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WATCH: NFL Wide Receiver Impresses in Post-Game Interview in Spanish

Jones said he took on learning the language to “connect with” the growing number of Latinos in the United States.

The Detroit Lions’ Marvin Jones had a performance to forget on the field to open the NFL regular season on Thursday night, but he dazzled in a live post-game interview in Spanish—a language he didn’t study seriously until he was an adult. NBC Universo’s Ariana Figuera interviewed Jones, asking him about the Lions’ upset victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, his performance, and what’s next for the team. Without skipping a beat, Jones responded in Spanish, even smiling as he spoke about his first-ever lost fumble. Jones, 33, told MLive in 2016 that he grew up around “a lot of Latinos” and that he wanted to learn Spanish to “directly connect” with the country’s growing number of Spanish speakers. He told ESPN in 2017 that he attended a five-day language immersion class in Spain, and told The Athletic in 2019 that he planned to briefly relocate his family to immerse them in the language.