ENGLEWOOD, Colorado – Tony Jones, an early tackle on two of the Denver Broncos’ champion teams, has died, the team announced on Friday. He was 54 years old.
Jones, who started as a right tackle in the Broncos’ victory at Super Bowl XXXII and started as a left tackle 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 joining calls as an unmade newbie in 1988.
Known as “T-Bone” by his Broncos teammates, he spent the last four years of his career with the Broncos, retiring after starting 16 games in the 2000 season at age 34.
“We lost a great man,” posted former teammate Rod Smith on Twitter. “It just happened to be a great playa. We love you and miss you, Bone. One of the best Broncos tackles of all time.
Ed McCaffrey, another former Broncos teammate, called Jones “a great teammate and a wonderful man,” and Hall of Fame member Steve Atwater, who also played on these two Super Bowl teams, said Jones he was “a great teammate” with “only the most beautiful children.”
Atwater also said on Friday night that many of the players on these Broncos teams remained in contact with each other and that “everyone is suffering from this”.
The Broncos, believing they were about to recover from a playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at the end of the 1996 season, switched to Ravens in the second round in 1997 to acquire Jones.
In Super Bowl XXXII, on the right tackle, he held the Hall of Famer Reggie White without a sack and with a general tackle while the Broncos ran for 179 yards and the Hall of Famer Terrell Davis was named the game’s MVP.
After Gary Zimmerman, also a member of the Hall of Famer, retired before the 1998 season, Jones moved to the left tackle and started all games en route to a selection in the Pro Bowl, while the Broncos won the second consecutive title .
Jones was named to the Broncos Top 100 team in 2019.
In a social media post, former Bengals striker Willie Anderson called Jones “a great father, friend, striker, coach and coach”.