Adam "Pacman" Jones: The Modern-Era Mike Tyson?

I could relive the scene again like a popular movie when Mike Tyson went to jail. To put it simply, I had to watch my idol and favorite boxer go into a cage like an animal. Unfortunately for Mike, that's where you go when you act like an animal.

Whether he raped the woman in question or not wasn't the issue. The problem was him putting himself in such a terrible situation. You're a superstar athlete going to visit a woman at 3 A.M., and that's safe to you? If it isn't your wife or long time acquaintance, then maybe you should think twice.

No, Mike didn't have the mental capability to think twice. At least that's how it seemed.

I quickly stopped watching boxing and held a disdain for Tyson that still holds true today. I'm starting to feel the same way about Adam Jones.

I will never stop watching football, or being a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I can, however, change my view on the athletes that play the game, and if moral issues are in question, I certainly can challenge the morale of the players I spend countless time writing about and admiring.

Jones came out of West Virginia University as an interesting talent that I couldn't wait to see in the pros. His career was blossoming with promise, but he had those feared character issues that make GM's want to scream.

Some guys with character issues end up fine, and others get out of control. So far Darren McFadden has been fine, a guy with character issues in the past. A guy like former running back Lawrence Phillips, however, didn't do too well.

For one thing, if you have talent someone will take the chance on you. Adam Jones was full of talent and Tennessee took the chance on him drafting him sixth overall.

He didn't disappoint, with 115 tackles, 18 pass defenses, four interceptions and four return TD's in his first two seasons with Tennessee. His character issues did disappoint, as he became the face of negativity for the league and was the subject of incumbent NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's Personal Conduct Policy.

He had every person talking about "Making It Rain" after his ridiculous behavior at a Las Vegas strip club that saw a man shot and paralyzed after an altercation that he anchored.

In my eyes, the brother should have been sent out of the league then. I live in a society where people are being shot nearly everyday and it deeply hurts and saddens me to see young men losing their lives for no reason at all.

He was subject to the same life, but is ignorant enough to cater to that lifestyle after receiving millions and making it out of that environment? That's when you deserve to get sent right back where you came from.

He also had the nerve to involve himself in numerous other incidents, and his year-long suspension handed down from Roger Goodell was a blessing in disguise. When you commit terrible acts, you only can pray that you get another chance to show the world that you are worthy of your position, and make us believe in you again. Instead of doing that, Pacman went stupid again.

Entering TNA Wrestling? More money for you and less attention to principle. Goodell suspended you to reflect on your actions and come back a better man. Not richer, or just as dumb. What about some charity work? Maybe helping other young men find alternatives to violence?

Nope.

Just more ignorance, and despite all of that, Goodell reinstated Jones anyway. He didn't do anything to make us believe that he was a changed man, or to think that he realized his mistakes.

To compound that, Jerry Jones decided to trade for him while he was still suspended which added to his aura of invincibility, and Deion Sanders jumped on board to "advise" Pacman. It all sounded like crap to me, and I still wondered what Adam Jones proved to anyone. I didn't fully trust anything he said, and I'm sure many others didn't either.

Jerry Jones gives the kid personal security to keep him out of trouble and what do you know? The kid gets drunk off of Patron and fights his own bodyguard while he's draining the weasel. Are you frickin' kidding me, Pacman?

How the hell can he explain this one?

He couldn't, and only could apologize to his teammates behind closed doors. To make matters worse, Dallas is stuck in the early-season turmoil of T.O being a disturbance, Romo being injured, Terence Newman and Roy Williams hurt, and a loss to the Arizona Cardinals and the Washington Redskins at home.

He couldn't have picked a worse time to act up. He didn't even wait half-the-season. Even though the police weren't involved in the situation, when you have caused so many problems you leave no choice to the Commish.

Suspended at least four games by the NFL. Once again the child is sent to the Administrators' Office for In-House Suspension.

Isn't this enough?

We are a forgiving society, but doesn't that go too far sometimes? If someone you knew did all of the things Pacman has, would you continue to support them?

His shtick is to say, "I haven't been convicted of anything."

So what?

You've been convicted of ignorance, negligence and just plain stupidity and that's quite enough. People fought their lives to be in your position and you don't value it at all. The NFL will be fine whether you're there or not, and maybe it's time to prove that.

Mike Tyson thought that his stature in the sports world would continually grant him innocence, and the Justice system showed him that he isn't bigger than a small cell. O.J Simpson thought he was bigger than America, and his latest conviction is evidence to the contrary.

It's time for Pacman to be a bigger man.

He hasn't been able to do that so it's time for the NFL to cut their losses. If the Cowboys release Pacman, nobody will pick him up right now. His problems would create issues in any locker room and at this point in the season it's not worth it.

He even seems to have lost a step on his game and Jones has been continually burned this season.

It's like when Tyson fought Lennox Lewis. He just didn't have it, and the dream was over. All of his ignorant acts had robbed him of a lengthy career of domination, and there was no way he could get that back.

Pacman had "it" in Tennessee before his one-year suspension. I know Jones is still young, but he is in the dangerous zone of a blazing fire.

In the words of the band The Fray, "When you're older, you will understand...then again, maybe you don't, then again, maybe you won't."

For Adam "Pacman" Jones, it seems that maybe he won't. Mike and O.J never did, and he may be cursed with their affliction.

Hopefully someone knows "How to Save a Life."