The Mouth that roared

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This article was published 16/02/2024 (604 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a weekly series in February in honour of Black History Month, Taylor Allen highlights the stories and accomplishments of Black athletes and coaches in Manitoba.

It was just another reminder for Tyler Livingston that his late father — Blue Bombers legend Tyrone Jones — was one special player.

Four years after losing his battle with brain cancer at the age of 46, Jones was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2012. Livingston, the eldest of Jones’s three sons, and his mother flew from Camden County, Ga., to South Dakota before driving across the border to make it to Winnipeg for the ceremony. On the way back home, they were stopped at customs and had their vehicle and belongings searched. The border agent quickly changed his tune once Livingston, now 32, filled him in on why they were in Canada and that he’s the son of a big name.

“He was like ‘What? Tyrone Jones? Man, he actually gave me one of his jerseys.’ He then told all the guys to stop going through our stuff. Then he was like ‘Y’all get on out of here. I’m sorry, your dad was a great man,’” Livingston said in a phone interview.

“To go through a random search and meet someone that knew my dad, that was pretty cool.”

Jones was a standout at Southern University before signing with the Bombers as an undrafted free agent in 1983 and hit the ground running with 18 quarterback sacks as a rookie. The following year, the linebacker set a Grey Cup record with four quarterback takedowns to help Winnipeg beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to hoist the silver mug. The 1985 campaign was his personal best as he was voted the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.

After trying out for the NFL’s Phoenix (now Arizona) Cardinals in 1988, Jones returned to Winnipeg in 1989 for three more seasons. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in sacks (98) and won a second Grey Cup in 1990.

“He was so versatile. He was a guy that was as good as any pass rusher in the league,” said Mike Riley, 70, from his home in Oregon, the head coach of the Bombers from 1987-90. Riley also coached the team’s defensive backs between 1983-85.

“He was like a bowling ball. He was pretty round and quick as a cat. He was hard for anyone to get a handle on and block.”

His resume jumps off the page, but it’s his larger-than-life personality that stuck out to most.

And his trash talk, of course.

Before games, Jones and the linebacker crew would jog in between opposing players as they stretched as a way to stir the pot before kickoff. He wasn’t shy on camera, either. Fellow linebacker James West remembers a time when Jones was being filmed before a big game and all he could talk about was how ugly the other team is.

“It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard,” said West, 68, who now resides in Atlanta, Ga. “He was making jokes all about the guys that are ugly. I wish I could actually find that video, I’d love to hear that again.”

Jones had the nickname ‘The Mouth that Roared’ for good reason.

“He always told me ‘Bubba, I’m just afraid nobody will remember me,” said older brother Artie Jr., known as Bubba to family. “And I said ‘Boy, with how big your mouth is, how can anyone forget you?’”

Jones was no solo act. He and West terrorized quarterbacks together and were best friends away from the gridiron as they were roomates and did everything together. They knew each other from their college days and started out as rivals — West attended Texas Southern — but when they started wearing blue and gold, they instantly clicked. West, a Bomber from 1985-92, and Jones retired together after spending 1993 with the B.C. Lions.

“It was James and Tyrone, Tyrone and James. Our names were always called at the same time, at least 90 per cent of the time,” said West. “I loved my brother, and I ended up loving all of his brothers. We were family and a matter of fact, we’re still family to this day. I go and hang out with his brothers and know what they’re doing… Although he was in Georgia and I lived in Houston at that particular time, we still travelled back and forth to see each other.”

Jones had a deep appreciation for his fans. On one of his last trips to Winnipeg, a fan approached him at a Bombers’ legacy celebration and told him his father — a longtime blue and gold supporter who loved the way Jones played — was in hospice care. Without hesitation, Jones offered to go visit later that night, and he did. Jones himself was sick with cancer at the time.

“He was a person of joy, of faith, and someone you’d love being around. He’d talk with you for as long as he could,” said West. “He wouldn’t walk away if a kid or a person asked for an autograph.”

The next year, 2006, Jones made the trek up to the Manitoba capital one final time for the Grey Cup and to say goodbye. His teammates used to call him ‘Butt-n-Gut’ for his unique body type, but the disease had taken both of those from the former sackmaster, making him almost unrecognizable. He still somehow found a way to smile.

“I’m blessed,” Jones said in an interview with the Globe and Mail at the time. “I truly am. I’m the three-legged dog named Lucky.”

Jones died June 10, 2008.

“They didn’t give him three months to live, and he lived for about three years. He was a fighter,” said Artie Jr. “People say ‘Why me?’ but he’d say, ‘Why not me?’ He lived a good life, and he said he enjoyed it to the fullest.”

Livingston — who bears a resemblance to his father — has been to Winnipeg twice and always felt right at home.

“It’s crazy just how everyone knows who he was. They all have stories about him which is cool to listen to. Even new people I meet back home, they’ll say they knew him and how great of a guy he was,” said Livingston.

“I think about him and miss him every day.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

X: @TaylorAllen31