Forgive me if my keyboard shorts out. It’s all these tears I cry for poor ol‘ PacMan Jones. I just caught the ESPN Sunday night edition of SportsCenter and had to check my guide as the Jones’ piece had all the makings of an after school special. I’d love to know the bleeding heart who scripted and edited this piece of work.
Yet again, our sports media picks and chooses which storylines and players they’re going to back. The Miami Hurricanes continue to wear the black hat as the bad boys of college football, yet this West Virginia Mountaineer, real life thug who’s been in trouble with the law ten times since the 2005 NFL Draft gets a cushy, woes me, “poor PacMan” story on prime time TV.
Grew up in southwest Atlanta in a housing project. Mom was in in jail for three years thanks to her drug use. Father was shot and killed when then-Adam Jones was only six years old.
Throw in a few siblings dying of AIDS-related deaths and another sibling stealing his identity and you’d have a similar story to Hurricanes’ coach Randy Shannon’s upbringing in Miami’s inner city.
Difference is, Randy Lannard Shannon persevered and didn’t make excuses. He didn’t fall in with the wrong crowd. He kept his head on straight. He was an All American at the University of Miami. A four-year letterman at The U. Winner of the Christopher Plummer Award for most inspirational player as a senior in 1988.
An 11th-round Draft choice of the Dallas Cowboys in 1989, Shannon became the first rookie to start at outside linebacker for Big D since 1963. Two years later, back at Miami as an assistant until 1998, where he did a three year stint as an assistant for the hometown Dolphins. Back to
The U in 2000 as linebackers coach and defensive coordinator from 2001-2006, when he was named head coach in early December.
Shannon preaches accountability, character and discipline where a kid like Jones does everything he can to avoid all three. Yet ESPN creates this fluff piece where they want the viewer to feel bad for Jones’ upbringing, pressure from the ‘wrong crowd’ which he hangs with and the fact the kid had a rough path the NFL.
I feel for anyone who had an upbringing similar to PacMan’s and look no further than the NFL or NCAA for thousands of kids in this same boat. Difference is, most don’t use it as a crutch or scapegoat.
Hey PacMan, ever heard the name Ray Ray McElrathbey? A freshman at Clemson last season who is raising his little brother Fahmarr McElrathbey due to a drug addict mother and gambling addicted father, 18-year old Ray Ray is acting like more of a man than a two-year, multi-millionaire NFL first rounder.
According to this piece, Jones entered high school as a ‘tough’ kid. The staff went so fart as to put together a support group to help keep him out of trouble. He won two state titles in basketball and was all state in football. He got the scholarship to West Virginia and soon after heading to Morgantown, he was arrested for beating a fellow student with a pool cue and received probation.
The reward? Chosen sixth in the 2005 NFL Draft – ahead of Antrel Rolle, a good kid with strong character. Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher knew it was a controversial pick, but promised then-GM Floyd Reese that he’s mold him. Reese felt it was a mistake, but they went with it.
Three days later Jones is back in Atlanta being questioned by police regarding his involvement in a strip club fight.
As stated earlier, Jones has been arrested or questioned by police ten times since April 2005. Whether it be for loaning his Cadillac to a convicted drug dealer or his actions NBA All Star weekend in Las Vegas. For those who missed it, Jones threw $81,000 worth of one dollar bills on stage in a strip club, in an attempt to ‘make it rain’ and when a dancer took some cash without his permission, Jones allegedly grabbed her by the hair and slammed her onto the stage.
When security intervened, Jones did what any lunatic in a strip club $81,000 poorer would’ve done. He bit the guard in the leg. Woof woof.
Someone in Jones’ entourage fired a gun, hitting three people. The guard was hit twice and another patron hit was ultimately paralyzed from the waist down.
After the altercation, wiretapped phone conversations between drug dealer Darryl Moore and friends talked about Jones gambling to earn quick money and smoking marijuana to relieve him of the day-to-day stress he’s currently dealing with.
Par for the course, ESPN left that out of this Lifetime special they ran on Sunday night and chose to focus on Jones hanging at the YMCA and talking to kids as well as donating money for police uniforms in Tennessee (*cough* tax write off *cough* kiss ass *cough*). Funny how the focus was on how Jones didn’t want any publicity for any of this, yet there were always cameras around to record his charitable acts.
Pretty pathetic that the national sports media will run a story like this, blindly defending a punk’s actions and blaming them on a rough upbringing… yet will continue to trash former Hurricane Bryan Pata, murdered last November. Instead of sympathy for Pata and a demand for justice, both ESPN and HBO Sports have chosen to poke and prod, digging for background dirt on Pata, in an attempt to show he might’ve gotten what some felt he deserved because photos surfaced with him posing with guns or because he drove a nice car.
Forget the aspirations to join the FBI someday, all guns being registered to the deceased gun enthusiast, the pricey SUV legally paid for by a family member and the fact that Pata restored old cars in his spare time as a way to earn money.
I don’t know what’s more pathetic here. The slandering of the late Pata or the defense and free pass given to a thug like Jones.
For those who missed it, consider yourself lucky. For those who caught it, did anyone else get a chuckle out of Stuart Scott so poignantly pointing out at the end that although in trouble with the po–pos ten times in less than two years, Jones is yet to be convicted… though he still faces charges in Georgia for biting a police officer. Woof woof.
Class act, this guy. Keep defending him ESPN and keep raining down on The U.
.:Canes305:.