Uh. I think
(04:27):
some of the Peanut punch. I deserved some of the
credit for that because because I have uh, actually I
have nerve damage in my both of my elbows because
he of him punching the ball out of my arms
and practice every day chasing me down. Um. You know,
so he practiced a lot of that peanut punch on
me and irritated me a lot. But he also helped
(04:48):
me make sure I'm holding onto the ball. So we
helped each other. Um, it just means a lot, especially
come from someone like him. You know, he's a Hall
of Fame player. Uh, He's a legendary cornerback has had,
I mean, one of the best football players, best teammates
that I've ever had that I could ever have. And
in regards to me not being able to come back,
I was definitely definitely upset about that. I felt like,
(05:13):
if I could have come back to Chicago after that
Super Bowl run, uh we we definitely if we stayed
healthy and played well, we definitely had an opportunity to
get back to the super Bowl and win. And I
wanted to win the Super Bowl in Chicago. I kind
of understood what that felt like just by seeing um
the parades on TV and especially during the playoffs into
(05:34):
two thousands, six seasons. Um, but um, hey, I had
the opportunity to play in Chicago play with incredible teammates,
like like Charles Tillman. So at least I have the memories. Alright, Alright,
so you're talking about this Peanut punch. So because I
was teammates and Peanut for one year that was later
on his career, he had already perfected this thing. So
how did this thing kind of evolve? Because you're the
(05:56):
first person that's actually like, oh, he practiced it on
me all the time, and when I saw him, he
wasn't practicing as much. It was just perfected by that point.
So how did this thing start evolving? How? How like
tireson were you just like, look, dude, every time I
turn around, you trying to punch at me and chase
me over here. Well, I saw with Chicago and two
(06:17):
thousand four and and practice, I developed this habit of
finishing every run. So it was known that I would
take every uh, every running play in team period, no
matter where we were on the field, no matter whether
we were on our own thirty, we were on you know,
backed up on our own tin, or you know, on
(06:38):
the opponent's ten, I would score every play. And yeah,
no matter what the situation it was, Peanut would always
chase me down and he would knock the ball out
and and he would always catch me at the at
the perfect time when I didn't think he was gonna
(06:59):
do it. And and to be honest, the first few
times it infuriated me almost to the point of where
and he'll tell you this, I wanted to physically fight
him because he because I would get five yards from
the end zone and he wouldn't punch the ball out,
and then it's a touch back, and that's on tape.
So I have to watch that in my offensive meetings.
(07:20):
He's not in those offensive meetings, so I have to
watch that in the offensive meetings. And now, you know,
depending on how the day went practice, you know, my
coach like Thomas, you got to secure the ball and
I'm like, I'm fifty yards down the field, like you know. So, yeah,
he developed this whole thing of chasing me down knocking
the ball out at random times. UM. And he was
and he started doing in the games. UM. And I
(07:41):
wasn't there prior, so I hadn't seen him do that
before because I hadn't played with him. But I know
every time, UM, I would see him punch the ball
out in the games, I would be ecstatic, obviously because
now getting the ball back on offense. But in practice,
whenever he did the exact same thing to me, been
after the play, I was running back to the huddle
(08:03):
and he would come from behind and punch the ball
out and I would be furious. So it was a
bit I had a I have a bitter sweet relationship
with the peanut punch because in practice I was infuriated,
but in the games, I was like ecstatic, you know,
So either way, Um, it was incredible, you know, for
him to have a where with all to do that,
because he also made me more cognizant and aware of
(08:26):
holding them to the ball at all times, regardless when
the whistles blown or not. So he made me a
better person. But practicing the peanut punch on me in
practice every day, you know, he had never told me this.
And I'm by far giving you, like Sev credit because
he didn't do this until you showed up. I'm giving
you way more credit than what you were even trying
(08:47):
to take. I'm getting honestly real all right now. I
don't know if I can take seventy because he still
has to do it, you know, But it's okay. I'm
giving you seventy. Kay, I'll take it. Then I'll take it.
I'll take it from you and take I'm giving it.
You don't even you don't want it, you don't probably
don't deserve it, but I'm giving it. I'm giving it
(09:10):
to you today. All right, That's what I got. You
played five more years after that Super Bowl year with
and and and then you played with the Jets and
the Chiefs and you made a Pro Bowl. Uh when
did you know though? It was time for you to retire?
And I played you when you were with the Jets
that that next year or so we did right, And
(09:30):
I was with right, Yes you did. I knew it
was time to retire one random day in Kansas City
when I woke up from a nap um going into
my twelve year in the NFL. I woke up and
I'm not sure what made me feel this way, but
(09:53):
i just felt like I had enough. I guess they
always say when you know, you know, I never think
you're gonna get to that point because you love football
so much, especially uh me. I love football since I
was a five year old kid, and at that point
I was thirty two thirty three years old. And I
was still in great shape physically mentally, I was still
(10:16):
ambitious and still wanted to win the Super Bowl. So
there were there was really no rhyme of reason for
me to to say I'm done, but I just felt it,
and going into my two year, I knew that was
gonna be my last season. Man. That's I mean, it's real.
Just like you say, when you know, you know, it's
something about your mind, your body and when it is
(10:38):
your time, you know. And that's really cool though that
you said you just woke up from the affle, like, yeah,
this is it. I know this. And you know I
watched a lot of your highlights last night when when
you were talking that rock in Virginia, but I forgot
you used to take that thing like that. So and
I also want to just I just get this out
the way now. Y puts not here to kind of
pile on all right, You're the main reason I started
(11:00):
and then doing all these curls and try self. My
brother just wanted to let you know that you know
what I'm saying, Like the arms of them guns was popping,
bro when the coming out right, I'm happy to listen.
I'm happy to him inspired anybody because most of that
was just me wanting to make sure I was as
strong as possible and I could hold them to the
ball and I fumble. Um. But also you know, there
(11:22):
was some asthetics, aesthetics to it. You know, you can
come out, you can get your jersey, you know, cut
a little short, grease the arms up a little bit,
a little bit more more tyger bomb on the arms,
you know, but for the games. But that's dope, bro.
I mean, we're not gonna say nobody's paying attention, but
somebody's always watching and paying attention to those things. And uh,
(11:45):
it's just real funny because my big mantra was this though,
So Thomas I used to do and just say, look,
everybody says you can't arm tackling league. I'd be like,
watch me, you know what I'm saying. But the tackle
is a tackle and the lead tackles the tackle. Dog.
At least that's what I used to tell myself, Um right,
tell me. So here's another personal question, and you know,
(12:07):
just on emotions and so you were on the ballot
for the Hall of Fame in two thousand twenty two.
How much did you care about getting a gold jacket?
I think that's the ultimate individual award in football, to
be UM inducted into Kenton. Obviously, there's a lot that
(12:28):
goes into that. There's a lot of politics, politics, politics,
a lot of politics while you're playing. To even get
to the point of nomination Pro Bowls, UM, all pros UM,
you know, Uh, there's a lot of criteria and also
I think there are a lot of people who have
access to voting for that that maybe don't don't have
(12:52):
the criteria themselves even vote UM. But you know, that's
kind of the situation that you're in with the Hall
of Fame. I think there are a lot of guys
that have had Hall of Fame caliber careers that that
aren't in the Hall of Fame. And I think they're
are a couple of guys who, um, maybe didn't have
the credentials that uh, other guys should have that are in.
You know, So it's just all subjective. UM. It's an
(13:15):
honor either way just to even be recognized and put
in the same categories as some of these incredible running
backs that have had outstanding NFL careers. So one way
or another, I'm proud of my career, I'm proud of
the effort my efforts that I put forward. I'm proud
of the relationships that I made and the effect I
(13:36):
had a younger players. And um, and that's what really
matters to me, the relationships you get from football. Um.
I always tell people I can't remember my own stats,
the yard, the tackles that like, to me, it doesn't,
It matters so much less because what really football gives
you is the relationships that you get out of it, man,
And I think that's what most of us missed, probably
(14:00):
most of them were out of it. And also the
ways that we appreciate the most, um, what we're done.
And so I agree and um, and so I will
give you a little kudos too, because I feel like
I can say this, I played with your brother Julius,
and so I mean you can always go to the
dinner table and say I got more than him. So, um, well,
(14:20):
you know, I mean what I look at it is
I look at it as what we have combined. So
see now now now you're now you're showing off. Well
I'm saying, I'm like, well, you know, being my brother
actually are the first brothers in NFL history to rush
for over thousand yards in the same season and collectively,
(14:40):
we have over fifteen thousand rushing yards. UM. So I
kind of look at it from that, and I think
we have around a hundred touchdowns and ninety ninety something touchdowns. Um.
So you know, I try to put because this is
the this is the NFL. And so if you can put, uh,
two people from the same household together, but their staf
us together, um, you know, I think that's more impressive
(15:03):
than me actually having more more yards of him or
him having more yards than me. As you should, as
you should, um, and you know, shout out to Julius
two man. He's a good dude, great teammate of mind
for just a couple of years in New Orleans. So
all right, you talked about and I've I've I've seen
you on Life after I watched your episode, you know,
I watched a couple of your your other shows that
(15:24):
you're doing in producing. It's really cool stuff. And I
did see them doing your your makeup and your your
haircut getting right. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I did see that. So what I let you go that, Uh,
but you talked about the struggle the first eight to
ten months after you retired that uh, specifically with with
(15:45):
the drinking. Uh, because you maybe take us into your
mindset during that time. Um. And what was the moment
when you said to yourself, I have to make a change.
I mean, I retired and I was immediately low, lost,
immediately lost something I never expected, you know. So so
you went from saying you know what, I know, it's
(16:06):
my time to doing it and then feeling lost afterwards.
I have what they called buyer's remorse. Okay, yeah, buyer's remorse.
So it's like, man, I'm done. I know going into
every game this year, this is my last game, and
I'm gonna go ahead and I give everything I had.
I'm gonna try my best and I get hurt, but
I'm gonna try to win a super Bowl and hopefully
(16:28):
I can get to eleven thousand rushing yards and um.
And when I retired after that last game at mid
High Stadium, and I flew back home, we had a
last team meeting and I moved my stuffed from Kansas
City back to to to Miami. I sat at my
house and I looked around and I'm like, Okay, who
(16:49):
am I? Who am I? Now? What am I gonna do? Now?
You know? Usually off the off season. Program workouts start
in two months in March, Nuary the seventh. Okay, I
don't have that. Um the season starts in July. I
don't have that either. Um So, all I could see
(17:14):
as a thirty three year old retired NFL player was
thirty three two seventy m. I couldn't see the next season,
and that's what I was used to seeing as a
football player. The next season, my junior season, then my
senior season, then your college freshman season, sophomore blah blah blah,
blah blah blah, on and on and on and on.
(17:35):
So I never had to see set what seventy five
looked like because I was too busy seeing what the
next year looked like. You know. Um So, I hadn't
planned for anything, and I didn't have anything that I
was passionate about because all I knew and loved was football.
So yeah, I resorted to drinking beer, which was totally
out of my character. Uh As you said. You know,
(17:57):
I trained heavily in the NFL, was very very much
in shape and had an extreme diet and super lean
three four five percent body fat at two So you
can't do that drinking beer. And I realized that beer
was the only thing that made me not think about
how much I missed football and the environment. And so
(18:19):
it gradually became more of a habit, to the point
of where I would wake up at six am or
six thirty am having a corona and then I would
just drink sporadically during the day, and even when I
would go to the gym, I would have a beer
before I would go to the gym. It just made
everything feel better because even going to the gym reminded
(18:41):
me of football. Nothing. There was nothing that didn't remind
me of football. Everything. Everything. Yeah, and so I realized
over a ten month, almost a year period that I
was starting to change. My body was starting to change.
I never had a six I had never not had
a six pack in my lifnesse I was kid, and
I started to look at my physique and and I
(19:04):
also started to look at like my eyes, and you know,
I was just starting to change. Unfortunately, I was able
to bump into some people that introduced me to acting
at the perfect time, because if I would have continued
down that road, um, honestly, there's no telling when I
would have been able to stop. Well, hats off to
(19:25):
that man, and uh, you never know what God has
lined up for you and sometimes and and that's a
perfect transition because your series on Amazon Prime Video Life
After I told you I watched a couple of episodes
of it already. Um, it gets into the transition of
guys like yourself like me after football, So I know
what I get from it. But I'm a former player
(19:46):
who's been in that locker rooms, had to make that
hard transition and and learning yourself post football. For those
that are not like me or you, what do you
want people to take away from it? Uh, when they
watch it or after watching it. I would want people
to understand that all NFL players, h first of all,
(20:08):
aren't multi multimillionaires. That's it's not that's just how it works.
I want uh. And I can understand why people think
that because the NFL is so big and there's so
much money floating around, and you're constantly seeing on the
ticker on Sports Center hundred million dollar deal and eighty
million dollars. You know, Um, a lot of times people
don't take the time to really understand that there's only
(20:31):
a few people on the team that are making that money.
And I'm not saying that the other guys aren't making
substantial amounts of money, but not the amount of money
that they would think. And then there's taxes, and then
you have family, and you have friends, and you have
financial advisors who are thieves, and you have a business
managers who are thieves, and you know, so there's just
so much that goes into our lives outside of just well,
(20:52):
you're you're you're you're an NFL player, so now you're
a millionaire, right, um. And also I want them to
understand that, you know, everyone, Um, when they retire from
the NFL, they don't move to a deserted island to
put their fee up. That's not reality. Um. You know,
we have a very specific lifestyle as NFL players. We
(21:14):
have very specific demands. Um. The NFL and football is
a very demanding job. You have to give every ounce
of your being to that job, so much so that
it's very, very hard to invest in anything else in
your life because the minute you're not thinking about football
is the minute you're not going to be in football.
That's the nature of the NFL. So once you leave
(21:35):
that environment and you're out here now and you have
to adjust to what the world looks like outside of
an NFL environment, it's very very difficult. And I think
that people watching this have a different respect for NFL
players and what we actually go through. Um that puts
(21:57):
us in the position, um, sometimes the took position to
disconnect from football once we retired. Yeah, And so I
watched with my son who's six years old last night
Room in the second and uh, he saw DeMarcus Ware
his episode, the first one, and uh, and he was
just like, so, Dad, you're saying, like he got carried
(22:18):
off the field like he would play a game, get
carried off And just seeing all the different things in
different highlights, you know, it really does kind of show
you the human element, or the human aspect of it
all that you have emotions, that all the things that
we willing to put up with or do to help
trying to win a game or where these paths we
look like superheroes, but we're really truly not a lot
(22:41):
of us. Are so many hurts, so many different emotions
that we go through. And uh, I think you're do
an amazing job of really sharing that aspect of it,
because that was always my biggest thing is that, um,
we were not already as men you're not allowed to
have emotions, all right, But now as football players, you
really gotta be tough, right, and you gotta be extra
(23:02):
hard because that's what this game is. It's violent, it's this,
it's that. And um, I just thought you did an
amazing job of that, and I want more people to
really dive into that because anytime we can celebrate those
that are doing other things outside of the helmet because
that's you know, I'm so much more recognized personally now
without a helmet on doing some TV stuff than I
(23:24):
ever was with all the great stuff I accomplished with
the helmet on. And it's probably very true for you
as well. Right, No, you're exactly right, and I'm glad
you made that point. Um. As a as a football player,
we're trained to not be vulnerable, not show weakness. That's
how you get beat in football. But that's not the
human element, it's not human nature. We all are vulnerable
at times, we all have weaknesses and insecurities. Uh. And
(23:49):
unfortunately for us as as football players, we're taught the
majority of our lives to not be human in a way,
and so that becomes that becomes a habit. And then
when you retired or when you're not in on the
field or in an NFL locker room, you know, you
still have those habits. Yeah, so a lot of times
we seem very irrational to a lot of people who
(24:09):
don't understand our world as NFL players. Sometimes it's hard
for me to watch some of these, uh the sports shows. Obviously,
people are getting paid to talk about football and sports,
and I totally get it. I respected, but a lot
of times I was sitting I watched some of these people,
you know that have a perspective that's interesting that that
have never actually played, and especially played in the NFL,
(24:33):
and and it's so wild to just completely hear some
of the things that they say and realize that I
would love for one of these people just to have
to put on a uniform on on on game day,
not even practice on game day, and actually have to
(24:53):
play and just and then what would your perspective be
if you made it out of warm ups without saying
I can't do this. And definitely if you made it
through a four quarter game playing one of the three
mere positions running back, dB, safety, corner, linebacker, center, quarterback,
(25:16):
what would your perspective be after that game? Um, So
that's why you know, this docuseries was important to me
because usually other people that didn't play or don't have
our experience as speaking for us. And that's what I
love about technology. Now we have podcasts, we have we're
able to create docuseries and speak our own voice and
(25:36):
speak our own truths. You know, I see you on
SEC network that I'm always proud of you and Tikio,
and I'm just happy because you guys are very very
important to the voice as players because you give authenticity
to our experience. Uh and you and you combat certain
people who might not know the experience. And there are
there are certain people who are haters um and don't
(25:57):
want to know our experience. They want to say what
they want to say because they might not like us
as athletes, that might be envious of us as athletes.
And that's just real talk. So I enjoy seeing guys
like you all representing us, Guys that I played against,
been in the trenches with. I've seen you on the
scouting report on Wednesday. I know this dude, right, He's
always around the ball. He's a ball hawk, you know.
(26:19):
So it's good to get the passion and the real
specific nuance information from you all, um on on on TV.
And that's and that's how I feel about this docuseries.
If you watch Life After on act no, I think
you did an amazing job with that and um and
talking about your second act now okay, UM, and so
you said acting saved you. What was it about acting
(26:42):
that drew you to it when you didn't have a
passion for it? Because you said you you lacked passion
when you first retired. I think I was just looking
for anything to do. To be honest, I was really
really bored. I didn't have I'm very passionate person about
whatever I pursued with football. I was one of those
(27:04):
guys that I was in the locker room, weight room,
film room all day. I would watch film. We have
Wednesday work day. You know we can leave at five. Um,
I'm there till eight. Yeah, and then I go home
and I watched the DVDs at home, and I fall
asleep watching the DVDs. That maybe eleven, and then I
wake up and I get maybe five or six. I
(27:26):
was sleeping. I'm back over there five thirty six. Um.
So I dedicate myself to whatever I'm trying to be great. Uh,
at and so acting was something that I didn't know
that I needed. I didn't know that I would fall
in love with. I didn't know that I would develop
a passion for. But what I realized was that once
I started acting and I started to take it serious
(27:49):
and got it just some acting classes, is that it
was similar to football. UM, in a lot of ways,
even from just the specifics of it. You have your
playbook in the NFL. The more you know your playbook,
the more you don't have to think on the field,
You just react. UM. Same thing with a TV script
or movie script. The more you know the script, the
more you know your character, the more you know your lines.
You're not thinking about your lines. You're not thinking about UM,
(28:11):
do I look stupid? Do I sound stupid? You're like, no,
I know my lines. How do I make this character believable.
How do I tap into, um, whatever the emotional experience
this character is having based off of my similar emotional
experiences in my life and breathe life into the character. Um,
that's psychological. That takes a lot of work. UM. The
same thing with the pressure. Uh. You know you play
(28:33):
on Monday night football. There's no there's no edit there's
no edit button on that. You come up, you you
miss a tackle and the dude scores as it from
the millions of people at home. You don't get it
bars and it's going to continue to be replayed. As
as an actor, you do have different takes. But before
(28:54):
the director says action, that adrenaline is there. You know
your lines, you know the work that you've done, you
know the notes to the director has given you. It's
your close up. Now the cameras on you. You've already
shot the wide shots, so everyone you've done with that.
Now it's your close up type shot on your face.
So you have to action boom. You gotta dig in.
You gotta dive into that character. You gotta dive into
(29:14):
those emotions. You have to dive into whatever you're feeling,
and you have to convey that at that take. And
if you don't and the edit bay they don't have,
they don't have your best take. So that's what you're
gonna look. So I think the energy, the passion for
acting came from me being able to connect it in
a lot of ways to football and also the competition.
(29:36):
A lot of competition, man. You know some incredible actors
out here. So to book some of these roles or
to get some of your projects picked up, you got
to compete. So I think that's what made me really say, Hey,
this is something that it's gonna save my legacy that
I've created and potentially saved my life too. Like when
I hear you speak about it, you're passionate about it
(29:57):
number one, And it's like, man, you have taking time
to know what that feelings like. And there's nothing better
than knowing the feeling like, man, I got it right,
and that I can do this, and like the confidence
in which you speak of Like man, when the action hits,
not only do I know my words, bro, but I'm
ready to kill it. You know, as football players were
naturally actors. Some of the biggest characters you've ever made
(30:20):
in your life have been You're not lied about that,
actually and and and they're just naturally funny or naturally
interesting people. You know, it's just channeling that energy into
something else, and that's what it is. That's a beautiful
thing about coming from the NFL. I'm as an actor. Uh,
(30:41):
it wasn't a blueprint, but I've always been in front
of the camera. Winner luge. You have to talk to
the media. So you're under the microscope at all times.
Everything you do is going to be criticized. It's never
good enough. And you know you you go from being
Roman Harper, that's you know, chilling in your locker before
the game, but then after that coin toss, you turned
(31:04):
into Roman Harper before the one different year. That's a
different person than than the men's home. With your family,
in your in your six year old son, you tap
into something else. Um. So you naturally able to do
that because you've been doing that entire life. So we're
actually more prepared to be actors, and a lot of
actors are. Um, we just don't realize that. But I
(31:24):
put the work in. Like you said earlier, I trained
for four years and two different actors studios. I was
in acting classes for six hours a week. Um, So
I'm a trained actor. The training process is what helped
me get out of the state of depression that I
was in and as a as a former NFL player,
because I was able to channel all that energy into
(31:46):
studying the craft and put all of the raw emotions
and trauma in my life into these scenes in in
my in my in my classes, and then that translated
to using those techniques into the characters, whether it be
an audition or whether it be in an actual project
at I booked. So I'm loving this now as we
(32:07):
as we continue to unpill all this on the Lewys
of this onion here. Now, you gotta tell me one
thing because I'm reading your name right now. Not everybody
knows this, but when you added the que to your
professional name to throw people off with you being a
football player, um didn't work right out the gate. Or
I mean, like it's hard to hide your physique, bro, Like,
let's just be honest with you. Walk in and they're
like all right, um, all right, you're Thomas Jones and
(32:30):
so now you're gonna be Thomas Q. Jones. But like, bro,
you look like you do something right? Like that has
to be the question all the time, right. Well, the
funny part about it is people in Hollywood don't think
about football players. They have no idea about it. You're right,
they're multiple men in Hollywood that have my physique that
(32:51):
looks just like actors. You know, I was able to
have a really really good career, but you know I
had braids most of my career. I look friend and
also I wasn't always on TV. You know. Usually I
wasn't the guy that was always a friend of the camera,
and I wasn't always doing something to bring attention to myself.
So I was able to slide in as Thomas Q.
(33:12):
Jones um because people definitely did not expect Thomas Jones
from the Bears and the Jets to be a real actor.
And so that's why I added the middle initial, because
I wanted to throw people off just enough so in
case they did know, they they wouldn't judge me based
off of my football career, but based off of whatever
(33:33):
role that I was playing. And by that time, once
you see that I can act, then you can't say,
that's Thomas Jones trying to act. Now that's Thomas Q. Jones.
Oh you know that's Thomas Jones from the Bears. What
Thomas Q. Jones the guy and blah blah blah, yeah,
yeah boom, because they say, what you don't you know,
you don't get it. You never get a second chance
to make a first impression. So by that time it's
(33:54):
too late. I'm Thomas Q. Jones already. That just so
happened to play in the NFL versus Thomas Jones for
the Bears is now now he's trying to act, of course,
all right type of thing. All right, tell me one
quick answer this and I got another follow up. The
Q stands for Quinn of the middle name. So that
was what I was initially, things like it's probably his
real name, like the Q stands for like what his
(34:17):
real middle name is? Or did he just come up
with it, like just because it kind of gloss? Okay,
got it. Now. I've also listened to you another invision.
You said you win bare bones. You're talking about Hollywood.
You win bare bones. When you start in Hollywood, you
had no car, Uh, living in the studio apartment in Hollywood,
you walk to auditions. Uh take us through that experience,
(34:38):
and like, how long did you do that? Or how
long did that last? No car in l A with
those hills, I mean seems like it seems kind of real, bro, Yeah,
no it is. And and to be honest, I still
lived that way in l A. I've been I've lived
in Miami since two thousands of four, So this is
what my permanent residences is in Miami. Um I realized, Um,
(35:02):
if I'm going to pursue acting and I'm going to
pursue it in a way where UM, I have I
want to be great, I have to create some sort
of stakes. I have to create something, uh, some sort
of environment that's gonna push me. So when I moved
to l A, I've got a studio apartment, um, right
(35:23):
in the middle of Hollywood. Didn't bring my car. I
would literally walk um two meetings. UM. Or I would
catch a cab so I might I might be sitting
in a cab for an hour going to from Hollywood
to uh Marina del Rey to do an audition, and
then I would get a cab after the audition all
(35:45):
the way back and I'm sitting in another hour and
a half because I'm in traffic. And I did all
of that just to be told, no, you didn't book
the role. Um. So you know, living in that studio apartment,
which I still live in now, meeting other aspiring actors,
living with people who get are who weren't fortunate enough
to have the same opportunities. Maybe that I had to
(36:08):
live in the same environment I had. It really forced
me to be extremely humble and appreciate any opportunity that
I that I earned. UM. And it also helped me
earn the respect of of other actors because they didn't
even some guys and even my classes, they were some
guys and someone who would know that's Thomas Jones. You know,
(36:28):
my dad is a big fan or blah blah blah.
But they didn't see me that way because I was
in classes like them. I never talked about football. Um,
I was humble. I was one of the one of
the students. Were all learning together, we're all acting together
and being critiqued and criticized together. Um. So that's why
I took that route, because I needed to really psychologically
(36:50):
transform into an aspiring artist to understand what that experience
felt like, to see if it even matter enough for
me to continue to pursue it. You know what, man,
And this is completely off topic, but um, you seem happy, bro.
Like you seem like you're finding your space, You're finding
your way. You seem very happy bro in content. And this,
(37:12):
this Thomas Q. Jones, is this like who the real
version of you is? This is like they really are? Yeah,
I think I think this is the real version of
who I am outside of football. Because football make you
a certain type of way, especially especially when you play
a long time. You you, But you have to be
(37:35):
that way to be successful, um and have longevity. If
you notice all of the guys like us that played
multiple years, we have a certain edge to us. We
have a certain fearlessness to us. We have a certain
type of confidence and certain type of mystique. Um. Because
(37:58):
you have to think you can be a humble person
and a down to earth person. But that's football is
not the sport for that. On the field, UM, you
have to stick your chest out at all times. And
sometimes that translates into your real life. Um. And if
you don't have something that you can tap into two,
(38:19):
understand that it's okay to be insecure, it's okay to
be vulnerable. So okay, did not stick your chest out,
So okay, did not be the man, the outpha dog,
the best of the best. Um. Then you're gonna be
like that the rest of your life because you have
to consciously figure out how to get out of that
mental space. And if you don't have kids or a
(38:40):
family or something UM that reminds you that you're human,
uh and not the superhero that you you have to
be as a football player, you're not going to really
truly find happiness within yourself, because that happiness still comes
from the respect you get from other players, the money
you get, the attention you get. That's still a part
(39:01):
of your confidence in who you are. So I think
acting because I've opened myself up to vulnerability, open myself
up to being human again. I've been able to find
a space of peace within myself and and then being
able to act and play different characters and and different
(39:22):
experiences that these characters have had. Um, and open my
mind up to things that I might not have been
as open minded too before. Um, it's just given me
a different perspective in the world and people in general. Yeah,
so I know where you're at now. You probably hear
the football stuff all the time, But when you're in
(39:42):
these meetings with Hollywood guys, like, do you ever feel
like you need to shrink yourself so you don't seem
too big? Or you know, like because you know, my
I was always taught this man like man, bro, don't
you ever stop, don't you let your don't let anybody
else ever dim your life. Right Like, no matter what
room you in, you you just keep shining like that
(40:03):
always is who you are. You can't let others dim
your life and So I wonder what that when you're
in the Hollywood or you're out there these acting places,
like do you ever have that that aware with all
of that awareness, Like, man, I'm in the space where
I might need to like shrink myself or do you
are like, you know what, I gotta continue to be me.
That's a great question, great question, And I struggle with that.
(40:28):
That's the one thing that I will say that I
struggle with, Uh, is because I'm living a double life. Yeah. Uh,
you know a lot of the guys that I have
worked with him in Hollywood and and and consistently work
with in Hollywood, Um, they don't really know my former life,
(40:49):
which is still my life when I come home. When
I come home, uh you know me, I don't I
don't have the studio apartment, I don't walk everywhere. I
don't I don't have those same conversations or relationships. Um,
you know when I come home, you know, I'm I'm
(41:13):
around you know people that that I've known for twenty
plus years. Uh, that aren't aspiring actors or artists. They're
accomplished in whatever they're doing. Um. So I might be
on a yacht just with a drink like you know
those uh, you know, just chilling, or I might be
(41:35):
at the next game court side, um, or a heat
game court side, or I might be a problem in
twelve on South Beach, Um have an expensive dinner, you know,
and with the owner of the restaurant who's like my
brother for twenty years. You know. Um. That's so a
lot of times, you know, I struggle with that because
(41:56):
how do you sometimes dim your light so people don't
feel insecure, but also not make yourself feel small. Um.
You know, I'm not responsible for someone else's life being
darker bright, um, But I do try to shine light
on people and shine whatever light that I have to
(42:18):
show them that hey, you're like and be bright too. Um.
But it's very, very difficult sometimes because I get caught
between the Thomas Jones guy who you know, it's here
and status and how I move and the time it's
Q Jones guy who has to work in his environments
(42:41):
and work in certain situations that Thomas Jones wouldn't have
the patience. Two Also, he wouldn't set himself up to
work with certain people who don't have as much to
loses him. M you know. So it's a very complex situation.
That's a great question that you ask, because that's the
one struggle that I have, and I think I consistently
have that because I have this dual uh life that
(43:05):
I've that I've chosen to live. But hopefully as an
the actor, Thomas Q. Jones and producer is slowly evolving
and catching up to the Thomas Jones football player. So
we can Thomas Jones and Thomas ke Jones can meet
the middle. The more more we talked, bro, I had
to know. That's why I just had to ask, all right,
(43:26):
we're gonna go to right now and then we're gonna
come right back with quick hitters to get you up
out of here. Thomas, appreciate it, man, Thank you, you
gut thank you. All right, man, We're back here with
my man, Thomas Q. Jones. The best version of himself
is what I've heard. That's what I call him. It
don't matter what everybody else thinks about him. I know
it's jet some bearrass fans out there going crazy, but no,
(43:49):
Thomas Q. Jones is a beautiful man. It's nothing but
great vibes going on today. All right, all right, Thomas,
We've got a couple of questions from quick hitters. I
want first thing come to mind. I want answers, I
want honesty, and this is what we all the people
tune in for you ready, okay, and this is a
question that I would love to know. Alright. Number one,
what was the most you bench pressed during your playing days?
(44:14):
The most of bench pressed was five huh, that's the most.
And that was that was actually my tenth eleventh year
in the NFL. So I was that's the grown man strength.
That's what. I agree. He's not all the people, he's Yeah,
that's what That's why I got the gray hairs. Now, yeah,
(44:37):
grown man strength kicks in about like thirty one, thirty two,
thirty three year is bro. It just doesn't take as
much to lift his heavy like, no, you just maintain
the strength. Okay, Okay, I'm very impressed with the number.
I was thinking about four twenties. You put me at
four fifty five. I love it. I love it all right.
(44:57):
Better atmosphere a locker room or a movie or TV
set mm hmm, the locker room okay, alright. The locker
room environment is just it's just so many personalities, so
there's so much going on. You have one conversation here
(45:18):
that's completely something wild. And then you have a conversation
over here that's about stocks and bonds. And then you
have you know, somebody over here in the locker that's wrapping. Uh.
You know, it's it's like a it's like a variety
show in the locker room. Always entertain great point and
the fact that you brought up stocks and bonds, I
(45:39):
know that conversation, yes, very and then you have somebody
rapping over here on the other side. It's all right.
When winning an Oscar makeup for not winning the super Bowl.
Mm hmmm, No, I don't okay, good, I'm I'm gonna see.
I knew Thomas Q. Jones was honest, not like no, no,
(46:01):
that super Bowl super Bowl is what man? I mean.
I didn't dream of winning an Oscar as a as
a kid. As a kid, I dreamed of winning a
Super Bowl ring. So although it would be an incredible
honor to win an Oscar, uh, and it would feel great,
uh something about having that ring to flash everywhere you
(46:27):
go and being a part of NFL history as a
world champion. There's no better feeling than that as a
football player. Yeah, I'm with you, man, And it's so
hard too. All right, So what's your favorite character you've played.
My favorite character out of all the characters that I played,
(46:48):
would probably be my character on Marvel's Lue Cage, Comanche.
I think that would love that show. He loved that show. Well,
he was a great show, great show. Hated to see
that it it was wasn't renewed. Um, but that character
was incredible because it was a very layered character. Shout
(47:08):
out the Jail Coker, the creator of the show, who
believed in me. Um that gave me the opportunity to
play that character. And shout out to Alfrey Woodard, incredible actor,
beautiful woman inside and now Theo Rossi, my brother who
played Shades uh partner and crime on the show. I
developed an incredible relationship with Theo and Alfrey Woodard Uh.
(47:28):
During that second season of Luke Cage, Um and I
grew a lot as an actor. There was a lot
of pressure on me during that season to uh to
bring this character to life, this very complex character. UH.
And I was able to step up to the plate
and and it gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.
So yeah, Comanche on Marka's Luke Cage was so far
my favorite character that I've been able to play. I'm
(47:50):
just glad you didn't say Thomas Q. Jones. All Right,
who's the actor you want to work with the most
that you haven't yet? So you would love to? Man
so many incredible actors. Uh, obviously I did go watching too.
(48:10):
This is incredible. I think that's kind of the typical answer,
But I would love to. I was thinking about this
guy the other night. I'm a huge fan is Robert Duval.
And I know Robert Duval is older now, as an
older and older actor, I don't even know if he's
(48:31):
even acting anymore. But um, I watched so many of
his movies and so many of his projects, and he's
such at that first character from Armageddon. Um, I think
it was only getting a deep impact. One of those
one of those films, uh, to Lonesome Devil Western that
I grew up watching with my father. Um, I see
(48:52):
actors like that who are so diverse. Um, and I'm
like wow, uh. And actually I would have loved to
have acted with before he passed with it was Patrick Swayze. H.
Patrick Swayze was was an incredible actor. Violet Davis and
I'm giving any more names than one but there's just
I can't answer that with one name. Violet Davis. Uh
(49:14):
is I mean, there's so many actors that I look
up to and look at it and I'm like a
pattern my career actor them in a way, in a
way some of their styles as actors. Um, I'll pay
attention to and learn from. Okay, last one here? Who
is on your Mount Russiamore personal Mount Rushmore? You know,
(49:37):
and it's just four. This is a hard thing for
all of us. Just for go Mount Rushmore of what exactly,
but like just in people like that have influenced your life.
Got you okay? Ah? Man? My father, all right? One
Malcolm x two um, one of my high school coaches,
(50:03):
Barry Jones, Okay, and yes, and one more person. Wow,
what a question? What a question in my entire life?
A man, I would have to say my running backs
coach Jimmy Ray, Okay, I like it now. Yeah, last
(50:28):
thing out here, and I want you to share this
personal story. I've heard it already and we're gonna get
you out here, Thomas. But could you tell the people
why you were number twenty? Yeah? I wore number twenty
because my mother and father, UM work to combine twenty
years in the coal mines of Virginia. My mother worked
(50:50):
nineteen years underground, and my father worked one year and
was laid off and he couldn't get back in the
coal mine. So, UM, nineteen plus one is twenty. And
when I saw him with the Chicago Bears in two
thousand four, UM, I felt like that was a rebirth
for me. It was a new opportunity for me to
jump start my career. And UM, I won of the
(51:13):
twenties motivation because every time I stepped out on the field,
I thought about all the things that they sacrifice for
me to even have that opportunity to be there. So
that's why our number twenty it will always be a
very special number of me. Well, look, man, Thomas, Man,
appreciate that. Appreciate you sharing. Like I told you earlier, man,
(51:33):
vulnerability is equal strength, man, and I appreciate the being
vulnerable with us today, sharing all your stories, sharing all
your times. And I hope everybody picked up on that today. Man.
And uh, thank you, Bro. I really appreciate you spending
some time with us today. Thank you, Thomas. Well, I
appreciate you on having me and this platform is huge, man,
what you all are doing with this podcast and with
(51:54):
the Pivot podcast, and um, you know, even I am athlete,
you know, I know that's a little bit different. But
in regards to just you know, grounded people, grounded conversations,
what you all are doing, Man, is is groundbreaking. It's
never been done before. Man, it's never been done before.
People have a lot of misconceptions about us as for
(52:14):
MAN NFL players and its current NFL players, and the
beautiful thing about it is, Man, you guys care enough
to have a podcast like this to give former players
a voice, which which matters a lot, Man, So thank
you for having me on MAN. I appreciate the questions
that were the dope, dope ass interview. Man, it was
dope questions, very well thought out questions. I'll made me
(52:35):
think a lot that last one. Man, I felt kind
of bad. I see my mom. I can't now my
mom came. I definitely have my mom because I'm like,
like football, like, okay, my dad obviously that's my best friend.
Only four people. You know that it's all you get. Dog,
I'm telling you, it's the hardest one. Everybody struggles because
(52:58):
they don't know to go family or they do, like
old family. Then I just do. It's a hard wood.
It's a hard wood. Well. Thank you Thomas Q. Jones
for joining us today, blessing us with your time, your
(53:18):
your your vibes, your mindset, everything that you've been able
to complish and accomplish in your second acts. It's been
amazing to hear today, Peanut, what you feel. I felt
that that was like entertainment to night quality. Man, you know,
these your your interview schools. You're just getting. I think
you're gonna be leaving the college scene and headed to
l A doing doing some of these interviews, interviewing some
(53:41):
of the stars. Man, you're getting really good now. Man,
I'm getting I'm getting kind of jealous. You're surpassing me.
You're actually above me right now. You're on a hell
of a job. I gotta man, I say, man, it's
all about eye contact. Let's make this thing very conversational.
We'll just see where it goes. Hopefully we've got some
good TV or man even better on a podcast. Them them,
(54:02):
them NFL broadcast Blue Camps. They've served you well, brother,
they served you well well. Thank you, man, I appreciate it. Man.
We're gonna get you guys, up out of here. Thank
you to all the listeners for tuning in. I asked
you once again to spread the word and to give
us a rating of review and a follow on Apple podcast,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast.
(54:25):
This is me and p Nut Dillman and we're out
with the NFL players. Second Acts Podcast
Nice work. You know you guys are getting better saying
this Second Acts really messed up the first time. I'm
very intentional about it. Ya got it? I would invest
it up if it literally is not on top of
my head. I'm looking at myself like I'm not lying.
I would tell you best it up. I'm very intentional
about it. No, I can tell you really are like Rome,
(00:23):
I don't never forget your name, but I was thinking.
I was like, I was like, damn, I forgot his
name until until Yeah, I'll never forget your damn name
ever until I needed it. Everybody, what's going on? I'm
(00:47):
one of the hosts with the most put Tolman and
you're listening to the NFL Player's Second Acts Podcast. Our
special guest today Thomas Q. Jones. And I got my
guy with me as always Rome, And I want Thomas
Jones Arms Harper with me on the show. What's up?
What Up? What up? What's up? Brother? What's up? My guy?
(01:07):
And uh, I hear no lies in that statement. I
totally want Thomas Jones Arms. Well, let me let me
read a little bit about this brother. So Thomas Jones
the football player he played twelve years. He was my
teammate in Chicago for a couple of years, ran for
over ten thousand yard. He ranks UH twenty six all
time on the NFL rushing list, and when he retired
(01:29):
in two thousand eleven, he transformed from Thomas Jones the
football player into Thomas Q. Jones the actor, the writer
of the producer. I'll tell you what, Rome, I was
super lucky and blessed to have this guy as a teammate.
One of the biggest things that we did in Chicago
was not keep him there after we had our Super
(01:49):
Bowl run. He was one of those amazing locker room guys,
great savvy vette to kind of help bring up the
young pups in our locker room. And probably one of
the biggest mistakes we ever made in Chicago was letting
that man walk away. You know how it is, Peanut.
Every year, you know, those guys upstairs, they don't have
a real post or beat on what is going on
on a day to day basis inside that locker room downstairs.
(02:12):
And every team has this one guy that's kind of
like a glue guy that really helps getings going. You know,
he's a great leader. He really shows the young guys
what to do on a day to day basis and
what it really is to be a pro. And you know,
all of a sudden, you get the guys upstairs, the
GM the scouts there, like, man, we just got this
next guy in line. He's gonna be great. He's a
cheaper option, this, this, this and this, and it's like, no,
(02:35):
he was only good or the best version of himself
because you have the vet beside him, helps showing him
the way on a day to day basis, man, showing
the tricks of the trade. We see that every year. Man,
I watched that team, that Chicago Bears team go to
the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, you guys lost. And I love
what Thomas Jones brought to that team, that organization, and
uh it stinks. But now we're gonna hear more from
(02:57):
his side of the story too, So I'm looking forward
to him my man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's check that
out right now. Okay, guys, Peanut could not be here
with us to kind of conduct this interview. Thomas, I
hope you are understand that. But you know, as we
(03:19):
previously recorded and you were hearing the intro already, I
want you to hear this personally right now, Thomas and
I want to hear your reactions from what my man
Peanut had to say about you. I was super lucky
and blessed to have this guy as a teammate. One
of the biggest things that we did in Chicago was
not keep him there after we had our Super Bowl run.
He was one of those amazing locker room guys, great
(03:43):
savvy that to kind of help bring up the young
puffs in our locker room. And probably one of the
biggest mistakes we ever made in Chicago was letting that
man walk away. Wow. Man, it's I mean, it's early,
so hearing that it's you know, just hit me for
you know what I'm saying, like, just um, it means everything.
(04:04):
It means everything. Chicago is a second home for me.
It's where I really feel like my NFL career started
in Chicago, even though I was drafted by theres on
the Cardinals. Uh. Peanut with someone that I had a
really close relationship with. I watched him evolved and grow
to a Hall of Fame football player. Uh. I think
(04:27):
some of the Peanut punch. I deserved some of the
credit for that because because I have uh, actually I
have nerve damage in my both of my elbows because
he of him punching the ball out of my arms
and practice every day chasing me down. Um. You know,
so he practiced a lot of that peanut punch on
me and irritated me a lot. But he also helped
(04:48):
me make sure I'm holding onto the ball. So we
helped each other. Um, it just means a lot, especially
come from someone like him. You know, he's a Hall
of Fame player. Uh, He's a legendary cornerback has had,
I mean, one of the best football players, best teammates
that I've ever had that I could ever have. And
in regards to me not being able to come back,
I was definitely definitely upset about that. I felt like,
(05:13):
if I could have come back to Chicago after that
Super Bowl run, uh we we definitely if we stayed
healthy and played well, we definitely had an opportunity to
get back to the super Bowl and win. And I
wanted to win the Super Bowl in Chicago. I kind
of understood what that felt like just by seeing um
the parades on TV and especially during the playoffs into
(05:34):
two thousands, six seasons. Um, but um, hey, I had
the opportunity to play in Chicago play with incredible teammates,
like like Charles Tillman. So at least I have the memories. Alright, Alright,
so you're talking about this Peanut punch. So because I
was teammates and Peanut for one year that was later
on his career, he had already perfected this thing. So
how did this thing kind of evolve? Because you're the
(05:56):
first person that's actually like, oh, he practiced it on
me all the time, and when I saw him, he
wasn't practicing as much. It was just perfected by that point.
So how did this thing start evolving? How? How like
tireson were you just like, look, dude, every time I
turn around, you trying to punch at me and chase
me over here. Well, I saw with Chicago and two
(06:17):
thousand four and and practice, I developed this habit of
finishing every run. So it was known that I would
take every uh, every running play in team period, no
matter where we were on the field, no matter whether
we were on our own thirty, we were on you know,
backed up on our own tin, or you know, on
(06:38):
the opponent's ten, I would score every play. And yeah,
no matter what the situation it was, Peanut would always
chase me down and he would knock the ball out
and and he would always catch me at the at
the perfect time when I didn't think he was gonna
(06:59):
do it. And and to be honest, the first few
times it infuriated me almost to the point of where
and he'll tell you this, I wanted to physically fight
him because he because I would get five yards from
the end zone and he wouldn't punch the ball out,
and then it's a touch back, and that's on tape.
So I have to watch that in my offensive meetings.
(07:20):
He's not in those offensive meetings, so I have to
watch that in the offensive meetings. And now, you know,
depending on how the day went practice, you know, my
coach like Thomas, you got to secure the ball and
I'm like, I'm fifty yards down the field, like you know. So, yeah,
he developed this whole thing of chasing me down knocking
the ball out at random times. UM. And he was
and he started doing in the games. UM. And I
(07:41):
wasn't there prior, so I hadn't seen him do that
before because I hadn't played with him. But I know
every time, UM, I would see him punch the ball
out in the games, I would be ecstatic, obviously because
now getting the ball back on offense. But in practice,
whenever he did the exact same thing to me, been
after the play, I was running back to the huddle
(08:03):
and he would come from behind and punch the ball
out and I would be furious. So it was a
bit I had a I have a bitter sweet relationship
with the peanut punch because in practice I was infuriated,
but in the games, I was like ecstatic, you know,
So either way, Um, it was incredible, you know, for
him to have a where with all to do that,
because he also made me more cognizant and aware of
(08:26):
holding them to the ball at all times, regardless when
the whistles blown or not. So he made me a
better person. But practicing the peanut punch on me in
practice every day, you know, he had never told me this.
And I'm by far giving you, like Sev credit because
he didn't do this until you showed up. I'm giving
you way more credit than what you were even trying
(08:47):
to take. I'm getting honestly real all right now. I
don't know if I can take seventy because he still
has to do it, you know, But it's okay. I'm
giving you seventy. Kay, I'll take it. Then I'll take it.
I'll take it from you and take I'm giving it.
You don't even you don't want it, you don't probably
don't deserve it, but I'm giving it. I'm giving it
(09:10):
to you today. All right, That's what I got. You
played five more years after that Super Bowl year with
and and and then you played with the Jets and
the Chiefs and you made a Pro Bowl. Uh when
did you know though? It was time for you to retire?
And I played you when you were with the Jets
that that next year or so we did right, And
(09:30):
I was with right, Yes you did. I knew it
was time to retire one random day in Kansas City
when I woke up from a nap um going into
my twelve year in the NFL. I woke up and
I'm not sure what made me feel this way, but
(09:53):
i just felt like I had enough. I guess they
always say when you know, you know, I never think
you're gonna get to that point because you love football
so much, especially uh me. I love football since I
was a five year old kid, and at that point
I was thirty two thirty three years old. And I
was still in great shape physically mentally, I was still
(10:16):
ambitious and still wanted to win the Super Bowl. So
there were there was really no rhyme of reason for
me to to say I'm done, but I just felt it,
and going into my two year, I knew that was
gonna be my last season. Man. That's I mean, it's real.
Just like you say, when you know, you know, it's
something about your mind, your body and when it is
(10:38):
your time, you know. And that's really cool though that
you said you just woke up from the affle, like, yeah,
this is it. I know this. And you know I
watched a lot of your highlights last night when when
you were talking that rock in Virginia, but I forgot
you used to take that thing like that. So and
I also want to just I just get this out
the way now. Y puts not here to kind of
pile on all right, You're the main reason I started
(11:00):
and then doing all these curls and try self. My
brother just wanted to let you know that you know
what I'm saying, Like the arms of them guns was popping,
bro when the coming out right, I'm happy to listen.
I'm happy to him inspired anybody because most of that
was just me wanting to make sure I was as
strong as possible and I could hold them to the
ball and I fumble. Um. But also you know, there
(11:22):
was some asthetics, aesthetics to it. You know, you can
come out, you can get your jersey, you know, cut
a little short, grease the arms up a little bit,
a little bit more more tyger bomb on the arms,
you know, but for the games. But that's dope, bro.
I mean, we're not gonna say nobody's paying attention, but
somebody's always watching and paying attention to those things. And uh,
(11:45):
it's just real funny because my big mantra was this though,
So Thomas I used to do and just say, look,
everybody says you can't arm tackling league. I'd be like,
watch me, you know what I'm saying. But the tackle
is a tackle and the lead tackles the tackle. Dog.
At least that's what I used to tell myself, Um right,
tell me. So here's another personal question, and you know,
(12:07):
just on emotions and so you were on the ballot
for the Hall of Fame in two thousand twenty two.
How much did you care about getting a gold jacket?
I think that's the ultimate individual award in football, to
be UM inducted into Kenton. Obviously, there's a lot that
(12:28):
goes into that. There's a lot of politics, politics, politics,
a lot of politics while you're playing. To even get
to the point of nomination Pro Bowls, UM, all pros UM,
you know, Uh, there's a lot of criteria and also
I think there are a lot of people who have
access to voting for that that maybe don't don't have
(12:52):
the criteria themselves even vote UM. But you know, that's
kind of the situation that you're in with the Hall
of Fame. I think there are a lot of guys
that have had Hall of Fame caliber careers that that
aren't in the Hall of Fame. And I think they're
are a couple of guys who, um, maybe didn't have
the credentials that uh, other guys should have that are in.
You know, So it's just all subjective. UM. It's an
(13:15):
honor either way just to even be recognized and put
in the same categories as some of these incredible running
backs that have had outstanding NFL careers. So one way
or another, I'm proud of my career, I'm proud of
the effort my efforts that I put forward. I'm proud
of the relationships that I made and the effect I
(13:36):
had a younger players. And um, and that's what really
matters to me, the relationships you get from football. Um.
I always tell people I can't remember my own stats,
the yard, the tackles that like, to me, it doesn't,
It matters so much less because what really football gives
you is the relationships that you get out of it, man,
And I think that's what most of us missed, probably
(14:00):
most of them were out of it. And also the
ways that we appreciate the most, um, what we're done.
And so I agree and um, and so I will
give you a little kudos too, because I feel like
I can say this, I played with your brother Julius,
and so I mean you can always go to the
dinner table and say I got more than him. So, um, well,
(14:20):
you know, I mean what I look at it is
I look at it as what we have combined. So
see now now now you're now you're showing off. Well
I'm saying, I'm like, well, you know, being my brother
actually are the first brothers in NFL history to rush
for over thousand yards in the same season and collectively,
(14:40):
we have over fifteen thousand rushing yards. UM. So I
kind of look at it from that, and I think
we have around a hundred touchdowns and ninety ninety something touchdowns. Um.
So you know, I try to put because this is
the this is the NFL. And so if you can put, uh,
two people from the same household together, but their staf
us together, um, you know, I think that's more impressive
(15:03):
than me actually having more more yards of him or
him having more yards than me. As you should, as
you should, um, and you know, shout out to Julius
two man. He's a good dude, great teammate of mind
for just a couple of years in New Orleans. So
all right, you talked about and I've I've I've seen
you on Life after I watched your episode, you know,
I watched a couple of your your other shows that
(15:24):
you're doing in producing. It's really cool stuff. And I
did see them doing your your makeup and your your
haircut getting right. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I did see that. So what I let you go that, Uh,
but you talked about the struggle the first eight to
ten months after you retired that uh, specifically with with
(15:45):
the drinking. Uh, because you maybe take us into your
mindset during that time. Um. And what was the moment
when you said to yourself, I have to make a change.
I mean, I retired and I was immediately low, lost,
immediately lost something I never expected, you know. So so
you went from saying you know what, I know, it's
(16:06):
my time to doing it and then feeling lost afterwards.
I have what they called buyer's remorse. Okay, yeah, buyer's remorse.
So it's like, man, I'm done. I know going into
every game this year, this is my last game, and
I'm gonna go ahead and I give everything I had.
I'm gonna try my best and I get hurt, but
I'm gonna try to win a super Bowl and hopefully
(16:28):
I can get to eleven thousand rushing yards and um.
And when I retired after that last game at mid
High Stadium, and I flew back home, we had a
last team meeting and I moved my stuffed from Kansas
City back to to to Miami. I sat at my
house and I looked around and I'm like, Okay, who
(16:49):
am I? Who am I? Now? What am I gonna do? Now?
You know? Usually off the off season. Program workouts start
in two months in March, Nuary the seventh. Okay, I
don't have that. Um the season starts in July. I
don't have that either. Um So, all I could see
(17:14):
as a thirty three year old retired NFL player was
thirty three two seventy m. I couldn't see the next season,
and that's what I was used to seeing as a
football player. The next season, my junior season, then my
senior season, then your college freshman season, sophomore blah blah blah,
blah blah blah, on and on and on and on.
(17:35):
So I never had to see set what seventy five
looked like because I was too busy seeing what the
next year looked like. You know. Um So, I hadn't
planned for anything, and I didn't have anything that I
was passionate about because all I knew and loved was football.
So yeah, I resorted to drinking beer, which was totally
out of my character. Uh As you said. You know,
(17:57):
I trained heavily in the NFL, was very very much
in shape and had an extreme diet and super lean
three four five percent body fat at two So you
can't do that drinking beer. And I realized that beer
was the only thing that made me not think about
how much I missed football and the environment. And so
(18:19):
it gradually became more of a habit, to the point
of where I would wake up at six am or
six thirty am having a corona and then I would
just drink sporadically during the day, and even when I
would go to the gym, I would have a beer
before I would go to the gym. It just made
everything feel better because even going to the gym reminded
(18:41):
me of football. Nothing. There was nothing that didn't remind
me of football. Everything. Everything. Yeah, and so I realized
over a ten month, almost a year period that I
was starting to change. My body was starting to change.
I never had a six I had never not had
a six pack in my lifnesse I was kid, and
I started to look at my physique and and I
(19:04):
also started to look at like my eyes, and you know,
I was just starting to change. Unfortunately, I was able
to bump into some people that introduced me to acting
at the perfect time, because if I would have continued
down that road, um, honestly, there's no telling when I
would have been able to stop. Well, hats off to
(19:25):
that man, and uh, you never know what God has
lined up for you and sometimes and and that's a
perfect transition because your series on Amazon Prime Video Life
After I told you I watched a couple of episodes
of it already. Um, it gets into the transition of
guys like yourself like me after football, So I know
what I get from it. But I'm a former player
(19:46):
who's been in that locker rooms, had to make that
hard transition and and learning yourself post football. For those
that are not like me or you, what do you
want people to take away from it? Uh, when they
watch it or after watching it. I would want people
to understand that all NFL players, h first of all,
(20:08):
aren't multi multimillionaires. That's it's not that's just how it works.
I want uh. And I can understand why people think
that because the NFL is so big and there's so
much money floating around, and you're constantly seeing on the
ticker on Sports Center hundred million dollar deal and eighty
million dollars. You know, Um, a lot of times people
don't take the time to really understand that there's only
(20:31):
a few people on the team that are making that money.
And I'm not saying that the other guys aren't making
substantial amounts of money, but not the amount of money
that they would think. And then there's taxes, and then
you have family, and you have friends, and you have
financial advisors who are thieves, and you have a business
managers who are thieves, and you know, so there's just
so much that goes into our lives outside of just well,
(20:52):
you're you're you're you're an NFL player, so now you're
a millionaire, right, um. And also I want them to
understand that, you know, everyone, Um, when they retire from
the NFL, they don't move to a deserted island to
put their fee up. That's not reality. Um. You know,
we have a very specific lifestyle as NFL players. We
(21:14):
have very specific demands. Um. The NFL and football is
a very demanding job. You have to give every ounce
of your being to that job, so much so that
it's very, very hard to invest in anything else in
your life because the minute you're not thinking about football
is the minute you're not going to be in football.
That's the nature of the NFL. So once you leave
(21:35):
that environment and you're out here now and you have
to adjust to what the world looks like outside of
an NFL environment, it's very very difficult. And I think
that people watching this have a different respect for NFL
players and what we actually go through. Um that puts
(21:57):
us in the position, um, sometimes the took position to
disconnect from football once we retired. Yeah, And so I
watched with my son who's six years old last night
Room in the second and uh, he saw DeMarcus Ware
his episode, the first one, and uh, and he was
just like, so, Dad, you're saying, like he got carried
(22:18):
off the field like he would play a game, get
carried off And just seeing all the different things in
different highlights, you know, it really does kind of show
you the human element, or the human aspect of it
all that you have emotions, that all the things that
we willing to put up with or do to help
trying to win a game or where these paths we
look like superheroes, but we're really truly not a lot
(22:41):
of us. Are so many hurts, so many different emotions
that we go through. And uh, I think you're do
an amazing job of really sharing that aspect of it,
because that was always my biggest thing is that, um,
we were not already as men you're not allowed to
have emotions, all right, But now as football players, you
really gotta be tough, right, and you gotta be extra
(23:02):
hard because that's what this game is. It's violent, it's this,
it's that. And um, I just thought you did an
amazing job of that, and I want more people to
really dive into that because anytime we can celebrate those
that are doing other things outside of the helmet because
that's you know, I'm so much more recognized personally now
without a helmet on doing some TV stuff than I
(23:24):
ever was with all the great stuff I accomplished with
the helmet on. And it's probably very true for you
as well. Right, No, you're exactly right, and I'm glad
you made that point. Um. As a as a football player,
we're trained to not be vulnerable, not show weakness. That's
how you get beat in football. But that's not the
human element, it's not human nature. We all are vulnerable
at times, we all have weaknesses and insecurities. Uh. And
(23:49):
unfortunately for us as as football players, we're taught the
majority of our lives to not be human in a way,
and so that becomes that becomes a habit. And then
when you retired or when you're not in on the
field or in an NFL locker room, you know, you
still have those habits. Yeah, so a lot of times
we seem very irrational to a lot of people who
(24:09):
don't understand our world as NFL players. Sometimes it's hard
for me to watch some of these, uh the sports shows. Obviously,
people are getting paid to talk about football and sports,
and I totally get it. I respected, but a lot
of times I was sitting I watched some of these people,
you know that have a perspective that's interesting that that
have never actually played, and especially played in the NFL,
(24:33):
and and it's so wild to just completely hear some
of the things that they say and realize that I
would love for one of these people just to have
to put on a uniform on on on game day,
not even practice on game day, and actually have to
(24:53):
play and just and then what would your perspective be
if you made it out of warm ups without saying
I can't do this. And definitely if you made it
through a four quarter game playing one of the three
mere positions running back, dB, safety, corner, linebacker, center, quarterback,
(25:16):
what would your perspective be after that game? Um, So
that's why you know, this docuseries was important to me
because usually other people that didn't play or don't have
our experience as speaking for us. And that's what I
love about technology. Now we have podcasts, we have we're
able to create docuseries and speak our own voice and
(25:36):
speak our own truths. You know, I see you on
SEC network that I'm always proud of you and Tikio,
and I'm just happy because you guys are very very
important to the voice as players because you give authenticity
to our experience. Uh and you and you combat certain
people who might not know the experience. And there are
there are certain people who are haters um and don't
(25:57):
want to know our experience. They want to say what
they want to say because they might not like us
as athletes, that might be envious of us as athletes.
And that's just real talk. So I enjoy seeing guys
like you all representing us, Guys that I played against,
been in the trenches with. I've seen you on the
scouting report on Wednesday. I know this dude, right, He's
always around the ball. He's a ball hawk, you know.
(26:19):
So it's good to get the passion and the real
specific nuance information from you all, um on on on TV.
And that's and that's how I feel about this docuseries.
If you watch Life After on act no, I think
you did an amazing job with that and um and
talking about your second act now okay, UM, and so
you said acting saved you. What was it about acting
(26:42):
that drew you to it when you didn't have a
passion for it? Because you said you you lacked passion
when you first retired. I think I was just looking
for anything to do. To be honest, I was really
really bored. I didn't have I'm very passionate person about
whatever I pursued with football. I was one of those
(27:04):
guys that I was in the locker room, weight room,
film room all day. I would watch film. We have
Wednesday work day. You know we can leave at five. Um,
I'm there till eight. Yeah, and then I go home
and I watched the DVDs at home, and I fall
asleep watching the DVDs. That maybe eleven, and then I
wake up and I get maybe five or six. I
(27:26):
was sleeping. I'm back over there five thirty six. Um.
So I dedicate myself to whatever I'm trying to be great. Uh,
at and so acting was something that I didn't know
that I needed. I didn't know that I would fall
in love with. I didn't know that I would develop
a passion for. But what I realized was that once
I started acting and I started to take it serious
(27:49):
and got it just some acting classes, is that it
was similar to football. UM, in a lot of ways,
even from just the specifics of it. You have your
playbook in the NFL. The more you know your playbook,
the more you don't have to think on the field,
You just react. UM. Same thing with a TV script
or movie script. The more you know the script, the
more you know your character, the more you know your lines.
You're not thinking about your lines. You're not thinking about UM,
(28:11):
do I look stupid? Do I sound stupid? You're like, no,
I know my lines. How do I make this character believable.
How do I tap into, um, whatever the emotional experience
this character is having based off of my similar emotional
experiences in my life and breathe life into the character. Um,
that's psychological. That takes a lot of work. UM. The
same thing with the pressure. Uh. You know you play
(28:33):
on Monday night football. There's no there's no edit there's
no edit button on that. You come up, you you
miss a tackle and the dude scores as it from
the millions of people at home. You don't get it
bars and it's going to continue to be replayed. As
as an actor, you do have different takes. But before
(28:54):
the director says action, that adrenaline is there. You know
your lines, you know the work that you've done, you
know the notes to the director has given you. It's
your close up. Now the cameras on you. You've already
shot the wide shots, so everyone you've done with that.
Now it's your close up type shot on your face.
So you have to action boom. You gotta dig in.
You gotta dive into that character. You gotta dive into
(29:14):
those emotions. You have to dive into whatever you're feeling,
and you have to convey that at that take. And
if you don't and the edit bay they don't have,
they don't have your best take. So that's what you're
gonna look. So I think the energy, the passion for
acting came from me being able to connect it in
a lot of ways to football and also the competition.
(29:36):
A lot of competition, man. You know some incredible actors
out here. So to book some of these roles or
to get some of your projects picked up, you got
to compete. So I think that's what made me really say, Hey,
this is something that it's gonna save my legacy that
I've created and potentially saved my life too. Like when
I hear you speak about it, you're passionate about it
(29:57):
number one, And it's like, man, you have taking time
to know what that feelings like. And there's nothing better
than knowing the feeling like, man, I got it right,
and that I can do this, and like the confidence
in which you speak of Like man, when the action hits,
not only do I know my words, bro, but I'm
ready to kill it. You know, as football players were
naturally actors. Some of the biggest characters you've ever made
(30:20):
in your life have been You're not lied about that,
actually and and and they're just naturally funny or naturally
interesting people. You know, it's just channeling that energy into
something else, and that's what it is. That's a beautiful
thing about coming from the NFL. I'm as an actor. Uh,
(30:41):
it wasn't a blueprint, but I've always been in front
of the camera. Winner luge. You have to talk to
the media. So you're under the microscope at all times.
Everything you do is going to be criticized. It's never
good enough. And you know you you go from being
Roman Harper, that's you know, chilling in your locker before
the game, but then after that coin toss, you turned
(31:04):
into Roman Harper before the one different year. That's a
different person than than the men's home. With your family,
in your in your six year old son, you tap
into something else. Um. So you naturally able to do
that because you've been doing that entire life. So we're
actually more prepared to be actors, and a lot of
actors are. Um, we just don't realize that. But I
(31:24):
put the work in. Like you said earlier, I trained
for four years and two different actors studios. I was
in acting classes for six hours a week. Um, So
I'm a trained actor. The training process is what helped
me get out of the state of depression that I
was in and as a as a former NFL player,
because I was able to channel all that energy into
(31:46):
studying the craft and put all of the raw emotions
and trauma in my life into these scenes in in
my in my in my classes, and then that translated
to using those techniques into the characters, whether it be
an audition or whether it be in an actual project
at I booked. So I'm loving this now as we
(32:07):
as we continue to unpill all this on the Lewys
of this onion here. Now, you gotta tell me one
thing because I'm reading your name right now. Not everybody
knows this, but when you added the que to your
professional name to throw people off with you being a
football player, um didn't work right out the gate. Or
I mean, like it's hard to hide your physique, bro, Like,
let's just be honest with you. Walk in and they're
like all right, um, all right, you're Thomas Jones and
(32:30):
so now you're gonna be Thomas Q. Jones. But like, bro,
you look like you do something right? Like that has
to be the question all the time, right. Well, the
funny part about it is people in Hollywood don't think
about football players. They have no idea about it. You're right,
they're multiple men in Hollywood that have my physique that
(32:51):
looks just like actors. You know, I was able to
have a really really good career, but you know I
had braids most of my career. I look friend and
also I wasn't always on TV. You know. Usually I
wasn't the guy that was always a friend of the camera,
and I wasn't always doing something to bring attention to myself.
So I was able to slide in as Thomas Q.
(33:12):
Jones um because people definitely did not expect Thomas Jones
from the Bears and the Jets to be a real actor.
And so that's why I added the middle initial, because
I wanted to throw people off just enough so in
case they did know, they they wouldn't judge me based
off of my football career, but based off of whatever
(33:33):
role that I was playing. And by that time, once
you see that I can act, then you can't say,
that's Thomas Jones trying to act. Now that's Thomas Q. Jones.
Oh you know that's Thomas Jones from the Bears. What
Thomas Q. Jones the guy and blah blah blah, yeah,
yeah boom, because they say, what you don't you know,
you don't get it. You never get a second chance
to make a first impression. So by that time it's
(33:54):
too late. I'm Thomas Q. Jones already. That just so
happened to play in the NFL versus Thomas Jones for
the Bears is now now he's trying to act, of course,
all right type of thing. All right, tell me one
quick answer this and I got another follow up. The
Q stands for Quinn of the middle name. So that
was what I was initially, things like it's probably his
real name, like the Q stands for like what his
(34:17):
real middle name is? Or did he just come up
with it, like just because it kind of gloss? Okay,
got it. Now. I've also listened to you another invision.
You said you win bare bones. You're talking about Hollywood.
You win bare bones. When you start in Hollywood, you
had no car, Uh, living in the studio apartment in Hollywood,
you walk to auditions. Uh take us through that experience,
(34:38):
and like, how long did you do that? Or how
long did that last? No car in l A with
those hills, I mean seems like it seems kind of real, bro, Yeah,
no it is. And and to be honest, I still
lived that way in l A. I've been I've lived
in Miami since two thousands of four, So this is
what my permanent residences is in Miami. Um I realized, Um,
(35:02):
if I'm going to pursue acting and I'm going to
pursue it in a way where UM, I have I
want to be great, I have to create some sort
of stakes. I have to create something, uh, some sort
of environment that's gonna push me. So when I moved
to l A, I've got a studio apartment, um, right
(35:23):
in the middle of Hollywood. Didn't bring my car. I
would literally walk um two meetings. UM. Or I would
catch a cab so I might I might be sitting
in a cab for an hour going to from Hollywood
to uh Marina del Rey to do an audition, and
then I would get a cab after the audition all
(35:45):
the way back and I'm sitting in another hour and
a half because I'm in traffic. And I did all
of that just to be told, no, you didn't book
the role. Um. So you know, living in that studio apartment,
which I still live in now, meeting other aspiring actors,
living with people who get are who weren't fortunate enough
to have the same opportunities. Maybe that I had to
(36:08):
live in the same environment I had. It really forced
me to be extremely humble and appreciate any opportunity that
I that I earned. UM. And it also helped me
earn the respect of of other actors because they didn't
even some guys and even my classes, they were some
guys and someone who would know that's Thomas Jones. You know,
(36:28):
my dad is a big fan or blah blah blah.
But they didn't see me that way because I was
in classes like them. I never talked about football. Um,
I was humble. I was one of the one of
the students. Were all learning together, we're all acting together
and being critiqued and criticized together. Um. So that's why
I took that route, because I needed to really psychologically
(36:50):
transform into an aspiring artist to understand what that experience
felt like, to see if it even matter enough for
me to continue to pursue it. You know what, man,
And this is completely off topic, but um, you seem happy, bro.
Like you seem like you're finding your space, You're finding
your way. You seem very happy bro in content. And this,
(37:12):
this Thomas Q. Jones, is this like who the real
version of you is? This is like they really are? Yeah,
I think I think this is the real version of
who I am outside of football. Because football make you
a certain type of way, especially especially when you play
a long time. You you, But you have to be
(37:35):
that way to be successful, um and have longevity. If
you notice all of the guys like us that played
multiple years, we have a certain edge to us. We
have a certain fearlessness to us. We have a certain
type of confidence and certain type of mystique. Um. Because
(37:58):
you have to think you can be a humble person
and a down to earth person. But that's football is
not the sport for that. On the field, UM, you
have to stick your chest out at all times. And
sometimes that translates into your real life. Um. And if
you don't have something that you can tap into two,
(38:19):
understand that it's okay to be insecure, it's okay to
be vulnerable. So okay, did not stick your chest out,
So okay, did not be the man, the outpha dog,
the best of the best. Um. Then you're gonna be
like that the rest of your life because you have
to consciously figure out how to get out of that
mental space. And if you don't have kids or a
(38:40):
family or something UM that reminds you that you're human,
uh and not the superhero that you you have to
be as a football player, you're not going to really
truly find happiness within yourself, because that happiness still comes
from the respect you get from other players, the money
you get, the attention you get. That's still a part
(39:01):
of your confidence in who you are. So I think
acting because I've opened myself up to vulnerability, open myself
up to being human again. I've been able to find
a space of peace within myself and and then being
able to act and play different characters and and different
(39:22):
experiences that these characters have had. Um, and open my
mind up to things that I might not have been
as open minded too before. Um, it's just given me
a different perspective in the world and people in general. Yeah,
so I know where you're at now. You probably hear
the football stuff all the time, But when you're in
(39:42):
these meetings with Hollywood guys, like, do you ever feel
like you need to shrink yourself so you don't seem
too big? Or you know, like because you know, my
I was always taught this man like man, bro, don't
you ever stop, don't you let your don't let anybody
else ever dim your life. Right Like, no matter what
room you in, you you just keep shining like that
(40:03):
always is who you are. You can't let others dim
your life and So I wonder what that when you're
in the Hollywood or you're out there these acting places,
like do you ever have that that aware with all
of that awareness, Like, man, I'm in the space where
I might need to like shrink myself or do you
are like, you know what, I gotta continue to be me.
That's a great question, great question, And I struggle with that.
(40:28):
That's the one thing that I will say that I
struggle with, Uh, is because I'm living a double life. Yeah. Uh,
you know a lot of the guys that I have
worked with him in Hollywood and and and consistently work
with in Hollywood, Um, they don't really know my former life,
(40:49):
which is still my life when I come home. When
I come home, uh you know me, I don't I
don't have the studio apartment, I don't walk everywhere. I
don't I don't have those same conversations or relationships. Um,
you know when I come home, you know, I'm I'm
(41:13):
around you know people that that I've known for twenty
plus years. Uh, that aren't aspiring actors or artists. They're
accomplished in whatever they're doing. Um. So I might be
on a yacht just with a drink like you know
those uh, you know, just chilling, or I might be
(41:35):
at the next game court side, um, or a heat
game court side, or I might be a problem in
twelve on South Beach, Um have an expensive dinner, you know,
and with the owner of the restaurant who's like my
brother for twenty years. You know. Um. That's so a
lot of times, you know, I struggle with that because
(41:56):
how do you sometimes dim your light so people don't
feel insecure, but also not make yourself feel small. Um.
You know, I'm not responsible for someone else's life being
darker bright, um, But I do try to shine light
on people and shine whatever light that I have to
(42:18):
show them that hey, you're like and be bright too. Um.
But it's very, very difficult sometimes because I get caught
between the Thomas Jones guy who you know, it's here
and status and how I move and the time it's
Q Jones guy who has to work in his environments
(42:41):
and work in certain situations that Thomas Jones wouldn't have
the patience. Two Also, he wouldn't set himself up to
work with certain people who don't have as much to
loses him. M you know. So it's a very complex situation.
That's a great question that you ask, because that's the
one struggle that I have, and I think I consistently
have that because I have this dual uh life that
(43:05):
I've that I've chosen to live. But hopefully as an
the actor, Thomas Q. Jones and producer is slowly evolving
and catching up to the Thomas Jones football player. So
we can Thomas Jones and Thomas ke Jones can meet
the middle. The more more we talked, bro, I had
to know. That's why I just had to ask, all right,
(43:26):
we're gonna go to right now and then we're gonna
come right back with quick hitters to get you up
out of here. Thomas, appreciate it, man, Thank you, you
gut thank you. All right, man, We're back here with
my man, Thomas Q. Jones. The best version of himself
is what I've heard. That's what I call him. It
don't matter what everybody else thinks about him. I know
it's jet some bearrass fans out there going crazy, but no,
(43:49):
Thomas Q. Jones is a beautiful man. It's nothing but
great vibes going on today. All right, all right, Thomas,
We've got a couple of questions from quick hitters. I
want first thing come to mind. I want answers, I
want honesty, and this is what we all the people
tune in for you ready, okay, and this is a
question that I would love to know. Alright. Number one,
what was the most you bench pressed during your playing days?
(44:14):
The most of bench pressed was five huh, that's the most.
And that was that was actually my tenth eleventh year
in the NFL. So I was that's the grown man strength.
That's what. I agree. He's not all the people, he's Yeah,
that's what That's why I got the gray hairs. Now, yeah,
(44:37):
grown man strength kicks in about like thirty one, thirty two,
thirty three year is bro. It just doesn't take as
much to lift his heavy like, no, you just maintain
the strength. Okay, Okay, I'm very impressed with the number.
I was thinking about four twenties. You put me at
four fifty five. I love it. I love it all right.
(44:57):
Better atmosphere a locker room or a movie or TV
set mm hmm, the locker room okay, alright. The locker
room environment is just it's just so many personalities, so
there's so much going on. You have one conversation here
(45:18):
that's completely something wild. And then you have a conversation
over here that's about stocks and bonds. And then you
have you know, somebody over here in the locker that's wrapping. Uh.
You know, it's it's like a it's like a variety
show in the locker room. Always entertain great point and
the fact that you brought up stocks and bonds, I
(45:39):
know that conversation, yes, very and then you have somebody
rapping over here on the other side. It's all right.
When winning an Oscar makeup for not winning the super Bowl.
Mm hmmm, No, I don't okay, good, I'm I'm gonna see.
I knew Thomas Q. Jones was honest, not like no, no,
(46:01):
that super Bowl super Bowl is what man? I mean.
I didn't dream of winning an Oscar as a as
a kid. As a kid, I dreamed of winning a
Super Bowl ring. So although it would be an incredible
honor to win an Oscar, uh, and it would feel great,
uh something about having that ring to flash everywhere you
(46:27):
go and being a part of NFL history as a
world champion. There's no better feeling than that as a
football player. Yeah, I'm with you, man, And it's so
hard too. All right, So what's your favorite character you've played.
My favorite character out of all the characters that I played,
(46:48):
would probably be my character on Marvel's Lue Cage, Comanche.
I think that would love that show. He loved that show. Well,
he was a great show, great show. Hated to see
that it it was wasn't renewed. Um, but that character
was incredible because it was a very layered character. Shout
(47:08):
out the Jail Coker, the creator of the show, who
believed in me. Um that gave me the opportunity to
play that character. And shout out to Alfrey Woodard, incredible actor,
beautiful woman inside and now Theo Rossi, my brother who
played Shades uh partner and crime on the show. I
developed an incredible relationship with Theo and Alfrey Woodard Uh.
(47:28):
During that second season of Luke Cage, Um and I
grew a lot as an actor. There was a lot
of pressure on me during that season to uh to
bring this character to life, this very complex character. UH.
And I was able to step up to the plate
and and it gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.
So yeah, Comanche on Marka's Luke Cage was so far
my favorite character that I've been able to play. I'm
(47:50):
just glad you didn't say Thomas Q. Jones. All Right,
who's the actor you want to work with the most
that you haven't yet? So you would love to? Man
so many incredible actors. Uh, obviously I did go watching too.
(48:10):
This is incredible. I think that's kind of the typical answer,
But I would love to. I was thinking about this
guy the other night. I'm a huge fan is Robert Duval.
And I know Robert Duval is older now, as an
older and older actor, I don't even know if he's
(48:31):
even acting anymore. But um, I watched so many of
his movies and so many of his projects, and he's
such at that first character from Armageddon. Um, I think
it was only getting a deep impact. One of those
one of those films, uh, to Lonesome Devil Western that
I grew up watching with my father. Um, I see
(48:52):
actors like that who are so diverse. Um, and I'm
like wow, uh. And actually I would have loved to
have acted with before he passed with it was Patrick Swayze. H.
Patrick Swayze was was an incredible actor. Violet Davis and
I'm giving any more names than one but there's just
I can't answer that with one name. Violet Davis. Uh
(49:14):
is I mean, there's so many actors that I look
up to and look at it and I'm like a
pattern my career actor them in a way, in a
way some of their styles as actors. Um, I'll pay
attention to and learn from. Okay, last one here? Who
is on your Mount Russiamore personal Mount Rushmore? You know,
(49:37):
and it's just four. This is a hard thing for
all of us. Just for go Mount Rushmore of what exactly,
but like just in people like that have influenced your life.
Got you okay? Ah? Man? My father, all right? One
Malcolm x two um, one of my high school coaches,
(50:03):
Barry Jones, Okay, and yes, and one more person. Wow,
what a question? What a question in my entire life?
A man, I would have to say my running backs
coach Jimmy Ray, Okay, I like it now. Yeah, last
(50:28):
thing out here, and I want you to share this
personal story. I've heard it already and we're gonna get
you out here, Thomas. But could you tell the people
why you were number twenty? Yeah? I wore number twenty
because my mother and father, UM work to combine twenty
years in the coal mines of Virginia. My mother worked
(50:50):
nineteen years underground, and my father worked one year and
was laid off and he couldn't get back in the
coal mine. So, UM, nineteen plus one is twenty. And
when I saw him with the Chicago Bears in two
thousand four, UM, I felt like that was a rebirth
for me. It was a new opportunity for me to
jump start my career. And UM, I won of the
(51:13):
twenties motivation because every time I stepped out on the field,
I thought about all the things that they sacrifice for
me to even have that opportunity to be there. So
that's why our number twenty it will always be a
very special number of me. Well, look, man, Thomas, Man,
appreciate that. Appreciate you sharing. Like I told you earlier, man,
(51:33):
vulnerability is equal strength, man, and I appreciate the being
vulnerable with us today, sharing all your stories, sharing all
your times. And I hope everybody picked up on that today. Man.
And uh, thank you, Bro. I really appreciate you spending
some time with us today. Thank you, Thomas. Well, I
appreciate you on having me and this platform is huge, man,
what you all are doing with this podcast and with
(51:54):
the Pivot podcast, and um, you know, even I am athlete,
you know, I know that's a little bit different. But
in regards to just you know, grounded people, grounded conversations,
what you all are doing, Man, is is groundbreaking. It's
never been done before. Man, it's never been done before.
People have a lot of misconceptions about us as for
(52:14):
MAN NFL players and its current NFL players, and the
beautiful thing about it is, Man, you guys care enough
to have a podcast like this to give former players
a voice, which which matters a lot, Man, So thank
you for having me on MAN. I appreciate the questions
that were the dope, dope ass interview. Man, it was
dope questions, very well thought out questions. I'll made me
(52:35):
think a lot that last one. Man, I felt kind
of bad. I see my mom. I can't now my
mom came. I definitely have my mom because I'm like,
like football, like, okay, my dad obviously that's my best friend.
Only four people. You know that it's all you get. Dog,
I'm telling you, it's the hardest one. Everybody struggles because
(52:58):
they don't know to go family or they do, like
old family. Then I just do. It's a hard wood.
It's a hard wood. Well. Thank you Thomas Q. Jones
for joining us today, blessing us with your time, your
(53:18):
your your vibes, your mindset, everything that you've been able
to complish and accomplish in your second acts. It's been
amazing to hear today, Peanut, what you feel. I felt
that that was like entertainment to night quality. Man, you know,
these your your interview schools. You're just getting. I think
you're gonna be leaving the college scene and headed to
l A doing doing some of these interviews, interviewing some
(53:41):
of the stars. Man, you're getting really good now. Man,
I'm getting I'm getting kind of jealous. You're surpassing me.
You're actually above me right now. You're on a hell
of a job. I gotta man, I say, man, it's
all about eye contact. Let's make this thing very conversational.
We'll just see where it goes. Hopefully we've got some
good TV or man even better on a podcast. Them them,
(54:02):
them NFL broadcast Blue Camps. They've served you well, brother,
they served you well well. Thank you, man, I appreciate it. Man.
We're gonna get you guys, up out of here. Thank
you to all the listeners for tuning in. I asked
you once again to spread the word and to give
us a rating of review and a follow on Apple podcast,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast.
(54:25):
This is me and p Nut Dillman and we're out
with the NFL players. Second Acts Podcast
Hosts And Creators
Charles “Peanut” Tillman
Roman Harper
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