Malachi Jones played for 2012-’15 at WR for Appalachian State.
An UDFA of the Atlanta Falcons in 2016, he’d be cut after mini camp.
Malachi took his game to the NAL to the High Country Grizzlies in 2017.
In 10 contests, he caught 66 passes for 685 yards and 16 TDs.
After a short stint in the American Arena League’s Atlanta Havoc, he signed with the Albany Empire in 2018.
He had a solid debut, catching 77 passes for 1156 yards and 29 TDs.
After being signed and cut by the Bears, Malachi signed with the Atlanta Legends of the AAF in late 2018.
Despite the team’s QB woes, he caught 22 passes for 312 yards and 2 TDs over 8 contests.
After the league folded abruptly, Malachi resigned with the Albany Empire in 2019.
He had a spectacular return to the Arena Football League with 96 catches for 1,440 yards and 25 touchdown catches.
Malachi helped the team win the Arena Bowl XXXII after the season.
Although he was selected by the Seattle Dragons of the relaunched XFL, Jones opted to sign with the Montreal Alouettes.
In 2021, he returned to the Albany Empire, but the league quickly fell apart.
This led Malachi to play for the Carolina Cobras in 2022.
ACCOLADES:
NAL Offensive Rookie of the Year 2017
Arena Football Offensive Rookie of the Year 2018
Arena Football Wide Receiver of the Year 2018
NOTES:
I hadn’t had any luck with Malachi, when a friend of mine on Facebook who knew him, reached out and said he could get him for me.
He also collected World League stuff like I did. I helped him out on a few addresses, and he helped me. Then like that, overnight, he disabled his Facebook and I never saw him again.
Later Malachi had a good laugh when I sent him a Tweet of me in my Atlanta Legends Malachi Jones jersey sneaking in to represent the AAF during an XFL 2020 broadcast in H-Town.
He picked off 2 passes- returning one for 17 yards.
Following the World League’s reorganization, Richard decided to play for the Arena Football League.
With the Rockers, he played two seasons, with 1993 being his best season as a pro totaling 60.5 total tackles, 19 pass breakups, a fumble recovery, and a pick.
He’d also catch 8 passes for 77 yards and a TD- as back then Arena players went both ways.
It’s unknown what Carey was doing from 1994-’95, but he appeared again one last time on the radar of the Tampa Bay Storm in 1996.
He’d drop 33 tackles, and 7 pass breakups to close out his career.
NOTES:
Another deep cut here that got lost in the shuffle of the 2020 COVID push, Richard signed this card in the midst of the pandemic for me. It’s really true what they say- As you get older time tends to move faster- fly by, and unfortunately, I’ve forgotten the background behind how I got this autograph.
