“Hard Knocks” will need to do a follow-up segment to a clip from Tuesday’s second episode on Chicago Bears training camp.
We now have the backstory on Velus Jones Jr.’s late pet ferret, Crash.
Jones met with reporters Wednesday at Halas Hall to talk about the team’s experiment moving him from wide receiver to running back. But first, Jones spent more than six minutes giving intimate details about the life story of Crash.
During a Bears practice conversation caught by “Hard Knocks,” Jones mentioned the ferret to running back Roschon Johnson.
“RIP Crash,” Jones said on the show. “Broke my heart.”
It turns out Jones and Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. obtained Crash when they were college roommates at USC. The Trojans were playing at Washington State and visited the nearby Idaho football stadium during their downtime. Jones and Pittman instead went to PetSmart and played with the ferrets, which bit and clung to their hands.
They looked at one another and knew: They were going to get one. They found a ferret breeder on Craigslist, which Jones called “the sketchiest thing ever.”
“We went to South Central (Los Angeles) somewhere, went down some alleyway and looked at each other,” Jones said. “I told him to keep the car running.”
Jones’ heart was racing, but eventually the breeder peeked his head out and produced the ferret, which was neutered and descented and cost about $350. Crash kept biting Jones’ hand, and Pittman worried Jones would drop him and hurt him.
“We fell in love with him,” Jones said.
They did their research on care, feeding him ferret food and the occasional mouse — “like Animal Planet,” Jones said. Then-USC quarterback JT Daniels watched Crash when Jones and Pittman couldn’t. Or Crash sometimes attended Jones’ tutoring sessions in his pouch, which helped Jones get out of schoolwork “because everybody would be so fascinated.”
When the Colts drafted Pittman in 2020 and Jones transferred to Tennessee, Crash moved to Knoxville, where his body still rests outside an apartment complex by the Tennessee River. Jones had to put the ferret to sleep after he became paralyzed from the waist down, the cause of which is unknown.
“He’s a legend for sure,” Jones said.
Crash’s shoutout on “Hard Knocks” actually wasn’t his first TV mention.
Jones played a clip from Tennessee’s game against Georgia in 2021 when Daniels was playing for the Bulldogs. The broadcast told the story of Jones acquiring Crash and Daniels babysitting.
“They will always have Crash in their hearts,” the reporter said.
Jones eventually talked about playing running back, which he played as a kid. When Bears coaches approached him about a move, he said he looked at it as a “great opportunity.” Jones has value as a returner, but a crowded wide receivers room prompted the Bears to try him at the new position.
He had six carries for 34 yards and a touchdown in the preseason game against the Bills.
“I’m really familiar with it and I know my God-given talent and abilities, and this is something I can be really good at and be there for them when they need me,” Jones said. “They’re trying to find any way that they can just to get the ball in my hands and utilize my talent, so that’s a great feeling. That’s something that I take pride in and make sure that I’m doing my all and giving my all for my teammates and being a better version of myself on the field.”
Jones said he still has to study a lot as he gains a better understanding of some of the nuances of playing running back at the NFL level.
“Protections, having your eyes in the right spot to protect the quarterback,” Jones said. “Just knowing certain runs and why you’re running the way you’re running. Do you have to bounce? Do you have to hit the A-gap, B-gap? And so just getting a full understanding. I did some of it last year. But it was kind of schemed up so I knew exactly (what to do). But it’s actually just grasping the whole playbook.”
“Hard Knocks” set up Jones’ bid to make the roster against that of undrafted rookie running back Ian Wheeler, who deferred medical school acceptance in an attempt to play in the NFL. The show is sure to show more of their camps in the final three episodes as the Bears decide their fates.
And maybe Crash’s story will get some more screen time too.
