It wasn’t just my teammates who made me feel seen in Green Bay — it was our fans, too.
Especially in those first few years when I was trying to make my name in the league, I think people started to notice that good things would happen when I had the ball, and they wanted me to be more involved.
So they started tweeting with the hashtag #FREEAARONJONES.
I know it’s just a hashtag, but I won’t lie, that was cool.
Every time I saw it in my mentions, it reassured me I wasn’t going unnoticed.
Our fans understood how hard I was working to make things happen, and I fed off of that.
I’m also very grateful for the Packers organization, and the way they had faith in me as a person.
One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was as a rookie.
I got cited for driving with marijuana in my system, and suspended by the league for the start of my second year.
I was so embarrassed after it happened.
They say you represent the G at all times, and I hadn’t held up my part of that.
I felt like I’d let everyone down who gave me a chance as a fifth-round pick — and for a guy like me who wasn’t established yet, a lot of teams might’ve said “let’s just cut him.”
It definitely could have gone either way … but the Packers had my back.
Their mentality was, This mistake isn’t you. It’s only you if you don’t learn from it.
They made sure I walked around our building with my head held high, even when I was feeling really low.
