Maurice Jones-Drew

Player

Birthday March 23, 1985

Birth Sign Aries

Birthplace Oakland, California, U.S.

Age 38 years old

Nationality United States

Height 1.7 m

Weight 94 kg

#32297 Most Popular

1932

His total of 322 yards rushing was the 3rd most in the history of the Pac-10 Conference, and his overall performance earned him several National Player of the Week awards.

1985

Maurice Christopher Jones-Drew (born March 23, 1985), often called "MJD", is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons.

2001

Jones-Drew somersaulted into the national consciousness as a high school junior in 2001 when he scored all four of De La Salle's touchdowns in a 29-15 nationally televised victory over Long Beach Poly on October 6.

It was the first game that ever matched up the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 ranked high school football teams.

On the Spartans' opening drive, Jones-Drew received a short pass in the right flat on third-and-eight from the Poly 25-yard line.

He broke a tackle and then sprinted down the right sideline before launching a spectacular forward somersault into the end zone.

Drew next scored on a 29-yard reception on fourth down in which he ran a circle route out of the backfield down the left sideline and hauled in an over-the-shoulder touch pass at the goal line from quarterback Matt Gutierrez.

Drew’s third touchdown came in the second quarter when he burst through the line, shook off two tacklers, before hitting paydirt 17 yards later.

Drew’s final score salted away the historic De La Salle victory.

It was a similar effort to his third touchdown and came on a 22-yard run with just under seven minutes remaining.

Drew finished with nine carries for 86 yards and three catches for another 79 yards.

During his junior season, Jones-Drew rushed for nearly 2,000 yards, averaged nearly 12 yards per carry, and scored 26 touchdowns.

2002

Jones-Drew also ran track for the De La Salle track team and was a member of the Spartans' 4 x 100 metres relay state championship meet team of 2002, which posted a non-finals-qualifying time of 42.20 seconds during the meet's preliminaries.

At the age of 16, he posted a personal best time of 10.80 seconds in the 100 meters.

He also ran for the Bruins' track team at UCLA.

2003

He was rated as a four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1 all-purpose back in the nation in 2003 by Rivals.com.

He is pictured outrunning a slew of defenders on the cover of the book When the Game Stands Tall, which chronicles the De La Salle Spartans' all-time-record 151-game winning streak.

Jones-Drew accepted a football scholarship to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he played for the Bruins under head coach Karl Dorrell from 2003 to 2005.

Despite being undersized, Jones-Drew led the Bruins in rushing all three years he was on the squad and showed good pass catching ability and big playmaking skills as both a punt and kickoff returner.

He was the fifth player in Bruins history to lead the team in rushing in three seasons.

2005

He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, earning unanimous All-American honors in 2005.

In 2005, Jones-Drew set an all-time NCAA single-season record with a 28.5 yards per return average on 15 punt returns, breaking the previous record of 25.9 yards per return held by Bill Blackstock of Tennessee in 1951.

His career average of 23.2 yards per punt return ranks second in NCAA history.

Jones-Drew also established a number of UCLA records, including the career all-purpose yardage record (4,688 yards).

As a sophomore against Washington, Jones-Drew set UCLA's all-time record for yards rushing in a single game (322 yards) and also scored a school-record five touchdowns.

On his first carry of the game, he burst to the outside and raced 47 yards to tie the game at 7–7.

On his second carry, with UCLA trailing 24-7 and 2:30 remaining in the first quarter, he raced 62 yards for another touchdown.

On his fourth carry, a third-and-12 with 40 seconds left in the first quarter, he sped 58 yards for his third touchdown.

In the first quarter alone, he rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns on four attempts.

He gave the Bruins the lead for good (27–24) with 4:16 remaining in the first half when he scooted around right end for a 15-yard touchdown.

In the third quarter, he broke numerous tackles en route to his school-record fifth touchdown, a 37-yard run on the Bruins' first possession of the half.

2006

Jones-Drew was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, 60th overall, was named to the Pro Bowl three times, and led the NFL in rushing yards in 2011.

2013

He played his first eight seasons with the Jaguars, through 2013.

2014

In his final season in 2014, he played for the Oakland Raiders.

Following his retirement, Jones-Drew entered broadcasting, serving as a football color analyst for NFL Now and other shows on NFL Network, in addition to hosting for CBS Sports their Monday Night studio show for their UK networks.

He is currently the color analyst for the Los Angeles Rams.

Born in Oakland, California, Jones-Drew was raised in Antioch and graduated from De La Salle High School in Concord.

De La Salle owns the longest winning streak in high school football history at 151 games.

The Spartan football teams that Jones-Drew played on never lost a single game during his three-year varsity career.

He was an elusive, high-scoring running back and return specialist on offense and a punishing linebacker on defense.