An Age-Old Concern Drove Jones to NFL : Raiders: Being held back in grade school put him ahead of his peers, led to his early departure from Nebraska.

To leave or not to leave? That can be an agonizing question for a college athlete trying to decide whether to jump from school to the pros before his senior year.

Some wait until the last minute. Some decide early.

For Calvin Jones, the determining factor came early. Really early. Would you believe the fourth grade?

Raised in Omaha, Jones struggled so much in elementary school that he was held back and forced to repeat the fourth grade.

“I wasn’t really focused,” Jones recalled. “I really didn’t do the things necessary to go on to the next grade.”

Jones thinks the experience taught him the value of hard work.

But he certainly didn’t think so at the time.

“When I came back the following year all my classmates, they were at the next level, and I was still in the same class,” he said. “There were new students. It was kind of an embarrassing thing. You really feel kind of low.”

For the remainder of his years in school, Jones was almost always older than his classmates.

After playing running back and linebacker at Omaha Central High, Jones attended Nebraska, where, in three years, he ran for 3,153 yards, second on the school’s all-time rushing list, and scored 40 touchdowns.

But he still kept thinking about that age thing. He was 23 after last season and decided that, for all of his running success, he was also running out of time.

“When you look at it from the standpoint of a running back,” Jones said, “I think the longevity is three or four years. And I wasn’t getting any younger.”

But he did get richer. He gave up his senior year of eligibility and became a third-round pick of the Raiders, receiving $305,000 for this season.

Jones didn’t arrive in camp with any illusions. He knew he was only a third-round pick. He knew the Raiders already had a starting tailback in Ty Montgomery. And Jones knew former Kansas City Chief running back Harvey Williams had been signed the day before the draft.

“This was going to be my learning year,” Jones said.

He learned his biggest lesson when the Raiders went to Miami last month to play the Dolphins. It wasn’t anything that happened at Joe Robbie Stadium. It happened at lunch the day before. Jones ate with Cris Carter, the wide receiver of the Minnesota Vikings, who was enjoying a bye week. They met through the agent they employ.

Carter told Jones rookies too often made the mistake of being the last to arrive at meetings and first to leave after practice. “The people you see who come in early and who stay after practice are the veteran guys,” he said. “It’s just like a job. You have to put in overtime and, the more you know about the job, the better off you’re going to be.”

Jones took the advice seriously. He arrives at the Raiders’ training headquarters in El Segundo at 7:15 a.m., about an hour early. He spends the lunch break in the weight room, then stays after practice to work on his pass-catching, a skill he didn’t have much of an opportunity to develop at Nebraska.

For the first half of the season, the only activity Jones got was in practice. He was, as expected, third in the pecking order at tailback behind Williams and Montgomery.

Again, Carter’s words came back to Jones.

Carter, who struggled on occasion for playing time in Philadelphia, told Jones, “You can’t get down just because you’re not playing. You still have a job to do, a job they pay you to do. That’s all that matters.”

Slimmed down from the 212 pounds to 203, Jones finally got a dividend from all the time and effort he has invested last week against the Rams when he got his first carries of the season. He responded with 32 yards in six carries.

“It felt good just to do a little pounding, banging around on my shoulder to really see how it is (in the NFL),” Jones said.

It was fine, according to Jack Reilly, the offensive back coach.

“He has a good style for the pros,” Reilly said. “He’s a good runner who accelerates at the line. I think he’s just going to get better. It’s exciting.”