Removing automatically generated links from SharePoint 2010

I am trying to prevent a page in SharePoint (specifically a list view page) from automatically generating links from UNC file paths that are entered in a field.

This is entered into the field...

\\server\share\folder name\sub-folder name

This is the automatically generated resultant value of the field...

<a href="http://file\\server\share\folder">\\server\share\folder</a>&nbsp;name\sub-folder name

I have found some similar questions regarding removing mailto links that suggest using jQuery to accomplish this. This is what I came up with thus far...

<script src="http://ift.tt/1mWWrGH"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"> 
    $(function() {
        $("a[href^=file:]").each(function(){  
            var sFileShare = $(this).text();
            $(this).replaceWith(sFileShare);
        });
    });
</script>

I inserted this into the target page by adding a (hidden) CEWP and then putting the above code in as embedded code. Thus far I see no result.

Is this a code issue? Am I implementing it wrong? Should I have stayed asleep this morning? Taking all bets.

My bet is that I need to format the $("a[href^=file:]") bit more correctly but I'm not sure.