Feel Good Story: Colts Strength Coach Rusty Jones And His Battle Against Cancer

This is Rusty Jones, you might not know who he is if you are a Colts fan but he is the director of sports performance for the Colts and I had the pleasure of talking and working with when I was still a ball boy for the team.

He joined the Colts staff last year as the director of sport performance and has been a great hire. Chris Ballard even said, "one of the greatest free agent acquisitions ever". Rusty spent 19 years with the Bills and 8 years with the Bears where he totaled up 13 playoff appearances, 5 super bowls, and numerous amounts of awards.

In October of 2018, Rusty was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lymphoma. It was only 8 months after coming out of retirement (2013) and joining the Colts roster.

I remember meeting Rusty for the first time while doing laundry in the coach's locker room. Rusty introduced himself to me and had a great conversation about ourselves. He asked me how long I've been a ball boy, where I go to school, and where I'm from. We talked about these topics and it felt like I was reconnecting with an old friend. After that, it was always a smile and fist bump.

Not only does Rusty's energy and personality differ himself from everyone else, but there was one thing he brought to the table that no other coach has brought, pickles on a stick. He brought pickles on a stick to the players diet. No, not the jalapeño on a stick that Jeff Dunham brought out, but pickles on a stick.

There's data that shows after a workout, you lose a lot of sodium and potassium from sweating. Last training camp, Rusty introduced pickles on a stick for players to recover. Not only are pickles great for recovering, but bananas and mustard work efficiently too. When the strength team introduced pickles on a stick to players during training camp, long and behold, we ended up going 10-6.  Some may say the Colts went 10-6 because of Chris Ballard picking Frank Reich as the head coach, and drafting Quenton Nelson and Darius Leonard. I still believe the pickles on a stick played the role.

I'm so glad Rusty is doing well. He is one of the greatest humans and coaches the NFL has ever seen and isn't done proving it. I can't wait to see him back with the Boys In Blue and doing his part to make this team great. I will keep you guys updated on his story and see if we can find any links to help him out. As always, Go Horse.