The linebacker will talk again with his best friend just before he plays in Super Bowl 60. He won’t be in the stadium. But he’ll be there.
As Ernest Jones prepares to walk onto the field for Super Bowl 60, he is going to be talking to his inspiration.
In the home-team locker room at Levi’s Stadium Sunday, the Seahawks linebacker will recreate in his mind the conversation he’s always had with his father before his games. Those talks began at Ware County High School near the family home in Waycross, Georgia, through 2017.
It continued at the University of South Carolina through 2020, and with the Los Angeles Rams when Jones played in the Super Bowl four years ago. The continue with Jones now as the middle linebacker and signal caller in coach Mike Macdonald’s top-ranked Seattle defense.
“His exact words were: ‘I’m proud of you, Ernest,’” his son said Tuesday.
“Motivated me more than I think he knew.
“He’ll tell me that again (Sunday, before the Super Bowl). “We’ll get to turn up in our way, say a few curse words.
“And then we’ll go play a football game after that.”
Jones’ motivation and inspiration, what fuels him, is not to win the Super Bowl on Sunday against the New England Patriots. Jones has done that before, with the Rams four years ago.
Oh, sure, Jones absolutely wants to win another ring. He wants to show again how he has led the resurgence of Seattle’s defense from bottom to top of the NFL the last season and a half.
“I always prayed I wanted three of them,” Jones said of playing in Super Bowls, speaking inside the San Jose Convention Center. “I’m at two. So we’re counting down.”
He smiled.
His inspiration at age 26 isn’t money, either. He’s been newly minted with the $33 million, three-year contract he signed to stay with the Seahawks before this season. He turned down earning more in free agency.
Ernest Jones IV’s true inspiration is on his chest. It’s just above — make that in — his heart.
Every minute. Every day.
At the end of a gold chain, Jones wears a pendant that is a picture of his father, surrounded by diamonds.
Ernest Jones Jr. died last July 29, in the family’s hometown back in Waycross, Georgia. He had Ewing sarcoma, a cancer that forms in bones and the soft tissue around them.
He was 53 years old.
His dad was Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV’s best friend. They talked every Tuesday every NFL week. In November, for the league’s annual My Cause My Cleats game, Jones wore shoes in Seattle’s win at Tennessee that honored his dad and the awareness of Ewing sarcoma.
Each week, Jones keeps a green shirt with three pictures of his father in his locker at the Seahawks’ facility in Renton. Jones brings that shirt to each game.
“I miss him, man,” Jones said one week into this season.
“Every day, trying to find new ways to cope.”
Ernest C. Jones Jr. was an outstanding football and basketball player through 1989 at Waycross High School. After attending Fort Valley State University he served in the United States Navy. Then he graduated from welding school. He married. He and his wife Laurine raised five children. They included sons named after him, Ernest III and IV.
Dad was a welder and pipe fitter. He was a devoted member of his church, Light of the World Ministries in southeast Georgia.
He remains the Seahawks middle linebacker’s love and inspiration.
Sunday, his son will carry his memory onto football’s grandest stage. The whole world will watch Ernest Jones Jr.’s legacy.
His boy again will be one of Seattle’s most important players. He is in the middle of a defense that must stop Patriots quarterback Drake Maye for the Seahawks to win their second Super Bowl in the franchise’s 50-year history.
“He’s going to be proud of me, man,” Jones said, five days before kickoff.
“Biggest thing for me is making my dad proud, man. And I think I’m doing that.”
His son is 26 now. He is as he was, a young father and husband. Ernest IV and his wife Tyra had a baby boy 19 months ago. They named him after his grandfather who wasn’t there to see the birth of Ernest Jones V, the fifth of six grandchildren.
But Grandpa was watching.
“He taught us as parents, you’re supposed to train them up and teach them the way they should go,” the Seahawks linebacker said.
“So I do my best, man. I’m constantly learning.”
Ernest Jones’ life change
Late this season, Jones had one of the best games of his life. On Nov. 30 against Minnesota, he had a game-high 12 tackles. He had two interceptions in a game for the first time. The first pick came when teammate DeMarcus Lawrence was throwing down Minnesota rookie quarterback Max Brosmer. Brosmer checked an underhanded toss to no one but Jones. It became an 85-yard touchdown when Jones sprinted from near one goal line across the other.
Jones’ first score of his five-year NFL career turned what was yards from being a 7-3 lead by underdog Minnesota into a 10-0 lead for the Seahawks. They cruised to a 26-0 victory.
ERNEST JONES 84-YARD PICK-SIX
— NFL (@NFL) November 30, 2025
MINvsSEA on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVntpic.twitter.com/VA6dvef6w6
It was Seattle’s first shutout in 10 years. After that game, in the locker room front of his jubilant teammates, coach Mike Macdonald handed the game ball to Jones.
Jones then handed his heart to his Seahawks teammates.
He gave a speech that Macdonald later called one of the best he’s ever heard in a locker room.
“I’ve been through a lot this year,” Jones told his Seahawks brothers. “But earlier this week...man, I found myself feeling stuck, bro. And I found myself feeling like I was missing something.
“And what I was missing was God, man.”
A heartfelt message from @ernestjones. pic.twitter.com/LBmnnIdfqW
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) December 1, 2025
Tuesday, two months later, he and his teammates are NFC champions.
And Jones keeps looking within himself
“I always give myself grace, man,” he said. “I’m 26. A father. So it’s a lot. But I’m trying.
“And hopefully he sees that, you know?”
Ernest Jones appreciates Mike Macdonald
Jones’ father fell critically ill this summer. The Seahawks were in the early days of training camp.
The last week of July, Jones let Macdonald know what was happening back home in Georgia.
The 38-year-old first-time head coach knew exactly what to do.
He sent his middle linebacker home. He told Jones to get to Waycross immediately, before he wished he had. Forget about football, Macdonald told Jones. Come home whenever you have been who and what you need to be for your family back there.
Jones dropped everything. He left training camp for two weeks.
“I watched my father take his last breath,” Jones told The News Tribune Tuesday. “I was there for every (last) moment.” His dad died July 29. Jones stayed through the funeral in Waycross. He rejoined the Seahawks for practice on Aug. 12.
Ernest Jones IV may win the Super Bowl again on Sunday. He may go on to sign more contracts, to play football for four, 10, 15 more years. He may go on to a life after the game. He may remain in the sport, or into his life’s work. He will raise his child into becoming an adult.
And he will never forget what Macdonald, general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks did to ensure he got those final, cherished moments with his dad. That’s bigger than money. That’s bigger than another Super Bowl ring.
“It was everything. It meant everything for me to let me go,” Jones said. “During this period of time, I’m the starting middle linebacker, and I missed a good portion of training camp. But they didn’t stress me out about it.
“They let me handle it, handle it in the way I needed to. So big ups for the Seahawks for that, for sure.”
Category: General Sports
