Tristan, Devon make troubled Milson proud
By Scott Petersen,
Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON – Tristan Jones doesn’t have to see his father to know he’s there, watching him and his brother play football from the shadows of Clarke Park.
It’s been Milson Jones’s dream to see his sons play the sport he once excelled at as a running back for the Edmonton Eskimos. That dream was one his lawyer shared with the media a year ago while the haggard-looking athlete was in a Winnipeg courtroom on a variety of criminal charges.
Milson struggled with life after football, eventually spiralling into a life as a broke, homeless, drug addict living on Winnipeg’s streets. Now he’s back in Edmonton and has something to look forward to each week as his sons make up the backfield tandem for the Edmonton Wildcats junior football team.
Tristan is on pace to topple numerous league rushing and scoring records this season. Younger brother Devon is next up on the rushing chain and one of his key blockers.
“I think it’s good for him and I think it’s good for us,” said Tristan, 21. “It’s a little relief. It doesn’t weigh on your mind and he’s doing what he wants to do now and he’s better off that way. Just in general, just in life, he’s happier and just enjoying himself a lot more.”
Milson introduced his sons to soccer, but they wanted to be like dad — the man they watched on TV, who gave defences fits and earned Most Valuable Canadian honours at the 1987 Grey Cup.
Both sons followed their father into the running back position and tried college football in North Dakota before returning home to the local junior football scene.
Milson twice earned All-America honours at the University of North Dakota, while Tristan and Devon briefly attended Dickinson State University.
Last October, Milson’s troubles peaked in charges for possession of cocaine, trying to cash a stolen cheque and stealing meat from a store. He pleaded guilty on all counts, giving him a criminal record and a one-year suspended sentence with probation.
“You’d like to say no (it didn’t affect anything), but it’s obviously there in the back of your mind and you just try to deal with it the best you can,” said Tristan. “You’ve got a job to do, I was in school and playing football, so like anything else that goes on in people’s lives, you have to take it in stride and move on and move forward and hope the best comes out of it.”
Devon and Tristan are close, live together and talk every day. Aside from the usual brotherly rivalry, their different personalities jell.
Devon brings the upbeat sarcasm and Tristan is laid back and humble about his accomplishments.
They get football advice from their father after the hubbub of game day has died down and everyday life has resumed. But they’re making their own paths.
“(Tristan’s) his own man, he’s different than his dad,” said Wildcats head coach Gary Durchik, formerly an Eskimos assistant while Milson played there. “There’s a lot of similarities I can see athletically, but emotionally he’s different, and that’s huge I think.”
Tristan is making a name for himself this year with his rush to re-write the Canadian Junior Football League’s record books. He’s averaging over 200 rush yards and three touchdowns a game while propelling the Wildcats to a 6-0 record.
He has 1,269 rush yards with two games to go. The record of 1,666 yards is held by former Edmonton Huskie Dean Jones, no relation.
“It’s something I had no idea coming in what the records were or anything like that, so it’s kind of good I didn’t have that in my head,” said Tristan. “Now that I’m close and everyone’s reminding me, it’s kind of neat to know you’re almost there, but we still got a lot of work ahead and two tough teams.”
Both Milson and Durchik coached Dean Jones at a point in his junior football career. While Dean was a fleet-footed back, he doesn’t match up favourably to Tristan.
“(Tristan) is more of a complete back. He can do it all,” said Durchik.
“Tristan’s a great receiver. He can throw the ball, kick the ball, he’ll block you. He can block about as well as anyone we have. Obviously, when you see him run, he can do it all. He can change directions, slip you, run you over. He’s got it all.”
And if Tristan wanted to, Durchik could see him one day making the jump to the Canadian Football League, breaking tackles and making runs, just the way he saw his father do it on TV so many years ago.
