Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones has been in the news for the wrong reasons again recently, after he was charged with assaulting a woman at a Cincinnati bar. But Jones says that people who know him well know he’s different than his reputation would suggest.
Jones, who spoke at the NFL’s rookie symposium this week, says that he has established himself in the community, spending time working with the Special Olympics and local schools, and that people in Cincinnati know him as a good man.
“The city of Cincinnati and my teammates know what kind of guy I am in the community and what I do for the youth around here,” Jones said, via the Cincinnati Enquirer. “What I do for the symposium, that’s not really something to show [the public] anything. I do it just to help the younger guys out.”
Jones said he doesn’t think he has to prove himself to anyone else.
“I’m at a point in my life now where I know what kind of person I am,” Jones said. “I know what I do, I’m not the person I used to be. I am not in the game of proving it to everybody in the world. As long as I can prove it to myself, my fiancee, my kids, my teammates, my coaches and the people in the neighborhood.”
Jones was once the poster boy for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s crackdown on bad behavior off the field. He now claims to be a changed man, though his recent arrest would suggest that he still needs to learn to walk away from trouble.