After Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones spoke at the rookie symposium, he said he doesn’t think it will be the last time he gives advice to young NFL players.
Bengals.com reports that Jones and some of the rookies in attendance traded phone numbers, and that Jones is willing to talk to any player in the league who wants his help.
“There are privacy reasons I don’t want to say who I talked to,” Jones said. “But there were some guys that were asking me about situations and how I would react now. Yeah, some guys have my number and if I can help, I will.”
Jones, who has led the league in off-field problems during his NFL career, may seem like a strange choice for a mentoring role. But one rookie teammate, receiver Mohamad Sanu, said Jones has already been helpful to him at practice and was helpful again at the rookie symposium.
“I love to learn from him. Ask him questions about routes and technique. He’s really helped me,” Sanu said. “We didn’t see him in the locker room [Thursday], so he wasn’t joking around. He was serious. He gave a lot of insight. He was trying to make us understand that he didn’t want us to do what he did.”
If Jones can convince other rookies not to do what he did, the NFL will be grateful.