John Jones Details Health Concerns That Caused His Packers Exit

Jones Reveals Health Issues That Led To Packers Leave

Former Packers President & COO John Jones last week discussed for the first time, the "details of the health crisis that changed his life," according to Tony Walter of the GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE. Jones, who in '07 reached a financial settlement to leave the Packers, had been "four days away from succeeding" former team Chair & CEO Bob Harlan in May '07 when the club announced that Jones "was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons." Jones left the team in July, "almost a year after [he] underwent a heart surgery operation to correct a dissected aorta, a procedure he was told later that only 10[%] of patients survive." Jones "suffered a stroke during the surgery that continues to affect his short-term memory and his physical stamina, which ultimately caused him to leave the team." Jones "expressed no animosity towards the Packers organization" and "declined to discuss specifics about his departure from the Packers or the eventual settlement." Jones: "I thought I knew what it meant to be devastated. But I didn't have an inkling of how that would feel. A guy works his whole life to get to a point and has big plans, and then it's all gone, literally in a heartbeat. I spent a while saying 'why?'" Walter noted the "turning point for Jones was a program titled, 'Bullet Proof: The Male Healthcare Myth,' in which Jones speaks to men's groups about his medical story and the need for the male population to get regular checkups" (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 1/11).