Road to 1991 Perfection: Fields Planned Football Return Before Tragedy

Donald Jones was living in Los Angeles when Jaime Fields came over to his house with a plan.

They were former teammates and fearsome starters for the University of Washington's 1991 national championship football team.

Two guys with a lot in common.

Outside linebackers who had terrorized college football together.

Coming off the opposite ends

Both had spent time in the NFL and were still itching to play.

Fields since had logged a season in NFL Europe with the Scottish Claymores.

"He said let's go over there and play together," Jones recalled. "And I said, 'Let's do it.' "

Originally from Virginia, Jones finished up at the UW and played two seasons for the New York Jets and spent a training camp with the Minnesota Vikings.

A knee injury short-circuited his career.

"My wife didn't want me playing anymore," he said.

Fields likewise spent two seasons in the NFL before his European pro football sojourn and was hitching for more.

"He was one of the best football players I'd ever been around," Jones said.

A short time later on August 29, 1999, Fields was involved in an early morning car accident in Downey, California, when a hit-and-run driver ran a red light and hit his vehicle broadside, killing him instantly.

He'd been out celebrating his 29th birthday, though he didn't drink alcohol.

"When he passed, part of me passed," Jones said. "I think about him all the time."

This is another in series of vignettes about the UW 1991 national championship football team, filling in the conversation before the pandemic-delayed season begins next month.

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