Philadelphia Eagles: What happened with Donnie Jones?
Apparently, former Philadelphia Eagles punter Donnie Jones was not ready to hang up his cleats.
Has Donnie Jones accomplished the record of the shortest retirement in the NFL, ever? Just about a month ago, the 37-year old punter called it quits as he was ready to ride off into the sunset with his Super Bowl ring. Jones decided that after spending 13 seasons in the NFL, he was prepared to spend more time with his family, and less time with his teammates.
It was a great ending to not only his career but to his stint as the Philadelphia Eagles punter. Donnie Jones, also known in Philly as ‘Donnie Longball’ has been one of the best punters the franchise has had. Although he did not spend his entire career in midnight green, he served the team well in his four-year timespan.
Related Story: Donnie Jones announced that he is retiring
Just as we figured Jones was enjoying his time as a retired Eagle, we find out that he is already set to return to the NFL. Say what? Yesterday, the Eagles fan base felt surprised and confused as news broke that the Eagles had actually released Donnie Jones. It turns out that Donnie Longball is not in fact, done booting the ball.
What happened?
Well, well, well, Mr. Jones has some explaining to do. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the happiest of retirements for Donnie Jones. The public consensus believes that Jones decided to retire might’ve been more of a decision made by the Eagles, rather than Donnie Jones himself.
When you think more into it, the situation makes sense. The Eagles have been desperate for cap space over the course of the offseason. It forced the team to let pending free agents walk, and miss the opportunities to sign bigger names when the offseason had begun.
With the retirement of Jones, the Eagles saved a little under two-million dollars in cap space, without doing the dirty work of releasing him. But now, the Eagles had actually cut Jones in order to gain that cap space back since he didn’t go through retiring.
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Is there a chance of Donnie Longball making a return to the Eagles? It is doubtful. At this point, it just wouldn’t make sense. What’s done is done, and we can expect to see Donnie Jones play another season after all. Just not in an Eagles uniform. Farewell once again, Donnie.