Perseverance pays off for Steelers backup quarterback Landry Jones

Sports always have come easily for Landry Jones — football more than any other.

In a tiny football-crazed town like Artesia, N.M., where the stadium's capacity (6,500) can accommodate more than half of the city's 11,301 residents, the starting quarterback is a big deal.

Jones was a big deal, and football was a big deal to Jones.

He threw for 89 touchdowns (45 in his senior year) and led Artesia High to two of the school's 28 state titles. Jones wasn't the only Division I athlete to come out of Artesia, but he surely was the best when he signed to play at Oklahoma in 2007.

“We have had players go to the next level but not many D-I athletes,” Artesia coach Cooper Henderson said. “Everybody expected him to do super well everywhere he went.”

Jones was aware of that, even at a young age.

“Once I started getting recruited, everybody knew me,” he said. “Everybody always was telling me that I was going to be in the NFL. Coming out of high school, my whole theme of who I am was dependent on how I did in football. Then it was all taken away.”

As Jones prepares for what likely will be his first professional start Sunday for the Steelers against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, he can't help but look back at the day it was all given back to him.

That day is when he accepted his faith back in his life.

When it all changed

Jones was convinced he was going to walk on to the Oklahoma football field in 2008 and rip the starting quarterback job from Sam Bradford, who had thrown 36 touchdowns to lead the Sooners to a 11-3 record and a Fiesta Bowl appearance as a freshman the previous season.

Jones enrolled early to get a jump on the competition — one that never materialized. Bradford not only retained his job but also won the 2008 Heisman Trophy.

“I was so jacked up that I thought I was going to in there and light the world on fire. Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know,” Jones said. “There was no way in the world that I was ever going to play in front of Sam. Whenever you are young, you get things in your mind, and you don't really understand how the world works.”

Jones redshirted, and though it might be an overstatement to say he spiraled out of control, he turned into something he didn't like. It was, Jones said, because football no longer was a significant part of his life.

“When football got taken away, I kind of lost who I was for a while. I went through a time of trying different things — going out and drinking and doing all of that,” Jones said. “I was trying to make that fill the void inside of me, but it just amplified the issues that I had going on.”

Finally, Jones had enough.

Talking with his cousin inside their dorm room one day, Jones decided to make a drastic change in his life.

He had grown up in a Christian home, but his faith was not evident in his daily life " until that conversation with his cousin.

“(My cousin) said to me that we needed to start following Christ,” Jones said. “That's all it really took, and I turned my life around and started following the Lord. I said I am going to lay it down and follow Christ. And he filled me with joy and kindness and patience and gentleness and all these different things.”

The journey of going from a star high school player to losing his way early in college isn't unique to Jones. It is something that former Sooners football standout Josh Heupel has seen many times.

Heupel was the Heisman Trophy runner-up at Oklahoma in 2000 before joining the Sooners coaching staff a few years later. Heupel recruited Jones and was his quarterback coach for four years and offensive coordinator for two of them.

“As a long list of young successful people do, they find their identity of who they are on the football field.” said Heupel, who is the offensive coordinator at Utah State. “When you are not the guy as a redshirt, your identity can be lost a little bit. It was (Jones') first time away from home. A lot of kids have issues in that first nine to 12 months away from home. He really grew in his faith at Oklahoma.”

After that, Jones enjoyed success.

Bradford injured his shoulder the first game of the following season, and Jones took over. Four years later, Jones had thrown for 16,646 yards and 123 touchdowns and led the Sooners to 40 wins. That contributed to Jones being drafted in the fourth round by the Steelers in 2013.

“Early on, it was very hard for him,” Henderson said. “He went from that guy that everybody in town knows to one that nobody knows. He has a real strong faith, and that first year was a big challenge all the way around.”

‘Perseverance coming through'

From a young age, Jones was driven to be great.

Henderson recalled watching Jones play youth football and could see his desire to become a great quarterback.

But that passion showed up in other places, too.

“He played basketball, and he would come in at 6 a.m. because he knew his feet weren't as quick as he wanted them. So he would come in early and do all kinds of foot drills on his own,” Henderson said. “He would always take receivers and make them work. He was very successful, not only because of his athleticism, but he was a guy who could make everybody around him play well. You would always see that perseverance coming through with everything he did.”

That perseverance would be tested in the NFL

Jones figured, just like he did when he left high school, that he immediately would be a starting quarterback in the NFL.

It didn't happen.

Jones didn't dress for a single game during his first two years, backing up Ben Roethlisberger and Bruce Gradkowski. The only reason he was in uniform for three games this season was the injury to Roethlisberger's left knee.

So when Jones entered the game last week after Mike Vick couldn't continue because of a hamstring injury, it was the first time he set foot on a professional football field during a regular-season game. Jones responded by completing 8 of 12 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns as the Steelers won 25-13.

“The NFL hadn't gone quite as I pictured it coming out of college,” Jones said. “I had to persevere until I got my opportunity, and luckily for me last week, it kind of happened for me.”

The Steelers have faith Jones can handle the challenge Sunday.

Offensive lineman Ramon Foster said Jones was amped up when he first came into the game, most notably the way he was calling plays: loudly.

Jones settled down after that, found a groove and calmly led the Steelers on four straight scoring drives.

Foster likened Jones to Ronnie “Sunshine” Bass from the famed movie “Remember the Titans” because of the cool “Cali attitude” he has.

That cool and calm demeanor might be just what is needed Sunday to overcome a hostile environment at Arrowhead Stadium.

“He doesn't ride the emotional roller coaster. He doesn't go up and down,” Heupel said. “He is the same guy every day. He walks into that building, and because of that, he can come through the other side of the valley, the down sides.

“To me, he is one of those guys who is as comfortable in his own skin as anybody I have ever been around. He's very confident in who he is as a football player as well.”

Mark Kaboly is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at mkaboly@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MarkKaboly_Trib.