Sport: Football
Born: December 9, 1962
Town: Montclair, New Jersey
Dwight Andre Sean O’Neil Jones was born December 9, 1962 in Kingston, Jamaica and spent his first seven years in Milk River, about an hour west of the city. Sean grew up in Montclair, NJ, after his parent, Walter and Sylvia, moved there so his mother could attend graduate school. Sylvia Jones taught in the Newark school system for more than two decades. Walter became a social worker and also worked as an orderly at Overlook Hospital. Sean was an exceptional athlete with a head for numbers. He attended prestigious Montclair Kimberley Academy, where he often joked to his wealthy classmates that he’d be handling their money someday—only he wasn’t joking.
Sean played football, basketball and lacrosse for MKA but didn’t hit the radar of D-I schools. He enrolled at Northeastern University in Massachusetts to take advantage of its highly rated business and marketing programs, and continued to play football and lacrosse for the Huskies. However, he never took either sport seriously. He was an offensive lineman his first two years and a defensive lineman as a junior and senior.
When the Los Angeles Raiders made Sean their second-round pick in the 1984 NFL Draft, he was surprised to say the least. So were the league’s other clubs. Granted, he was an exceptional physical specimen at 6’7” and 250-plus pounds, but during Sean’s first week in camp, teammate Howie Long described him as the “worst football player I’d ever seen.” While Sean waited for the team to discover he had no idea what he was doing, he studied defensive players like Long and absorbed endless hours of game films, the same way he had learned to read spread sheets in college. Slowly but surely, Sean became a run-stopping, pass-rushing monster, leading the team with 15.5 sacks in 1986, his first year as a fulltime starter.
Sean saved his best for game day, often to the displeasure of coaches and teammates. He did not work hard in practice and despised training camp. He also got involved in the player’s union with the Raiders; he was the youngest NFLPA team rep in history and was very involved in the 1987 strike. That likely prompted a trade to the Houston Oilers in 1988.
That same year, he went to work for Dean Witter Reynolds, where he ultimately ended up handling the accounts of more than 100 fellow athletes. Meanwhile, Sean continued to mow down enemy quarterbacks from his spot at right defensive end, along with defensive linemen William Fuller and Ray Childress. Sean led the Oilers in sacks in 1990 and 1993, as the team made the playoffs every year he was on the roster.
Sean earned a Pro Bowl nod in 1993 and then declared for free agency. He was signed by the Green Bay Packers, who bookended him with Reggie White to create the NFL’s most formidable DE duo. Sean was credited with 24.5 sacks in his three years with the Packers and was named second-team All-NFC his first two seasons in Green Bay.
In 1996, Sean’s final season with the Packers, the team went 13–3 and blew out the 49ers and Panthers in the playoffs to earn a berth opposite the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. After spotting Drew Bledsoe & Co. a 14–10 first-quarter lead, Green Bay scored 17 unanswered points before halftime and cruised to a 35–21 victory with help from Desmond Howard, who returned a kickoff 99 yards in the second half. Sean had an excellent game across from All-Pro Bruce Armstrong as the Packers played airtight D in the final quarter.
Sean was a free agent heading into 1997 and knew the Packers would not re-sign him. He had mentored young lineman Gabe Wilkins and Green Bay now expected him to step up and replace Sean.
At the age of 34, with 113 career sacks to his credit and the misery of another training camp on the horizon, Sean decided it was time to leave the game and pursue his first love, a career in the financial industry. He became one of the top producers for Dean Witter’s Beverly Hills office and also did some color work on NFL broadcasts and hosted popular sports talk radio shows.
From 2004 to 2008, Sean worked for the Raiders’ front office, helping to structure contracts for players and coaches. In the years that followed, he became an admired figure in the sports industry and a popular speaker.