Julio Jones slept through Alabama's national championship win
An entire NFL playoff-level team’s worth of Alabama alumni returned to the sideline of their alma mater on Monday night to watch the Crimson Tide defeat Georgia in the national championship game. But the school’s best active player—a guy in whose office the game took place—skipped the game and associated championship. Why?
“I was actually asleep,” said the Atlanta Falcons’ Julio Jones, an ex-Tider who’s prepping for a playoff game this weekend. “I watched the first two drives for each team and then I was out. I didn’t know until the next morning and I was like, ‘Oh, it was a good game.’”
Ah, but Jones wasn’t about to stop at a both-sides-played hard critique. “I went on ESPN and I saw all the highlights. I was like, ‘Oh, Georgia got out on us,'” he said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But at the end of the day, it’s doesn’t say, ‘Barely.’ It’s ‘national champions.’”
When the AJC’s Jeff Schultz told Jones that the Rams’ Todd Gurley had been wearing Georgia gear prior to last Sunday’s playoff game, Jones had an effective response:
“I don’t need to wear Alabama stuff,” he said. “Everybody knows I love Alabama. I’m from Alabama. I went there. I don’t need to brag. You know? When you’re accustomed to things, you don’t brag.” (That makes twice in two days that Jones topped Gurley, for those of you keeping track.)
Next up for Jones and the Falcons: the Philadelphia Eagles, down a quarterback but at the top of the standings. Monday served as an important reminder about assuming that a backup can’t take down a team from Georgia, even if Jones slept through it.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
