If you wanted to give a young NFL player a perfect roadmap for how to derail his career, you couldn’t do much better than to tell him to follow the path of Adam “Pacman” Jones. Which is why Jones is a logical choice to speak at the NFL’s rookie symposium.
Jones told Bengals.com that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has called on him to participate in the rookie symposium, which takes place June 25-28. Jones says he has begun crafting his message at the symposium, which will be attended by every player chosen in this year’s NFL draft.
“The message is, this is not a joke. At the end of the day you have to treat it like a business,” Jones said. “And you’re a business owner and every decision you make is a reflection of you.”
Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season after a string of arrests, and after another off-field incident during the 2008 season with the Cowboys, he was out of the league for all of 2009. But in the last couple of years with the Bengals he has managed to stay relatively trouble-free. Which means he might have some insight for younger players about not only the bad decisions he’s made, but also how he managed to get his life back on track.