Why can’t this guy stay out of trouble? Does the utter ennui of his off-season existence drive Adam “PacMan” Jones of the Titans to find ways to make his life more interesting, regardless of the costs? Don’t they have a bowling alley or something in Nashville?
For those of you who don’t know, Jones found himself in the news yet again last week after an incident in a Las Vegas strip club. Police say that Jones threw over $80,000 on the stage at the Minxx Gentleman’s Club and Lounge. A disagreement followed when some of the dancers tried to pick up the cash, and the incident ended in a triple shooting that left one of the victims, a club security guard who was shot in the chest, paralyzed. Police still haven’t found a suspect, and Jones’ attorney said that he was interviewed as a witness, not a suspect.
This was the eighth criminal incident involving Jones since the Tennessee Titans selected the defensive back in the 2005 NFL draft. Is there a trophy for something like this? Is this some sort of misguided attempt to get into the Hall of Fame? Or maybe PacMan Jones is bound and determined to single-handedly out-do the oft-lawbreaking Cincinnati Bengals.
In Jones’ case, it’s gotten to the point where even his family has begun to speak out in concern over the direction his life is taking.
“His mother talks to him and his grandparents talk to him,” Jones’ uncle, Robert Jones, said to The Tennesean . “I don’t know, I just think he is out of control. I’ve told him I think he is out of damn control, but he doesn’t want to hear it.” Jones’ grandfather, Claude Jones, expressed concern in the company his grandson is keeping.
“Overall, he just seems to be hanging with the wrong people,” he told The Tennessean. “He goes into clubs with six cats that call themselves ‘security.’ Well, what kind of attention do you think that’s going to get? He doesn’t need all that…he has all these cats surrounding him like he’s the Buddha or somebody.”
While Jones is perhaps one of the last people on earth I’d compare with the Buddha, the fact that his family is willing to go public with their concerns is rather telling as to how serious they believe things have become.
Perhaps even more telling, however, are recent comments from what his grandfather referred to as the “wrong people.” News Channel 5 recently obtained wiretapped phone conversations between Eddie Moore, a convicted drug dealer and a friend of Jones, and some of his friends.
“We gotta slow down, man. We gotta get him focused on football,” said Moore. “He’s focused on too much other shit … he ain’t taking his fuckin ‘job serious.”
Whether or not Jones faces any charges in the wake of the Las Vegas incident, this needs to be a wake-up call to get his act together. When your drug dealer is worried about your NFL career, you know it may be time to step back and re-evaluate the way you’re living your life.
