Football is full of legendary plays and legendary players. Some stories are well known, but there are always pieces of the story that remain untold. Mike Jones, who made the play known simply as “The Tackle” explains in an exclusive interview how he went from playing offense in college to making the most famous defensive stop in Super Bowl history.
Jones was a record-breaking running back at Missouri. “My senior year in college, I’m playing in a one back set,” Jones said. “We were doing a lot of stuff that a lot of teams are doing now – shotgun, throwing the ball all over the place. I caught the ball out of the backfield. I set the record for Missou for the most catches in a season and [most catches] in a career for a running back.”
“The problem is, I wasn’t a true running back. I was one of those tweener guys. I wasn’t a fast, big, elusive guy to be a feature back, and I wasn’t a knock-them-off-the-ball type of full back.”
When the NFL Draft rolled around, Jones wasn’t drafted and the Raiders called to bring him in as a free agent… and as a linebacker. “I had to learn how to play the position. I’d never played it before,” Jones said. Hones later found out that his college running back coach had been telling NFL teams that he wouldn’t make the leap to running back in the NFL, but that he would make an excellent linebacker.
Fortunately, after his first season, the Raiders suggested that he play in the World League in the offseason, and that was where he met coach Jim Haslett. Haslett was a former linebacker who ultimately taught Jones how to play linebacker, and how to be successful in the NFL.
“Probably the best thing that could have happened for me was playing for [Haslett],” Jones said. “He moved me from an outside linebacker to an inside linebacker, and it’s a whole different type of game inside. And because he was a former inside linebacker, he was able to teach me a lot of different things that I probably wouldn’t have learned [if I hadn’t played in the World League].”
Ultimately, Jones found his way to St. Louis to play for Dick Vermeil, and was a part of the Rams Super Bowl team in 1999.
“Coach Vermeil used to say, ‘You help guys get better off the field by being better people. You help players become better on the field by practicing all the time.’ And that’s what he believed.”
The team improved over the first two years as they added talented players, but the final piece of the puzzle was added when Kurt Warner replaced Trent Green at quarterback for the 1999 season. The story of Warner is well known – how he went from bagging groceries, to playing in the arena league, to Super Bowl MVP in a matter of months.
“You couldn’t write a story about Kurt Warner and have people believe it. If you wrote a book like that, or you made a movie, everybody would say, ‘This is fiction. This could not happen. This is make believe.’ But what he did, and where he came from that season, was phenomenal.“
And to add to the drama, the end of the Rams victory in Super Bowl XXXIV over the Tennessee Titans was as dramatic as the end of any Super Bowl game, before or since. And Jones’ tackle to stop Kevin Dyson at the 1-yard-line was the play that saved the game.
“The last two plays of the Super Bowl – I always tell everybody the same thing. The team that didn’t execute was actually the team that had the right play called. The play before, they ran a hook and ladder. That’s when Steve [McNair] was running around.”
“We jumped the hook and ladder so Steve had nowhere to throw the ball, that’s why he was scrambling around. I jumped the tight end, and our DB the running back coming behind.” Jones explained. “Steve makes a phenomenal play, throws the ball downfield to Kevin Dyson, catches the ball just short of the ten.”
That set up for the final play from about ten yards out, with a 7 point lead, and the Titans knocking on the door for a game tying touchdown to force the game to overtime. “We go in the huddle knowing that they’ve got one play. We stop them, we win the Super Bowl. We don’t, we go to overtime. So we go back on the field.”
And if the Titans had quick snapped the ball after the timeout, the game might have ended completely differently. “A lot of people don’t know this, they came out in a slot formation, with the tight end outside the wide receiver. The wide receiver motions in and motions out. We weren’t covering the wide receiver because we were making a call. If they had snapped the ball, we were in a world of trouble.”
Fortunately, the Rams had time to make the adjustment and get the coverage they wanted. Jones gives the play-by-play from the field level. “I’m looking at Kevin Dyson the whole time,” he explains. “I’m looking at him while I’m running with Wycheck. I want him to throw the ball to the checkdown. I’m running with Wycheck and I see Kevin Dyson plant. So I plant and I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to kill Kevin.’ He doesn’t even see me coming, so I’m going to light him up.”
“Well, the problem was, when guys run routes like that, it’s usually the running back that does that. And the running back is usually not quite as fast as a wide receiver, not as quick. So my kill shot went to, ‘I better get him on the ground.’ “
Jones made the tackle, stopping Dyson at the 1-yard line to prevent the tying touchdown. No one else was anywhere near him, so he really was the only Rams player with a shot at the play. Jones recalls with characteristic humility, “They say it was a great play, I just say, ‘no, I just did what I do all the time.’ I didn’t rush the quarterback, beat an offensive lineman and sack him or force a fumble. I didn’t pick a ball off. I just do what I do all the time. I made a tackle. Just be in a position to make a play and tackle. Just happened to be in the last play of the Super Bowl.”
Humble or not, the play was dramatic. The final plays can be seen here. We can only hope that this year’s Super Bowl will come close to the drama of January 2000.
