The Green Bay Packers running back opens up exclusively to PEOPLE about how he’s honoring his father, who died in April 2021 after contracting COVID-19
Aaron Jones, the star running back for the Green Bay Packers, had a difficult 2021 after his father passed away from the virus that has killed millions of people worldwide.
Alvin Jones Sr., the father of Jones, passed away on April 6, 2021, as a result of COVID-19 complications. The 56-year-old father of five children, including Jones, was a veteran of the United States Army. In December of last year, a Fox Sports: NFL package stated that Jones Sr. served in the American Army for 28 years before retiring as a Command Sergeant Major. He tried to be at every game that Jones played, cheering him on from the sidelines.
In the time since, the athlete, 27, has had his dad with him on the field during every 2021-2022 season game, wearing Jones Sr.’s ashes around his neck in a football pendant while playing. And now, thanks to grief wellness brand Eterneva, he’ll be using the ashes to create a new special piece of jewelry that will also be game-ready.
“I thought it would be a great way to honor my father,” Jones tells PEOPLE. “They take hair or ashes, and they turn it into diamonds. To me, that was amazing.”
Although his season come to an abrupt and surprising ending on Jan. 22 after the Packers lost to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC divisional playoff game, Jones is glad that his dad didn’t have to miss it.
“A lot of people who really know me, they know that I wear a pendant with my father’s ashes,” he explains.
That was almost not the case though — during a September game at the Packers’ Lambeau Field in Wisconsin, the ashes were lost after falling off Jones’ neck. With the help of Packers athletic trainer Bryan Engel and other staffers, the pendant was ultimately recovered.
It was a scary moment for Jones, and he’s thankful to the Packers for coming up with a way to make sure that it never happens again
