ENGLEWOOD, Colorado – Tony Jones, a striker for two of the teams in the Denver Broncos Championship, has died, the team announced on Friday. He was 54 years old.
Jones, who started on the right attack in the Broncos victory in Super Bowl XXXII and started on the left attack when the team won Super Bowl XXXIII the following year, played 13 seasons in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens and Broncos after joined the league as a raw recruit in 1988.
Known as the “T-Bone” by his Broncos colleagues, he spent the last four years of his career with the Broncos, retiring after starting 16 games in the 2000 season at the age of 34.
“I lost a great man,” former teammate Rod Smith posted on Twitter. “You just happened to be a damn beach. We love you and miss you Bone. One of the best Broncos tackle of all time.
Ed McCaffrey, another former Broncos teammate, called Jones “a great teammate and a great man,” and Hall of Famer Steve Atwater, who also played on those two Super Bowl teams, said Jones is ” a great teammate ”with“ only the most beautiful children ”.
Atwater also said on Friday night that many of the players from those Broncos teams continued to stay in touch with each other and that “everyone suffers in this regard”.
The Broncos, believing they were ready to return after a playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars to end the 1996 season, traded a second-round pick to the Ravens in 1997 to acquire Jones.
In Super Bowl XXXII, on the right attack, he kept the Hall of Famer Reggie White bagless and one attack in general, while the Broncos rushed 179 yards and Hall of Famer Terrell Davis was named MVP of the game. .
After Gary Zimmerman, also a Hall of Famer, retired before the 1998 season, Jones moved to the left attack and started every game on the road to a Pro Bowl selection, while the Broncos won a second consecutive title.
Jones was named to the Broncos’ Top 100 team in 2019.
In a post on social media, former Bengali striker Willie Anderson called Jones “a father, a friend, an offensive line, a coach and a coach.”