Brian Keith Jones (born January 22, 1968) is an American sports radio and television host and former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

. Jones played one year of college football at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and then transferred to

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

(Texas); Jones was selected by the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). The Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural ...

in the eighth round of the

1991 NFL draft The 1991 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 21–22, 1991, at the Marriott Ma ...

. Jones played NFL professional football for six seasons.

Early life and college

Born in

Iowa City, Iowa Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. At the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the population was 74,828, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, fifth-most populous c ...

, Brian Jones grew up in

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

, and graduated from Dunbar High School of Lubbock in 1986. Recruited by several colleges, Jones first attended the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA) and played on the

UCLA Bruins football The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles, in college football as members of the Big Ten Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Bruins play their home games off ...

team for

Terry Donahue Terrence Michael Donahue (June 24, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American football coach and executive. He served as the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1976 to 1995, compiling a record of 151–74–8. His 15 ...

before transferring to the

in 1988. He then played the 1989 and 1990 seasons for the

Texas Longhorns football The Texas Longhorns football program is the intercollegiate team representing the University of Texas at Austin (variously Texas or UT) in the sport of American football. The Texas Longhorns, Longhorns compete in the NCAA Division I Football B ...

team. As a senior in Texas's 1990

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

(SWC) title run, Jones was an All-SWC selection.

Professional football playing career

After a trade from the Raiders, Brian Jones spent the 1991 NFL season playing linebacker with the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

. Jones then spent the 1992 season with the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

and the 1994 season with the

. He signed with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

in 1995, for which he would spend the next four seasons. In addition, Jones also played for the Scottish Claymores NFL Europe football team in 1995. Jones did not see any significant playing time after the 1996 season. Jones sat out the 1997 season because of injuries and played only in one NFL game in 1998 before being cut. In 1999, Jones filed a

workers' compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

claim over his 1997 injury, but the Saints and Louisiana Workers' Compensation Corporation filed a Peremptory Exception of Prescription that was upheld by the

Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal The Louisiana Circuit Courts of Appeal are the intermediate appellate courts for the state of Louisiana. There are five circuits, each covering a different group of parishes. Each circuit is subdivided into three districts. As with the Louis ...

in 2001.

Media career

After retiring from pro football, Jones moved to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, to try to start an acting career. After a few years, Jones returned to the

in spring 2000 to finish his corporate communications degree. He also hosted a weekday afternoon talk show on sports radio station

KVET (AM) KVET (1300 kilohertz, kHz) is an AM radio, AM radio station in Austin, Texas. It is owned by iHeartMedia, and carries a Sports radio, sports radio format with both local sports shows and programming from Fox Sports Radio. KVET uses a direction ...

"1300 the Zone". Jones finished his degree by spring 2002 and became the first person in his family to graduate from college. He later moved on to working in sports television as a sideline audio tech, and later a sports reporter for University of Texas football games and a sports reporter for

Fox Sports Southwest FanDuel Sports Network Southwest is a Texas-based regional sports network owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate of FanDuel Sports Network. The channel broadcasts regional coverage of profe ...

. In 2013, Jones joined CBS Sports Radio as co-host of the afternoon drive time program ''MoJo on CBS'' with the long-time broadcaster Chris Moore. In February 2015 CBS Sports moved Brian to the early morning show, with sportscaster Greg Gianotti, co-hosting "Gio and Jones in the Morning" . In March 2013 Jones was added by CBS Sports to be an analyst on College Football Today, the pre-game show for the

SEC on CBS ''College Football on CBS Sports'' is the blanket title used for broadcasts of college football games that are produced by CBS Sports, for CBS and CBS Sports Network. CBS first televised regular season college football games in 1950, airing th ...

. Jones is a college football analyst with Adam Zucker of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

weekly Saturday morning college football program, with his former UCLA colleague

football Coach Rick Neuheisel In 2017, Jones and co-host Gwen Lawrence launched the Better Man show and BetterManShow.co

a nationally syndicated lifestyle TV program for men. The Better Man show is currently syndicated to more than 73 million homes. In October, 2020 the internet

sportsbook A sportsbook is a venue where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, such as golf, football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer, horse racing, greyhound racing, boxing, and mixed martial arts. The method of betting varies wit ...

BetUS announced NFL Hall of Famer Warren Sapp and Brian Jones as the hosts of the weekly

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

"BetUS Unfiltered". Sapp and Jones have interviewed celebrities such as Derrick Johnson, Adam Schefter, Ray Lewis, Kevin Carter, Rick Neuheisel, and Jen Welter on the podcast.

References

External links

NFL.com profileMoJo show siteBetter Man site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Brian 1968 births Living people American football linebackers Indianapolis Colts players New Orleans Saints players Players of American football from Iowa City, Iowa Players of American football from Lubbock, Texas Scottish Claymores players Texas Longhorns football players UCLA Bruins football players