Aaron Jones Sr. Is Exactly Who National Invest In Veterans Week Was Built To Honor
National Invest In Veterans Week® Vice President and retired Navy veteran Lonnell McCall I—father of this article’s author, Lonnell McCall II—said: “Today, few NFL players turn their influence into real support for veterans like Aaron Jones Sr. does. Through A&A All The Way, he honors his family's service and creates lasting opportunities for military kids and veteran families. This kind of leadership is what the NFL’s Salute to Service should represent, and that’s why National Invest In Veterans Week® fully supports his example.”
National Invest In Veterans Week® proudly recognized Aaron Jones Sr. as the 2024 recipient of the Jeff Shuford Empowerment Through Advocacy Award. This award honored individuals whose advocacy directly uplifted veterans and military families through measurable action, sustainable programming, and long-term community investment. Announced by the A&A All The Way Foundation on March 20, 2024, the recognition highlighted Aaron’s leadership in empowering veterans to transition successfully into civilian life. Through the A&A All The Way Foundation, Aaron transformed his deep military family legacy into a national movement of service—connecting military children with mentorship, providing educational resources, and ensuring that veterans had the tools they needed to thrive after service. His work embodied the values at the heart of National Invest In Veterans Week®: sustained impact, collaborative leadership, and unwavering commitment to those who had served.
His son, Lonnell McCall II (“Deuce”), who serves as Senior Spokesperson for National Invest In Veterans Week®, expands on why that matters below.
When I step onto a football field, I’m wearing more than a jersey. I’m carrying my family name, a military legacy, and the expectations of every veteran-owned dream that National Invest In Veterans Week® (NIVW) fights to elevate.
That’s why, as Senior Spokesperson for NIVW and as the son of a retired service member, I see something deeply familiar in Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones Sr. His story is not just about rushing yards and touchdowns. It’s about a family that has worn the uniform, a foundation that serves military kids, and a platform being used exactly the way our movement hopes every American platform will be used: to invest back into those who served.
And right now, that story converges with the 2025 NFL Salute to Service Award and a simple but powerful civic action: your vote.
A Military Family Story That Mirrors Our Mission
Aaron Jones Sr. doesn’t just “support the troops” in the abstract. He comes from a home where service was the family business.
His late father served nearly three decades in the U.S. Army.
His mother also served more than two decades, both retiring at the senior enlisted level.
His brother currently serves in the U.S. Air Force.
That’s not just a patriotic backdrop—it’s the same ecosystem of sacrifice National Invest In Veterans Week®️ was created to amplify. NIVW, founded in 2019 by NFL veteran Drayton Florence and Iraq War veteran Jeff Shuford, was designed to shine a spotlight on veteran-led impact, especially through entrepreneurship and community leadership.
Our week—observed nationally each year from March 1–7—mobilizes communities to support veteran-owned businesses, invest in their success, and recognize how their leadership continues long after the uniform comes off.
When you look at Aaron Jones Sr., you see that same continuum of service, translated from military bases to an NFL backfield and into the lives of military families across the country.
A&A All the Way Foundation: Where Cleats Meet Community
Aaron and his twin brother, Alvin, co-founded the A&A All The Way Foundation in 2020. Their mission is direct and ambitious: to make a real impact in the lives of young people—especially kids in military families—through recreation, fitness, and meeting basic needs.
The foundation’s focus lands squarely in three areas that matter both to NIVW and to any serious discussion about long-term military family support:
Children’s basic needs – helping ensure kids have shoes, school supplies, and essentials that allow them to show up ready to learn and compete.
Recreation & fitness – using sports, camps, and physical activity as tools for confidence, discipline, and community.
Supporting kids in military families – intentionally designing programs around the unique disruptions of deployment, relocation, and reintegration.
This is not “charity as branding.” It’s a family of veterans raising sons who grew up on the move, on military installations, and within a culture where service was normal, not exceptional. When those sons got a platform, they pointed it back toward the families who are still living that reality.
That’s exactly the kind of service-after-service NIVW was created to recognize.
Salute to Service: A Nomination That Actually Means Something
The NFL’s Salute to Service Award, presented by USAA, honors those in the league who go beyond symbolic gestures and make sustained, measurable contributions to the military and veteran community. Each team nominates one person whose work stands out.
The Minnesota Vikings’ 2025 nominee?
Aaron Jones Sr., Running Back.
According to the league’s official description, Aaron’s nomination highlights several pillars of work that align almost perfectly with NIVW’s values:
He uses his A&A All The Way Foundation to honor current and former service members, inspired by his own deep military family roots.
He organizes annual galas to raise funds for military families, turning visibility into direct financial support.
He hosted a back-to-school event focused specifically on students from military families, providing classroom supplies and encouragement to help them thrive.
He joined an NFL–USO Tour, visiting U.S. service members at bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, including Camp Arifjan—where his mother once served—closing the loop between family history and current service.
This isn’t a one-time photo op. It’s a pattern: show up, listen, invest, repeat.
That’s precisely the standard we at National Invest In Veterans Week®️ apply to our own work as a congressionally honored social impact initiative—one that has earned recognition in the Congressional Record and built multi-state partnerships and digital infrastructure to empower veterans economically.
Why National Invest In Veterans Week Is Standing With Aaron
National Invest In Veterans Week®️ is not a fan club; it’s an infrastructure for veteran empowerment. But leadership isn’t only in boardrooms or state capitols. Sometimes it’s in a locker room, a stadium tunnel, or a back-to-school event in a community that feels forgotten.
Under the leadership of co-founder Jeff Shuford and a growing national team, NIVW has:
Secured state proclamations and national recognition for veteran entrepreneurs.
Expanded its digital footprint with veteran-focused domains and global observances like International Veterans Day, creating new ways for veterans and their businesses to be discovered and supported.
As Senior Spokesperson, my job is to tie those structural wins to individual stories that prove why this work matters. Aaron Jones Sr. is one of those stories.
He is:
A son of two long-serving soldiers who now carries their legacy onto an NFL field.
A founder who builds programs specifically for military kids—the same youth whose parents we hope will one day launch and grow veteran-owned businesses that NIVW can support.
A visible figure who uses his cleats not just for “My Cause My Cleats” but for an entire year-round ecosystem of support.
When we talk about “investing in veterans,” we’re talking about people like Aaron and his family: those who served in uniform, and those who now serve by building institutions that will outlast their playing careers.
What You Can Do in Two Minutes That Matters for Years
Here’s where you come in.
The NFL has opened fan voting to help determine the finalists for the 2025 Salute to Service Award. You can participate by visiting:
👉 https://www.nfl.com/causes/salute/nominees/2025/vote
From a National Invest In Veterans Week perspective, a vote for Aaron Jones Sr. is bigger than a team rivalry or a stat line:
It rewards a model where military kids are seen, not sidelined.
It signals to the league that long-term, boots-on-the-ground commitment to veterans and their families is what we, as a country, want to celebrate.
It encourages other athletes and organizations to align their influence with the kind of real, measurable impact NIVW has spent years fighting to normalize.
In other words: you’re not just voting for a player—you’re casting a ballot for a philosophy of service.
From One Military Family to Another
As a freshman safety at Delaware State and as the Senior Spokesperson for National Invest In Veterans Week®, I carry my own family’s military story into every game, every classroom, and every press statement.
So when I see Aaron Jones Sr. run out of the tunnel with the American flag in his hands and his military mom on the sideline, I don’t just see a pregame moment—I see a visual thesis for what “service after service” looks like.
National Invest In Veterans Week stands firmly with Aaron Jones Sr. as a 2025 Salute to Service nominee, not because of hype, but because his work is structurally aligned with everything our congressionally honored movement represents: veteran family resilience, economic empowerment, and long-term community investment.
If you believe that kind of legacy deserves the biggest stage the NFL can offer, you know what to do next:
Log on. Vote. Share.
Invest in veterans. Invest in Aaron Jones Sr.
