Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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An Added Bite TJ Jones enters his senior year as the big fish of the Irish receiving corps Jones received his diving certification in Illinois this summer, and then swam with sharks at the Florida Aquarium in early July. Photo courtesy notre dame media relations O By Lou Somogyi ceanography or marine biology is tailored much more for South Beach than South Bend, Ind. Nevertheless, Notre Dame senior wide receiver TJ Jones has proven quite adept at running the correct routes, or adjusting them, to get to where he wants to be. Although his major at Notre Dame is in film, television and theatre, with a concentration on television production work, Jones believes his real calling always has been in the water — or at least until his aspiration of playing in the NFL reaches its conclusion. Fascinated with the ocean and marine biology since visiting SeaWorld as a child, Jones received his diving certification in Illinois this summer and joined a Tampa staff in swimming with sharks at the Florida Aquarium in early July. "It's something I want to do postNFL career, if I'm lucky enough to have one of those," Jones said of his pull to the marine life. "If I am fortunate enough to make it to the NFL, they said in the offseason I can work as a volunteer at that aquarium and do dive operations, get my dive numbers up to get higher levels of certification. "You didn't necessarily need a marine biology degree. They looked more for good character people with backgrounds in theatre or public speaking because you're conforming to an audience. People that work well