After scoring four touchdowns in Monday night’s showdown against the Detroit Lions, you would think Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones would have plenty to celebrate. However, during the game, ESPN reports that something awful occurred: The football-shaped medallion he was wearing that contained his father’s ashes mysterious disappeared.
Jones wore the necklace during his first game at Lambeau Field as a loving tribute to his late father, who passed in April from COVID-19 complications. He believes it came off during the second quarter when he caught his second of three receiving touchdowns. His fourth touchdown came on the ground.
“If there was any place to lose it, [in the end zone is] where my dad would’ve wanted me to lose it,” Jones said. “So I know he’s smiling.”
Thankfully, an exhaustive search after the game eventually turned up the pendant. And the next morning, Jones went on The Steve Cszaban Show to reveal that it was a team athletic trainer who made the discovery.
“Actually it was our trainer, Bryan Engel—‘Flea’—he went out there and he found it,” he said. “It’s just really small. A lot of times it just fits inside of my shirt. You won’t even see it or recognize it.”
Jones also sent out a tweet expressing his gratitude to Engel.
“Found at 1:45am,” he tweeted. “Thank you to our trainer Bryan ‘Flea’ Engel Im forever grateful.”
After learning about this ordeal, celebrity jeweler Ben Baller expressed his concerns about wearing something so meaningful while playing such a violent sport and spoke with TMZ to offer a solution. He noted that he carries a metallic container on his own keychain for his various medicines, and said he could make something similar for Jones that would be indestructible.
“I just went to Six Flags with my kids and this has never come off,” he said about the container. “I can make this in yellow gold, platinum, ice it out.
“Look, Aaron, holler at me bro. Send me a DM. Send me a text. I’ll make you one of these joints.”
It’s a relief that Jones was able to recover his father’s ashes, but he’s going to continue to wear them during football games he might want to take Ben Baller up on his offer.