Torez Jones is a professional football player and he sat down to give us an in-depth interview on his background, how he got into playing football abroad, being black in China, the work that dos into the game and more. People often stereotype athletes as being one-dimensional but Jones is smart as a whip. He’s also super grounded and self-aware. Check out Cachet’s interview with Torez below:
Tell me a little bit about your background growing up just to get our readers up to speed about your background…
I was born in Wilson, NC a small town about 30 miles east of North Carolina’s capital Raleigh. I was on July 19th, 1990 and I was born a welfare baby. It was my mother, my grandmother and I—-as shortly moths after I was born my biological father was killed in a phone booth. Soon after, my mom met my now father. Growing up he has always been there and all I’ve ever known. My dad was a big sports fan and signed me up for sports as soon as I was eligible.
Growing up I’ve always been sort of a late bloomer. My deceased father was an amateur boxer so I assume I developed some his genes and along with my dad’s care I became very athletic. I spent a lot of my time either bowling, traveling with AAU basketball or playing football growing up. I was always active. I traveled a lot for sports growing up and I spent a lot of weekends on the highway, in hotels, gyms, bowling alleys or practicing with my dad when he wasn’t working. I believe it definitely got me used to traveling at a young age. Though, both of my parents push me and inspire me, my dad is my main source of inspiration. Growing up I watched him work long hours on a swing shift schedule yet he always found time to work with me on whatever I wanted to learn and he rarely missed my games which meant everything to me. It always pushed me to perform as best as I could because I felt I couldn’t let him down plus I just loved competing. It was always my way of escaping whatever I had going on. I always felt that when I in between the lines I was safe from anything.
One of my most memorable exercises growing up was playing catch with my dad. It was easily the highlight of my day. He even convinced me to catch passes from him while I was jumping on the trampoline. Though, it was fun and I didn’t realize it at the time but adjusting to the ball while being that high in the air really set me apart from other kids as I could jump over the other kids and still concentrate on the catch. And ever since it has been the best feature about my game. My mom was a school teacher. She understood the importance of sports to me and utilized it to help me study in school. She would call out my spelling words and history events to me while my dad and I would play basketball in the yard and that’s how I would study and learn my terms. I’m grateful for both of my parents spending a lot of time with me as a kid. It meant a lot to me and I looked up to both of them as they always found a way to make things happen. My mom has definitely rubbed off on me as my ability to think quick on my feet and improvise in tight situations, something that I think is uncoachable in football.
What made you want to play football abroad and how has that journey changed you an individual:
The story of how it all came about is actually pretty crazy. There was a draft for a new league starting in China and a lot of my teammates were picked up. I wasn’t supposed to go because I didn’t get eligible for the draft in time to get picked up. My coach in the US, who was also one of the coaches for the league in China, coincidentally had a draft pick back out who played the same position as me. He asked if I had an active passport and if I was interested in going and I jumped at the opportunity. I felt it was a way for me to prove myself after sitting on the bench for my rookie season on our Championship run with Philly. I’ve also always wanted to travel abroad but I just never acted on it.
It was definitely a blessing. My life has changed drastically since going to China. Football wise, I was blessed enough to be voted Defensive MVP of the league. Because I had came off of a challenging rookie season with the Philadelphia Soul playing the backup role to a talented group of Defensive Backs, I questioned myself. So from a mental state it felt great and gave me the overall self-assurance that had kind of faded a little.
As far as living in China I’ve never seen that many people so happy and grateful as a whole. They really embrace their love ones and I even had a family invite me into their circle and I was able to see how they did things. I observed factories, restaurant service, and even just walking down the street. Everybody works their butts off. I always had a perception of Asians being really smart, but watching a whole culture that embraces education and studying was big to me. Whether formal education or learning the tricks of the trade, their preparation for these types of things are underrated I feel. Handouts are not even a thought there and I felt a sense of tradition with a lot of those things and not shaming the dynasty (or legacy) from my observation. Their style is very unique and the infatuation with material things rarely exists there. I also hiked a lot and got to see a lot of amazing countryside. It definitely changed the way I look at things such as unity and spirituality. I feel China paints the picture of what it looks like when everybody works together versus when everyone is out to only benefit self.
I found myself wishing the U.S mirrored a lot of the things I saw over there. I believe that you must be whatever change you wish to see in the world so I’ve tried to be more aware of my practice of selflessness as much as often. I try to be more open about other people’s situations and rather help if I can or inform instead of judging things. I’ve also grown to embrace learning; since I’ve been back I’ve been into reading more and being careful about what I choose to entertain my mind with. I want to visit more countries now just so I can see how other cultures manage and just what else it might open my eyes to. I learned a lot about myself and my mindset has definitely shifted and I feel less selfish than I once did. I also find myself practicing gratitude as often as I can.
What is the football scene all about abroad?
The football scene gave me so many mixed emotions in the beginning. I had so many questions, “how do we get over the language barrier”, “how do we correlate our games and habits to those of the Chinese who were as a unit a bit clueless on schemes and movements of the game most of us have played our entire lives?” It was neat to me that we all had to split housing with a Chinese roommate forcing us to experience a cultural exchange. We would teach each other funny sayings in our languages. From cracking jokes in a respectful way on each other’s cultures to corny jokes and pickup lines we quickly gelled together and it started turning into the same American based brotherhood/fraternity feel. We stood up for each other and before we knew it we were all attached and dreading the ending of the process. This is the exact reason that I think football is ultimate team sport. We were able to defy the odds and come together to ride for each other and win a championship. And we had players from all over China, America, Canada, etc in one locker room, all different body types eager to chip in and do their part. It even became satisfying to see certain Chinese players on your team dominate other Chinese players with moves we coached them up on over the course of the season. It was truly a great experience and I learned so much about myself as an individual as well as a professional.
So keep it one hundred with us. How is it being black and living in China:
It was pretty dope. It wasn’t bad at all. I felt very safe everywhere where I went in China and regardless of what time of night I was out. The nightlife was pretty cool. Of course, we stuck out everywhere we went. At Clubs, Chinese DJs would shout us out and would want us to dance and take over the dancefloor when we came out. They loved to jump up and party with us. The Chinese really embraced our rap culture as many clubs in multiple cities played a plethora of rap artists. Also I had to adjust to little kids who would just stop stare and people who would want to come up and just touch you, your hair, take pictures with, and just be around you. It was pretty dope. It wasn’t weird or uncomfortable to me but cool how they were so intrigued with us. It was pretty funny how they thought we all looked alike and they assumed we were all famous. I was mistaken for Allen Iverson (with him having cornrows in the picture held up to me) Big Sean, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James lol. One of the biggest things as an African American that you have to come to realization with while being there is that they have a word that sounds exactly like the N word and it comes up a lot as it has a lot multiple meanings, most commonly associated with saying that thing, that person or just a word you say when you’re in deep thought like “uhh.” This was something I had to get used to and I think we all had to with time understand that they were not directing it at us and were not using it in insulting form. Honestly, that was probably one of only adjustments racism related that I had to make. The Chinese embraced us and our culture as a whole and it really was one of those things gave me a lot more confidence in humanity.
For younger athletes coming up, what tips and words of advice do you have for them if they want to make sports a career move:
For younger athletes looking to make the transition into the pro athlete world you have to understand that it is a big business and you have to always remember to not disrespect the brand. From your attitude and making sure you’re not receiving bad press for being uncoachable or unmarketable, to having the discipline to prepare yourself for the next, practice, game, interview, or season and making sure you’re doing the right things off the field. The big things like talent and ability will obviously determine your leverage and position within your craft but a cloud of red flags makes all of those things nonexistent. The rule of thumb I live by is to always leave things better than they were when you found them. There’s a million prospects who want to move up the ranks every year but you have to be willing to nail down the small tasks and logistics to be great and standout in a crowd of athletes who share the same abilities as you and sometimes better. Passion is the second part as it is key as you will go through things that may make it hard to keep pushing forward. But when it’s something you truly love, the sacrifices are the small thorns on a rose. Everyone sees the perks and they are definitely great and it’s always great when you can get paid for your craft but it’s the losses, the fails and the falls that will determine who you are and your character based off of how you respond. I truly believe that in this industry you will succeed if you can grasp the concept that it’s not about how hard you fall but how well you can bounce back. It’s a blessing to be able to get paid to do something you love and it’s a tragedy to let the devil trick you out of it.
What would the current you have told yourself at 18?
Your life won’t be dictated by what happens to you but rather how you respond to things.
I saw that you recently won two championships with your team mates, how was that experience and what went into that?
On the first Championship team I was a rookie for the Philadelphia Soul and had to prove myself in practice while I rode the bench and served as an understudy to a talented group of All Star defensive backs. But from top to bottom we were loaded and I was able to steal certain styles from certain players and they all coached me up. The environment was different in that I’d never won a Championship on any level before. Everybody got along in the locker room. Preparation, selflessness, and competiveness was on display every day from the front office down to the coaches, trainers and players. None of us wanted to lose to each other in anything. And it carried over to the field as you did not want to mess up not so much for yourself or family but because of the guy fighting right beside you. I was fortunate enough to grab the last spot in the Chinese league on the team with the same coach and a lot of the same players I just finished the Championship run with in America. Our coach instilled a lot of the same values into our Chinese players and it was then that we as players had the chance to add coaching to our resume as we passed our knowledge of the game down to the Chinese players.
And I was able to finally show what I had learned the past 20 weeks in the States. The year 2016 was a great year as I went from never winning a Championship to winning 2 in 8 months, and I was blessed enough to have a great year in China individually. I was voted Defensive MVP of the league in its first year of existence which was a big honor to me.
What does an average day in your life look like as a professional athlete:
An average day starts with me getting up around 6 am, making a quick breakfast then heading to the gym to swim a few laps, then I head to facility and hangout with my teammates before we start 8am film study. After that I’m off to practice till 10:30. Next, I’ll hit the showers then it’s back to film study till 12ish then it’s off to eat. After, I usually either head to a school and spend recess with a local school or I’m headed home to take a hour nap. Then I’m usually back up to take care of a few non-football practices, read a little. My teammates and I will meet up again usually a little later that night to watch film again and after I usually phone home to check on everyone, then it’s a 30 minute yoga session and 30 minute meditation session followed by a book to put me to sleep.
What is the biggest challenge when it comes to what you do professionally?
The toughest part is watching people pour toxins into the game you love and not letting it persuade your view on the industry as a whole. There are guys who love this game and would probably play for pennies just because they love playing that much and then there are some who will either fall victim to the “me guy syndrome” and it can kill a locker room or you have guys who will make false promises to get over on a young kid who “just wants to play football” and end up tanking his career. It goes a lot of ways but I just try take into consideration that I get to choose what I feed energy into and that’s how I stay at peace with things. I respect that they exist but I try not to give negativity life.
And for the Ladies….What’s your ideal first date:
Well I’m pretty adventurous so maybe something along the lines of a zip lining event, go carts or lazertag. Something where we can laugh at each other and not be so uptight—then finding a good pub, grab a steak and red wine maybe while we get to know each other. After, we’d cap the night off with a trip to a local lounge with a banging 90s R&B playlist to show off our moves.
What’s next for you?
I see myself in the NFL after this upcoming season in April so I’ve been trying to prepare myself as much as I can. Outside of football I see myself continuing down the investing path and sharpening my knowledge for the Foreign Exchange. I’ve been eyeing a few startups and I definitely see entrepreneurship in my near future.
