Despite what his children's video game nickname might suggest, Adam Pacman Jones is seemingly an unapproachable guy. Sure, he was a former professional American football player, but he was also arrested more times than he ever made the Pro Bowl. The laundry list of evidence speaks for itself.
But I'm getting way ahead of the story.
There are lots of offseason Pacman stories along that vein. His tales have involved nightclubs and things going wrong. He still managed to spend 12 years in the National Football League, where he recorded 17 interceptions as a defensive back.
Pacman is out of the league, but where is the former NFL player now?
Adam "Pacman" Jones' Career
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Adam Bernard Pacman Jones was born in Southwest Atlanta, Georgia, to Deborah Jones. Pacman was raised by his mother and grandmother Christine Jones after his father died during a robbery.
Without a male parental figure in his life, football coaches at Westlake High School formed a father-by-committee to keep Jones out of trouble. Even though the football player won two state championships with the basketball team, he accepted a scholarship to play football at West Virginia University in 2002.
Jones both stopped and scored touchdowns as a cornerback, defensive back and punt returner. He made First-Team All-Big East in 2004 and second team in 2003. Jones never won more than nine games in a season under Rich Rodriguez. The Mountaineers never won a bowl game, either.
Jeff Fisher and the Tennessee Titans took a chance on Pacman with their first-round pick (sixth-overall pick) of the 2005 NFL Draft. The Titans considered it their official business to keep Jones out of legal trouble. But Pacman's illicit activities got him arrested before their first preseason minicamp even began.
Pacman was an acceptable AFC safety who nobody could call clean. He sniped the occasional interception but rarely played well enough to make an All-Pro or Pro Bowl selection. He never did those two things during the same season.
Jones played for the Tennessee Titans, Dallas Cowboys, Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos during his 12-year career. He never got traded because he was talented; Jones moved around because he was often in trouble. His single season with Denver in 2018 was the last year of his NFL career.
At last, Pacman retired in 2019.
Trouble & Controversies
Photo by Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post via Getty Images
RELATED: Never Forget "Pacman" Jones Threw Down With an Airport Worker
Pacman Jones has a rap sheet longer than a CVS receipt. Here is a sampling of some of the safety's most infamous moments, collected from court documents all over the country.
- The West Virginia Altercation: Jones was given two years probation for a college bar fight in which Jones and a teammate were accused of beating two WVU students with a pool stick.
- Club Minxx: Jones had to serve a year on probation(and was suspended from the NFL for a year) for his role in a 2007 Las Vegas strip club incident and shooting "that left one club employee partially paralyzed and two others wounded," per the Las Vegas Sun.
- Club Blaze: Less than two months after taking out a full-page ad to apologize to Titans fans, Jones was involved in a 2007 Atlanta strip club incident. Jones was alleged to have arranged a shooting outside the club after a reported confrontation inside the club.
- The Antonio Brown Comments: Jones's teammate laid a massive hit on Antonio Brown in 2016. Bengals teammate Vontaze Burfict and Jones each got personal foul penalties for a dirty hit (Burfict was the hitter, not Jones) and their subsequent pleas. The yards they accrued allowed the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the game. Jones said AB was faking and that he had nothing to do with it.
- Over $2 million in fines: Paid for violations of the NFL Players Association Personal Conduct Policy. Pacman has been fined for a horse-collar tackle, shoving an official, unnecessary roughness, "threatening a stripper," "threatening multiple bodyguards" and "assaulting a cop."
Jones has been arrested for disorderly conduct off the field as well. When Jones retired, he pledged to become a family man and cut out the nonsense.
Adam "Pacman" Jones Now
Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Idol Roc
Adam 'Pacman' Jones is 38 now.
He retired in 2019 after no NFL franchise (not even the bottom-feeding Raiders) wanted anything to do with him. He only had two starts in his final season as a Bronco, arguably two more than he deserved.
In his official retirement statement, Jones recited his intention to spend more time with family. Perhaps he has spent more time with his wife and children.
He said in a Fox Sports podcast in 2021 that he adopted two of former West Virginia and Bengals teammate Chris Henry's kids — Chris Jr. and DeMarcus. Henry died in 2009 after falling out of the back of a pickup truck.
.@REALPACMAN24 tears up while talking about adopting Chris Henry?s kids:
?We love each other hard. We cry together, we pray together, we do everything together. We all family.? pic.twitter.com/nywSiFdGhv
— Club Shay Shay (@ClubShayShay) September 2, 2021
Now, Uncle Pac is watching his adopted son Chris blossom into a high school football star.
Additionally, Pacman has spent time coaching youth football players.
And, of course, now that Joe Burrow's Bengals — the team he spent so much of his career with — are playing in Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams, he's back in the spotlight rooting the #WhoDey crew.
However, he's also found more trouble.
Since 2018, Jones was caught on camera fighting an airport worker in Atlanta, accused of casino cheating in Indiana, and may even fight Jake Paul in a match.
In 2021, Pacman was also arrested in Cincinnati and charged with misdemeanor assault after he allegedly "punched and kicked a person in the head until the person was unconscious," according to Hamilton County, Ohio court documents. He made bail and even went on a podcast within a week of the alleged assault, saying he had nothing to do with it.
Adam Jones may be out of the NFL, but it seems he's not out of trouble.
