A veteran NFL wide receiver just announced he’s stepping away from football. On Tuesday, Marvin Jones Jr. of the Detroit Lions went to Instagram to reveal he’s leaving football to take care of some “personal family matters.” According to Ian Rapoport of Tom Pelisserio of the NFL Network, the Lions released Jones following his announcement.
“I just want to say that I have so much love and respect for the Ford Family, the city of Detroit, my teammates and coaches, Jones wrote in the Instagram post. “To be brief, I am stepping away from the team to take care of personal family matters. Although this was no easy decision, I cannot be the person/player that I need to be for this team as well as tend to my family from afar.”
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Jones, 33, signed a one-year contract with the Lions in April after spending the last two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. This was his second stint with the Lions as he was with the team from 2016 to 2020. Jones was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the fifth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He spent four seasons with the Bengals before signing a five-year contract with the Lions. In his 11 seasons (missed the 2014 season due to an injury), Jones notched 547 receptions for 7,421 yards and 58 touchdowns. His only 1,000-yard season was in 2017 when he tallied 1,101 yards with the Lions. In six games this season, Jones caught five passes for 35 yards.
After Jones signed with the Lions in April, he talked about how everything was different from his first run with the team. “It’s a new feel for sure,” Jones said, per NFL.com. “And I think when I came here, the first thing everybody said is, ‘Hey, Marv, it’s different, you’re going to love it.’ The culture’s different, the coaches, everything. It’s not the same. So I think that was definitely one of the reasons why it was definitely appealing for me to come back here and, why not?”
Jones also talked about wearing No. 0 for the Lions. “It was a family decision,” Jones said. “They voted, and I was just like, ‘Let’s do it.’ Be the first one to rock the 0 in Detroit, so why not?”
