When Homer Jones made a catch, he turned the football field into a dance floor, spinning and shifting with an array of flashy moves.
A receiver with the 1960s New York Giants, Jones was a master at producing long gains. He did it either one of two ways _ hauling in deep passes, or using his deft footwork to add yardage after a grab. His career average of 22.3 yards per catch is a NFL record.
The St. Louis Cardinals faced him often, and then he joined them for a brief time at the tail end of his playing career. Jones was 82 when he died on June 14, 2023.
Music man
A saxophonist in high school at Pittsburg, Texas, 125 miles east of Dallas, Jones played football his senior year because “I wanted to go to college and they didn’t give scholarships to sax players,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
At Texas Southern, Jones excelled in track as well as football. He and Bob Hayes of Florida A&M were two of the fastest sprinters in the United States. Jones and Hayes were on the men’s 400-meter relay team that beat the Russians in an international dual meet at Palo Alto, Calif., in July 1962.
A year later, at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics meet at Sioux Falls. S.D., in June 1963, Jones won the 220-yard dash, nipping Hayes at the finish line in 21 seconds.
(Later that month, Hayes won the 100-yard dash in 9.1 seconds, a world record, at the Amateur Athletic Union meet in St. Louis. Described as “the world’s fastest human,” Bullet Bob Hayes won two gold medals, in the 100 meters and as a member of the 4×100-meter relay team, at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Like Jones, Hayes became a NFL receiver, with the Dallas Cowboys.)
Jones was a flanker at Texas Southern and one of his favorite plays was a reverse. It basically called for a ball carrier to hand off to a receiver running in the reverse direction. Jones added a twist. “I reversed the reverses on my own just to see how that would work,” Jones told the Post-Dispatch. “I guess I was the first scrambling flanker in Texas.”
Drafted in 1963 by the Houston Oilers of the American Football League and the New York Giants of the National Football League, Jones opted for the Oilers, but reported to training camp with a twisted knee.
“I couldn’t do any knee bends, and you couldn’t play for the Oilers unless you did knee bends,” Jones said to the Post-Dispatch.
Released, Jones contacted the Giants, who signed him to their practice squad in July 1963. After a doctor repaired the cartilage damage in the knee, Jones and the Giants were relieved to discover he still had speed.
Freestyle football
After spending most of the 1963 and 1964 seasons on the practice squad, Jones, a raw talent, filled in for injured Giants receiver Del Shofner in 1965.
“They used to call him Homer Q, and Jones himself said the Q stood for questionable,” Milton Gross of the North American Newspaper Alliance noted.
“They can never tell what I’m going to do,” Jones said.
He inverted the pass routes designed for him and had trouble holding onto the ball. As the New York Daily News noted, “Homer has a reputation for ad-libbing pass patterns.”
Giants quarterback Earl Morrall told Milton Gross, “You look at the films and at times you’re wondering where he’s wandering to.”
“They used to laugh (head coach Allie Sherman almost cried) when Homer lined up in the wrong place, ran pass patterns in reverse, missed blocks and signals,” The New York Times reported.
Jones explained to Milton Gross, “You’ve got to confuse the defense as much as he confuses you. The one who confuses the most comes out the winner.”
Crowd pleaser
In warmup drills before the Giants played the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 17, 1965, at Yankee Stadium, Jones dropped nine passes in a row, the New York Times reported.
Show time was another matter.
In the second quarter, the Giants were on their 11-yard line when Earl Morrall called for Jones to run a fly pattern down the sideline. Morrall backpedaled and was near the goal line when he heaved the ball.
At the Eagles’ 40, Jones turned and looked up. “The sun was pretty strong,” he told the New York Daily News. “I saw a black spot in the sky and I didn’t know whether it was a bird or the ball.”
Jones reached for the object, speared it “and then completed a full pivot around defender Irv Cross, who went sprawling out of bounds,” the Daily News reported. Jones sprinted to the end zone, completing an 89-yard play for his first NFL touchdown.
According to NFL.com, Jones wanted to throw the ball to fans in the stands, but the league would fine a player $500 for doing that, so he flicked it into the ground. He is “believed to be the first player to spike a football after a touchdown,” NFL.com reported. Video and Game stats
Hard to stop
Jones averaged 23 yards per catch each year between 1966 and 1968. His 14 touchdowns (13 receiving and one rushing) in 14 games led the NFL in 1967. He made 49 catches that year, averaging 24.7 yards per reception.
In the 1967 season opener against the Cardinals at St. Louis, Jones had five catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. On one of the scores, Jones beat cornerback Jimmy Burson, made a jumping catch of a Fran Tarkenton pass at the Cardinals’ 10 and “dragged tackler Larry Wilson the last five yards across the goal line,” the Post-Dispatch reported. Game stats
In the season finale rematch at Yankee Stadium, Jones had five catches for 125 yards and a touchdown. Here’s how the Daily News described his score: “Homer caught a turn-in pass in front of Phil Spiller on the St. Louis 45, foot-shuffled his way past a few defenders and shook off rookie Mike Barnes at the 10 to make it a 69-yard play.” Game stats
“Homer is the top offensive weapon in football today,” Tarkenton said to the Daily News in 1967. “Catching the ball is only part of his value. It’s what he does after the catch that makes him so remarkable. He’s a tough man to bring down.”
Giants radio broadcaster Marty Glickman told the newspaper, “There have been receivers who had, or have, Homer’s great speed. There have been receivers who are strong and can break tackles. But I never saw both _ the tremendous speed and the power running _ in one man until I saw Homer Jones.”
Teams regularly double-covered Jones. “We feel that any time they play me one-on-one I have a better than 75 percent chance of beating him,” Jones told Newsday. “I myself feel I have a 99 percent chance of beating him. Only a great play by him can stop me.”
In addition to speed and strength, Jones had huge hands. “He palms watermelons,” the Post-Dispatch declared.
Jones made one-handed catches before those became commonplace. He wore a size 13 glove. (A size 11 is considered XL.) According to the North American Newspaper Alliance, when shaking hands, “his fingers reach up to your forearm.”
Stepping out
In January 1970, the Giants traded Jones to the Cleveland Browns for running back Ron Johnson, defensive tackle Jim Kanicki and linebacker Wayne Meylan. Jones was nearly 29, but “there are some in the Giants family” who suspect he is two or three years older than his listed age, the Daily News reported.
The Browns acquired Jones to replace Paul Warfield, who was dealt to the Miami Dolphins, but a second-year player, Fair Hooker, outperformed Jones at training camp in 1970 and won the starting job.
Jones was used primarily as a kick returner with the 1970 Browns. He returned 29 kickoffs for 739 yards, including one for a touchdown against the New York Jets. Video
On July 13, 1971, the Browns traded Jones to the Cardinals for a draft choice. The Cardinals envisioned Jones rounding out a wide receiver corps that featured John Gilliam, Dave Williams, Fred Hyatt and rookie Mel Gray.
“When a receiver of the caliber of a Homer Jones becomes available, you just have to take a look at him,” St. Louis head coach Bob Hollway explained to the Post-Dispatch. “We felt he could add depth and experience. He’s bound to upgrade the receivers and create hard competition.”
Jones told the newspaper, “I’d say it was a happy day. I’ve always had respect for the Cardinals and I like the idea of playing for them.”
Two weeks later, though, when he was supposed to report to Cardinals training camp, Jones had a change of heart. He informed the club he was finished playing.
“When I broke into pro football, I said I would play for five years,” Jones told the Post-Dispatch. “I played for eight and I’ve thought about quitting for some time.” Video highlights