Adam “Pacman” Jones has once again found himself in trouble with the law, and once again it does not appear he is in any danger of being dumped by the Cincinnati Bengals because of it.
When asked about Jones at the NFL owners’ meetings in Phoenix on Wednesday, Bengals owner Mike Brown enthusiastically defended the veteran cornerback.
“I see Adam Jones through my own eyes,” Brown told Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I see different facets of his personality. I see him as a person who is energetic, lively, positive for the most part, exceptionally so. I know a little bit about his family, that weighs in my mind. I think back to when he had his little daughter and she was a premie. He used to drive up from practices at Georgetown every day after practice to look through the glass and see her where they kept the premie babies in the hospital and the lights went out, one after another in that group of little babies, they disappeared.
“His little girl managed to survive. Now she has grown into a 5-year-old little girl. Wonderful little girl. Very pretty, very attractive, very energetic. To me, that is a story that registers. I would say this point blank: Am I looking to harm her? I’m not. It’s a bigger picture than one incident. And I get to be the one that sits in the chair to decide that. So I have chosen to decide it the way I am deciding it. I’m going to give him a chance.”
Jones was arrested back in January after being accused of pushing a man and poking him in the eye. When he was taken into custody, Jones allegedly spit on a jail employee. A video that was obtained by TMZ also showed him cursing at the arresting officer on his way to the station. He was facing a felony charge of harassment with a bodily substance, but that charge has been dropped.
“I’m not condoning his actions,” Brown added. “They were in all honestly embarrassing. He was out of control. He misbehaved. He made a fool of himself. … We’ll see what comes of it. But I hope it ends up that he gets his life back and he has openly apologized.
“He knows full well what he has done to himself. He regrets it. But it’s been made into a public issue and maybe I am overly tolerant. If so, so be it.”
You could certainly argue that the Bengals have been “overly tolerant” with Jones, who was arrested was for disorderly conduct in 2013 and accused of punching a woman earlier that year. In 2015, Pacman was involved in an incident at a casino.
Like they do with Marvin Lewis and his zero playoff wins, the Bengals just seem to keep on supporting Jones.
