Following a stellar career at LSU, Chad Jones found himself being drafted by the New York Giants in the third round of the 2010 draft.
Unfortunately, just months after being selected, his NFL dream came to a halt when he suffered what ended up being a career-ending leg injury. At one point, there was even talk of him losing his foot!
Having never played a down for the eventual SuperBowl champs, Jones retired and shifted his focus to baseball and eventually received an open tryout by the Cincinnati Reds.
On Friday, the Reds selected Jones in the ninth round.
"Jones was an exceptional athlete who showed first-round potential as both an outfielder and a left-handed pitcher despite never focusing on baseball," Baseball America's Jim Callis recently wrote. "He was a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder with above-average power potential, speed and arm strength as a right fielder, not to mention an 88-93 mph fastball and power slider on the mound."
But this is hardly the first time Jones has garnered interest by a Major League team. The 24-year-old has been drafted two other times. In 2007, he was taken in the 13th round by the Houston Astros and three years later, the Milwaukee Brewers called his name in the, wait for it, 50th round.
Should Jones make it to the bigs and should he end up with any sort of success…it'll just be another feather in his cap.
Originally an outfielder for LSU, Jones converted to reliever and helped the Tigers during their 2009 College World Series championship. Two years prior, he was part of LSU's BCS title win.
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