It is With a Heavy Heart I Report Jack Jones Has Been Released by the Raiders

Ian Maule. Getty Images.

How it began:

How it's going:

It's sad that, despite Jack Jones' belief that Antonio Pierce a better head coach than Bill Belichick, the Raiders fired him after just 26 games and a 9-17, .346 record. And sadder still that before Las Vegas' new (I use that term very loosely) coach Pete Carroll has even had his full roster in the building, he decided to release Jones after attempts to find a trading partner for him turned out to be a waste of time. You hate to see it. 

So why does this matter? Because it was exactly one year and one day ago that Jones was blaming Patriots fans for the way his career went tits up in New England:

See, because all Patriots fans do is sell out every home game, travel en masse to road games, buy up all the merchandise, including jerseys of guys who never amounted to jack squat (how much am I bid for my barely-worn Tyquan Thornton shirt?), flock to training camp and support the franchise in every way possible. Which apparently isn't enough for us to have opinions, never mind expressing them in public. So it's our fault Mac Jones declined every year of his New England career:

And that Jack Jones got arrested at Logan Airport with a handgun. But the good people of Raiders Nation would think that of one of their own.:

They wouldn't think that even after Jack Jones plead guilty in court to having a loaded handgun at Logan Airport. 

So all this was on us. All of it. The multiple suspensions over his very brief Patriots career. The weapons charge that Bill "Not as Good as Antonio Pierce" Belichick was willing to overlook. We're probably even responsible for all the times he got suspended and cut from his college teams, in a Hodor from Game of Thrones retro-causality kind of way. 

And I don't doubt we're the reason Pete Carroll saw no logic in holding onto a cornerback who started 16 games for his team last season. The effects of the people in the seats at Gillette not supporting Jones enough were so profound that it was still damaging him in 2024. That's why he gave up the most touchdowns of any corner in the league, with 10. That's why his passer rating when targeted was 115.8, meaning that every quarterback who threw his way was just a notch below Lamar Jackson (119.9) for the second highest passer rating in football. It's all our fault. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Believe me, I am saddened, not gladdened, to see this occasionally good but extremely high-maintenance cover corner out of work. The NFL is a better, more entertaining league with him in it. Mostly I'm sorry on behalf of every Patriots fan, because all of his personal shortcomings are our fault, not his. Please find it in your heart to forgive us.