Video: An inspirational message
About Will Jones
Growing up in the inner city, Will Jones knows how a gun can change a life in a heartbeat.  As an impressionable 13 year-old, Will witnessed firsthand the deadly riots in South St. Petersburg in October of 1996.  Will's mother wanted a better life for her son and believed he'd find it through education. "If you can learn the words to a rap song, you can do your school work," she'd tell young Will.  Will made their collective dreams come true earning a football scholarship to Delaware State University.

Will, joined by five childhood friends, set off to earn a college degree and pursue his NFL dreams.  But even on the "unified" college football team, all was not peaceful.  Will would meet Dashaun Morris aka Machete, the starting wide receiver for Delaware State.  While Will hoped that Machete's NFL potential would garner attention from scouts for himself, Machete's role in Will's life would have a much more tragic effect.

Just past midnight on June 5, 2004, Will's life would be altered by a senseless crime.  The violence he'd escaped would find him in the form of nine bullets.  The shooting would change Will's future and end his hopes of playing in the NFL, but Will's power to forgive would be the real game-changer and would give him an even greater mission to pursue.

Roxanne Wilder talks with Will Jones about his inspiring story.  Click here for more information about Will and the book he's written, A Tough Call, with Bob Dixon.