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Every Father’s Day, Aaron Jones calls about 10 men to thank them for the role they’ve played in his life. Jones’ late father, who died in 2021, once encouraged his son to do so.
Jones said he’s been doing this since 2018 or 2019, when he compiled a list of men he’s most thankful for — Green Bay Packers running backs coach Ben Sirmans and Central Michigan running backs coach Cornell Jackson, who was Jones’ position coach at the University of Texas-El Paso, are among those Jones calls each year. So, too, is James Campen, the Carolina Panthers offensive line coach and former longtime Packers offensive line coach.
“Just people who have been very instrumental in my growth on and off the field,” Jones said Wednesday. “My dad’s not here. They’re the men that I’m looking up to off of the field and just a role model and who to be, so I hold them in high regards … just talking to me, reaching out. That goes a long way. They don’t have to, and just to show that they still care about me, they’re gonna take the time to reach out, see how I’m doing, check on me. That’s big for me. I’ll love those guys forever.”
Campen played for the Packers from 1989 to 1993 and coached in Green Bay from 2004 to 2018, most notably as the offensive line coach from 2007 until 2018, when he also served as the run game coordinator. He and Jones overlapped for only two seasons after the Packers drafted Jones in the fifth round in 2017, but the influence Campen left on Jones rings strong more than six years later.
James Campen talks with his players as Packers offensive line coach in 2011. (Leon Halip / Getty Images)
Campen, only the offensive line coach at the time, would pull the rookie Day 3 pick aside during walk-throughs. He’d show Jones his yards-per-carry stats in relation to the league to encourage Jones that, despite his limited snaps at the time, his production when given opportunities indicated he’d be a difference-maker when he eventually became a starter. All these years later, Jones ranks tied for sixth in NFL history with 5 yards per rush in his career, on top of becoming one of the most dynamic dual-threat running backs in the league.
“I respect him so much,” Jones said of Campen. “He believed in me as a rookie. … He would just tell me: ‘Keep your head down. Keep working. Everything’s gonna work out for you. You’re a great player in this league,’ and just instilling early on, believing in me, and that just stuck with me.”
Jones, a future Packers Hall of Famer, ranks third in franchise history in rushing yards and fourth in rushing touchdowns. But he started his career in 2017 playing only 12 games because of injury and running just 81 times for 448 yards and four touchdowns while catching just nine passes for 22 yards and splitting carries with fellow rookie Jamaal Williams.
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Jones could’ve used a boost in confidence as a rookie. He credits former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers for believing in his talent from the jump. Former Packers receiver Davante Adams has boasted how he predicted early on that Jones would be a star. Campen saw something, too. He could tell Jones was frustrated at his lack of playing time but noticed his efficiency on the field and how he carried himself off it.
“He was such a unique kid from a standpoint of, he was just accepting to any type of constructive criticism or positive things,” Campen said in a phone conversation Wednesday. “He just wanted to learn as much about it as he could. … I just had so much admiration for that kid. He is the most well-mannered young man. I mean, well, you deal with him. He’s just an incredible person.”
“He’d come and put his arm around me and talk to me and ask me how I was doing, just taking the time when really nobody else was, so that really stuck with me,” Jones said. “I’m like, man, he really cares about me. He really believes in me. I’m like, he has how many years in this league and he’s seeing it in me? … It boosted me. It boosted my confidence, and I feel like it helped me go out there and ball.”
Jones and Campen are two of the most beloved Packers to pass through Green Bay in recent memory. They’ll face each other for the first time in the regular season since Campen left Green Bay in the Mike McCarthy-to-Matt LaFleur transition when the Packers visit the Panthers on Sunday in Charlotte, N.C.
Campen said he prefers staying in the locker room before games, but he just might have to head out to the field to catch up with Jones before kickoff. The two talk a couple of times each year, including that Father’s Day check-in, when Campen catches up with the son that he’s never had.
“It was overwhelming that he would think that,” Campen said of his reaction when Jones first called him on Father’s Day. “And we had a lot of very good close talks and things like that, but I was very humbled by that. Every time when he writes something or he puts something out, something that’s very dear to his heart, or he has something written about him, I’ll shoot him a text and tell him what I think or whatever. And then he’ll shoot something else back and it’s always very humbling, especially for a player that’s had so much success on the field. The way this young man conducts himself off the field is just — he’s just a very special person.
“I don’t have any sons. I have all girls and so it’s very humbling that he calls me on Father’s Day and we get to talk and do those things, and of course it’s a very, I would say, private and heartfelt for him because … when you talk to someone like him, you can hear his dad in his voice. … I can only imagine, if I had a son, he’s everything that a father would want in a son and he’s just a heck of a kid, man.”
Aaron Jones has scored 63 touchdowns in his seven seasons, all with the Packers. (Jamie Sabau / USA Today)
Campen said he’ll never forget the look on the faces of Jones’ parents, both veterans, when he gave them two Packers military appreciation hoodies before a game during which coaches wore them. They raised Jones right — he still uses “yes, sir” to answer questions — but Jones says Campen deserves credit, too, for helping him rise to the heights he has since they met in 2017.
That’s why, after Sunday’s game, Jones said he will give Campen his No. 33 jersey. Told that, Campen could barely speak as he fought back tears — not so well — for about seven consecutive minutes over the phone.
“You wanna talk about being humbled with the phone calls on Father’s Day,” said Campen, a football lifer. “But I mean, I will say that will be one of the most special moments ever in football for me.”
Jones said: “Hopefully, it’s a very memorable one and can leave a nice little message for him.”
(Top photo of Aaron Jones and James Campen: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images; Bob Donnan / USA Today)
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