Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 4, 2025 7 UNDER THE DOME was an athletics director, too, so he had it administrated. "The owners got together and they offered him the job, and he accepted that job." That job had a salary of $20,000 with a five-year contract. Goodell's current annual take, incidentally, has been re- ported to be more than $60 million. "Did he have any idea what he was getting into?" Mike Jones said of Layden. "No. The bickering of the own- ers drove him crazy. He wanted to rep- resent what's good for the league, and he had like 10 teams, but they were only interested in what was good for their own team. "And like I said, during World War II, there's a lot of problems that came up. And I think that's what led to this downfall, the bickering and the selfishness." Layden is in the College Football Hall of Fame, as a player, though, and has been since 1951. He helped Rockne's 1924 team to a na- tional title, then later coached the Irish to a 47-13-3 record over seven seasons (1934-40), just ahead of his run as NFL commissioner. "There's a lot of cool facts most peo- ple don't know about the Four Horse- men," Mike Jones said. "First of all, most of them were multi-sport athletes. My grandfather ran track [and also played basketball for the Irish], and we looked at his time in the 100-yard dash. "A friend of ours then looked up the times in the Olympics, and his time would have been placed third in the Olympics in his time." As an AD, Layden helped finesse the return of Michigan onto Notre Dame's football schedule after Wolverine ath- letics director Fielding Yost's long feud with Rockne not only kept that series from resuming, but also included black- balling Notre Dame from its desires to join the Big Ten. The Michigan games Layden sched- uled were coached by his successor, Frank Leahy, in 1942-43. The series then went on pause again until 1978. "We never heard about any of that firsthand, because he never talked about himself," Ed Jones said. "You know, I didn't know who he was. You couldn't tell by talking to him. I mean, he was a football fan. "I remember on New Year's Day, when all we had were three different stations and ballgames, he would have three TVs in a row. And sometimes he would make a comment about Bear Bry- ant or somebody else. But he never re- ally talked about football." But eventually the Jones brothers fig- ured it out on their own, and so did their friends "I was like 7 years old," Ed Jones said, "and [Layden] had a speaking engage- ment in New York City. We lived south of New York, about an hour's ride. So, he came down to visit us for a night. "And when he got to our house, he was tired. So, he asked my mother, 'Can I take a nap?' So, she gave him my bed to go take a nap. So, I went around the neighborhood, and I charged neighbor- hood kids a quarter for looking at my grandfather sleeping in my bed. Went a long way back then." The Jones brothers and their father have some Notre Dame connections of their own, including some notable ones from their high school alma mater, Red Bank (N.J.) Catholic. They've followed Notre Dame All- American, and now Indianapolis Colts standout offensive guard, Quenton Nelson playing high school football and basketball. "He was like 290 pounds and playing one of our biggest rivals," Mike Jones re- called of Nelson. "A really good basket- ball school, Christian Brothers Acad- emy. So, they're playing against them at home. And he stole the ball and he's going the length of the floor. "And he goes up for a two-handed dunk. He had a kid on each elbow grab- bing him. And he lifts himself and them off the floor. I mean, it's one of the best dunks I've ever seen in high school." The Joneses know the family of Kevin Bauman, an RBC alum and re- cently medically retired from football after multiple inspiring comebacks at Notre Dame. And there's a connection to former Irish defensive coordinator Al Golden, now in the same position with the Cincinnati Bengals after helping the Irish to the College Football Playoff Na- tional Championship Game last January. "Frank Eck went to RBC, too, and in fact was involved in trying to get Al Golden to come here as a player," Ed Jones said. "If you walk on [Notre Dame's] campus, you'll see four build- ings named after Frank Eck. Frank and my father were childhood friends. They were in each other's wedding parties. "So, when my father, who was a re- tired FBI agent, found out Al Golden d i d n 't ge t a n o f fe r o f a scholarship to Notre Dame, he wanted to know why. Al Golden went to Penn State and was a big recruit. "So, my dad got Frank Eck involved to ask [coach] Lou Holtz, 'Hey, how come you're not recruiting a great RBC guy?' But what happened was they already had some great tight ends in their recruiting class, like Oscar McBride. They just didn't have any room for him. "That's why they didn't offer him a scholarship. It's ironic that he winds up here anyway, just later down the road. Outstanding defensive coordinator." And just one of the many reasons why Notre Dame always felt like home for the Jones brothers and still does. "One of the best things is that the university has really helped us stay to- gether," Mike Jones said. "We're spread out throughout the country. We all have children throughout the country, but it's always nice to come back. "The university always takes very nice care of us. It's very nice. It's perfect." Now they're just looking for the per- fect postscript for their grandpa. "Anytime if I'm at an event and meet somebody that might have NFL ties, I talk to them, trying to find a way to make this happen," Ed Jones said. "We're going to keep trying, keep push- ing, but if anyone has any great ideas to make this work, we'd love to talk." ✦ "Honesty and integrity were two of his biggest traits." MIKE JONES, GRANDSON OF ELMER LAYDEN