Cardale Jones shows why money and the NFL Draft aren't everything

College football’s most fascinating overnight hit, the Cardale Jones Show, managed to one-up itself yet again Thursday. As if the former third-string quarterback didn’t capture our hearts enough in his improbable three-game stint leading the Buckeyes to a national championship, Jones strode to a podium at his high school and made a matter-of-fact mockery of the entire sports media climate in 2015.

College football followers, draft pundits and a million armchair GMs spent three days debating whether a three-game career starter should leave for the NFL -- and remarkably, a whole lot of people thought he should. When Jones called a press conference in his hometown of Cleveland, rather than at Ohio State itself, many of us understandably assumed he was leaving. Full confession: I had already written an entirely different column that included the words “Farewell, Cardale.”
Turns out the joke’s on me/us.
“My decision was very simple,” Jones, wearing a “12 Gauge Buckshot” T-shirt, told the assembled crowd (and several national cable network audiences) at Ginn Academy. “. . . I’m going to return next year for school.”
There you have it.
“Thank you guys for coming out,” he added. “I don’t know why you guys made it such a big deal.”