NEW YORK — Chad Jones’ NFL career was cut short, so now the former safety is giving baseball another shot.

Jones, a third-round pick of the New York Giants in 2010, was selected by the Cincinnati Reds as a left-handed pitcher in the ninth round of the Major League Baseball draft Friday.

Jones was a two-sport star at LSU and chose football, but never played for the Giants after severely injuring his left leg in a car accident two months after he was drafted by New York. Both his tibia and fibula were shattered, and his arteries and nerves were left exposed.

He has been rehabilitating since, but was waived by the Giants in May 2012 after he failed a physical. So, Jones recently turned his attention back to baseball, and apparently impressed the Reds enough in an open tryout for them to draft him. It’s the third time Jones, who pitched and played outfield at LSU, has been selected in the baseball draft.

The New York Mets found a familiar name during the second day of the draft. University of Connecticut infielder L.J. Mazzilli, son of Lee, was drafted by the Mets in the fourth round — 40 years after the elder Mazzilli was a first-round pick of New York.