Landry Jones happy to be a Steeler, though his dad wavered

By Charean Williams

Landry Jones didn’t care when he was drafted or where he went. He is happy to be in Pittsburgh, which won four Super Bowls with Terry Bradshaw as their quarterback and have another two with Ben Roethlisberger.

Kevin Jones, though, needed a little more time to warm up to the idea of his son being a part of Steelers Nation. Kevin was a diehard Dallas Cowboys fan, having shown love to his team by naming his son after Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry.

“He had a hard time coming over to it,” Landry said with a laugh in a phone interview last week, “but now he’s pumped; he’s excited. He’s a diehard [Steelers fan] now.”

The Steelers drafted the former Oklahoma star hoping to groom him behind Roethlisberger. Charlie Batch, 38, had been the Steelers’ backup since 2002, but Pittsburgh signed Bruce Gradkowski and John Parker Wilson and drafted Jones.

Jones is the Steelers’ highest-drafted quarterback since Roethlisberger, the 11th overall pick in 2004. Pittsburgh selected Omar Jacobs in the fifth round in 2006 and Dennis Dixon in the fifth round in 2008, but neither Jacobs nor Dixon was greeted by comments from Batch about being the heir apparent as Jones was.

For his part, Jones has downplayed any talk about him being the future.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/06/09/4921685/nfl-insider-landry-jones-happy.html#storylink=cpy

Such consternation from a dad who’s son plays football for one of the most respected teams and ownership families in all of professional sports. Anyone who named their kid “Landry” should have ditched the Cowgirls like Jerry Jones ditched their legendary coach. Better late than never!

As a father, of course you're going to be excited about your son playing in the NFL, regardless of which team he's playing for. But it would be difficult if he played for a team you hate. If my son played for the Ravens or Browns, of course I'd root for him to be as successful as possible. But I wouldn't suddenly become a Ravens or Browns fan and start rooting against the Steelers.