Mark Jones has been one of ESPN's top play-by-play guys during the 2020 NBA playoffs, but the broadcaster has been in the news for other reasons in the past few days. Jones will be on the call for Saturday's college football game between Army and the Cincinnati Bearcats.
He drew attention after saying on Twitter he will refuse a police escort.
Saturday at my football game I’ll tell the police officer on duty to “protect” me he can just take the day off. Fr.
I’d rather not have the officer shoot me because he feared for his life because of my black skin or other dumb ish.
I’m not signing my own death certificate💯
— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) September 24, 2020
Jones later followed with another tweet explaining why he preferred not have security:
“Police never saved me,” Jones said. “Never helped me. Never protected me. Never taken a bullet for me. (They’ve pulled guns on me) Never kept me safe in a protest. Never stopped the racist from taking my Black Lives Matter flag off my house.
The tweet came in the aftermath of the grand jury ruling in the Breonna Taylor case, which charged one of the officers with “wanton endangerment,” but did not charge any of the responding officers in Taylor's death.
However, the Twittersphere began digging into Jones' past history, uncovering a slew of pro-police tweets.
Jones attempted to respond to some of the tweets in question.
A young Black dude actually found the bag which had popped out of our SUV. He was heading to the game and saw it in the ditch. He recognized my face on my iPad in the bag. He handed it off to Police at the parking lot✊🏽😂😂 https://t.co/UGf7tuJXhs
— MarkJonesESPN (@MarkJonesESPN) September 24, 2020
Jones' statement has prompted some controversy, though he is hardly the only commentator to speak on policing and racial injustice.
On the other end of the spectrum, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal said the officers involved in the Taylor case should not be “lumped in” with the deaths of George Floyd and others victimized by police brutality.
Regardless, the events of the last several months have elicited strong reactions from the sports community, including commentators such as Jones.
