Adam “Pacman” Jones has had a whirlwind NFL career and life, and someday I’m sure his life story will be featured on an ESPN movie.
Jones is stuck in the middle of trying to make a change in his life, but not having self-discipline to avoid many of the pitfalls that continue to plague him.
He was a guest speaker at the NFL Rookie Symposium last week, despite currently dealing with charges from an incident in which he allegedly punched a woman who threw a drink on him.
Jones was on SiriusXM radio, and spoke about “turning his life around, and how it doesn’t happen overnight.”
“Me being confronted or touched with a particular object, that’s an area I have to work on,” he said. “If it had been anything else, I probably would have walked away. But when I’m being physically touched.
“Nothing happens overnight. I’ve made a lot of changes,” Jones continued. “I don’t go out to the places I used to. I don’t hang with the people I used to hang with. The only thing I can control is what I’m doing in the community. Being a great father at home. My fiancée is very happy. I’m good with my teammates. I’m not out getting drunk all through the night. I’m not out at 3 or 4 in the morning. If you recall, the incident happened at 10:15. I didn’t have a drink. The young lady that was in the party was drinking.”
Troy Vincent, a former NFL player who is now the NFL’s senior vice president of player engagement, says that Jones’ impulsivity gets him into trouble.
“We talked about it, and (Jones) admitted it in his (speech to the rookies). He struggles with resolving conflict,” Vincent told FoxSports.com. “His reactions are so spontaneous he doesn’t even think about what the long-term outcomes are. We have to work on that every single day.
“It’s like reps on the field. We’ve got to practice, practice, practice patience and how to resolve conflict without physical harm. It’s like an addiction.”
Jones did acknowledge that he was trying to address his past.
“It seems like every time you’re trying to do so good, if you have a speed bump it’s, ‘Oh, let’s bring up the past,’” he said. “For me, when I hit a speed bump, I look back at my past and evaluate everything. Am I doing the same thing that I used to do or what got me back on this path of righteousness of being a good father and husband? Do I take accountability for this or that?
“It really is an emotional roller coaster if you don’t have some kind of grounding with God or your family and if you don’t know who you are as an inner person.”
Jones is a walking enigma, and seems to be stuck between keeping it real and actually making a change. For or the positive steps he takes to be a different person, slugging a woman for throwing beer on you, only increases the negative stigma and stereotype placed on Adam at every walk of life.