I first approached Kevin Jones about doing an in-depth interview during our spring game tailgate back on April 26th. I described to him how we like to do long-form, far-ranging interviews that give our readers an in-depth look at our subjects, and which give them a chance to reflect, set the record straight on things, and present an accurate picture of themselves.

A “looking back” interview with KJ has been a goal of mine for a while. One of our best, earliest pieces of pay material was an in-depth interview I did with KJ’s dad, Thomas Jones (“Football Coach 2” was his handle on the message boards back in the day), back in 2001 about KJ’s recruitment. If you’ve never read it, set aside a block of time and check it out.

That was back when we had our monthly e-magazine, “The TSL Extra.” That format was a tough sell, and through the first four issues, we only had a couple hundred subscribers. The Thomas Jones interview appeared in issue #5, and our subscriber count skyrocketed well over 500 almost overnight, so I’ve never forgotten that interview, or that moment in TSL’s evolution.

I reminded KJ of that interview. 20 pages of it was with his dad, and was fascinating stuff. I told KJ that one page of it was with him, saying boring things like, “Uh-huh. Yes. Right.” He laughed and said, “I’m not like that anymore.”

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