By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

As Deacon Jones casually strolled from the practice field to the Rams locker room at the Russell Training Center on Saturday morning, he couldn’t help but allow himself to go back to a time and place in his life he relished.

To Jones, the NFL locker room is sacred ground and even now at the age of 70, he can’t help but to savor every chance he gets to set foot in one.

Upon entering the Rams locker room at the conclusion of their Saturday walk through, Jones bellowed ‘This is great’ a few times, turned to tight end Billy Bajema and asked if he was enjoying himself as much as Jones.

Only moments before, Jones had finished addressing the Rams in the middle of their post practice huddle. At the request of coach Steve
Spagnuolo, Jones went into detail for about 10 minutes on the sacrifice it takes to find a victory on Sundays.

“I think anytime you can get one of the premiere football players in the National Football League to talk, that’s always a bonus for your team,” Spagnuolo said. “I think when somebody like that stands in front of the team, I know the players have a great deal of respect for him. When the words come out, I think there’s some inspiration there. I think everybody aspires to be that kind of player in this league. If you are in it, you are in it to be very good so I think it was nice for the guys to feel that.”

As is his custom, Jones wasted little time in addressing some of his favorite players, the defensive line. Jones went into detail about the importance of creating pressure on the quarterback and doing anything possible to make plays in the passing game.

“As I looked around all eyes were on him,” Spagnuolo said, laughing. “I think they were afraid he might get down in a three point stance or something. I noticed the quarterbacks were behind the huddle a lot.”

Levity aside, Jones’ message was very real and resonated with all of the players in the huddle.

In addition to preaching the pass rush credo, Jones wanted to convey to the players his No. 1 key to success in the league.

As part of the Fearsome Foursome, one of the most dominant defensive groups in league history, Jones was able to become one of the greatest pass rushers to play the game.

But Jones has always maintained that he never would have had as much success as he did were it not for the efforts of Merlin Olsen, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy lining up next to him.

“In our business, it takes a long time to groom your talent but along the way as you are grooming that talent, you have fun and you learn respect, you learn so many things out of it that you can utilize in life,” Jones said. “That’s the beauty of it. Relationships are built. The foursome means more to me than anything I have ever done in this game. Those guys came to battle, we backed each other’s play and that’s the thing you remember. You have to monitor what you say when you talk to these youngsters because their viewpoint is not the same as mine no matter how you cut it. You have to be careful to bring them along slowly to do what you have to do to leave this game better than you found it. You have got to make it better. You have to leave something that the game remembers, you remember and the fans remember.”

There’s no doubting Jones’ legacy among the players in the Rams locker room. To a man, every player seemed captivated by what Jones had to say.

Defensive end Chris Long, who is no stranger to being in the presence of a Hall of Fame defensive lineman, found himself amazed by the opportunity to be around Jones and to hear him speak for the first time.

“What I get from Deacon Jones when he talks is just a swagger,” Long said. “He has a swagger and he has that professionalism that I think we can learn a lot from as a team and individuals. That’s a Hall of Famer with 100 plus sacks in his career who was pretty much ahead of his era and re-defined his position. That’s an icon speaking so guys better respect that.”

Indeed, plenty more than just the defensive line were paying attention when No. 75 took center stage. Running back Steven Jackson, who has actually heard Jones address the team before, says he heard a similar message to the first time but recognizes it’s a message that will never grow old and never stop being important to his success.

“This was my second time hearing Deacon talk and each time it’s been very inspiring,” Jackson said. “It shows you the passion that he still has for football and the kind of spirit you want to have out there on the field. What he was saying was so true in that you have to go in a game with a mindset of knowing that you have to get your job done and nobody can stop you from getting it done. Each time he’s talked, that’s the same thing I have taken from his speech and that’s how I try to prepare week in and week out that each and every snap it’s a different battle but each battle I have to try to win in order to get us a win on that Sunday.”

The Rams will officially retire Jones’ No. 75 in the home opener on Sunday against the Packers, hence the reason for Jones’ visit.

Looking around the assembled Rams, Jones couldn’t help but notice the youthful exuberance of the fourth-youngest team in the NFL (average age just over 26). And with that, he offered a helpful reminder that in the difficult world of the NFL, nothing comes easy.

“You have got to learn how to play this game,” Jones said. “All of those guys looking at me were young, I mean really young. They have got to understand that this game here is a work in progress. You have got to keep thinking about it and keep learning. That’s how you play football. You aren’t going to play it no other way.”