NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – This was the day Adam “Pacman” Jones was to tell NFL commissioner Roger Goodell he’s done enough to end his season-long suspension.
However, whether the suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback actually met with Goodell in his office Friday was unclear.
The NFL declined comment, as did both of Jones’ lawyers. Messages left with the union, which had been scheduled to have a representative at the meeting, weren’t immediately returned.
When Goodell suspended Jones in April, he told the Tennessee cornerback to sit out the 2007 season and only offered to review the case after the Titans had played their 10th game. The meeting wound up being scheduled two weeks early.
But this is the same commissioner who didn’t ease suspensions for Dallas defensive lineman Tank Johnson or Cincinnati receiver Chris Henry.
The Titans are leaving it to the league and didn’t have a representative at the meeting. Coach Jeff Fisher declined to discuss Jones’ possible early return after practice Friday. He told a newspaper Thursday he thinks the suspension will stand.
“My clear understanding is Pac has been suspended for the regular season. That was the commissioner’s ruling. I don’t think it’s uncommon the commissioner would bring those cases up for review,” Fisher told The Tennessean. “But that doesn’t mean to say he’s going to reinstate him.”
Jones is the only player suspended for the 2007 season by Goodell for violating the personal conduct policy. The commissioner said in August during a visit with the Titans that Jones had an opportunity before the Titans’ 10th game to “do the right thing to earn your way back onto the field.”
“I’ve often said it’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do. It’s your actions, and I think the actions are the things that will have to determine that,” Goodell said then.
Since Jones stopped appealing the suspension, he has been arrested for the sixth time since the Titans drafted him in April 2005. He was charged with two felony counts of coercion in the Feb. 19 fight at a Las Vegas strip club that led to a triple shooting with one man paralyzed.
He signed with a Nashville-based wrestling company and became a tag team champion despite a legal agreement with the Titans that prevents him from activities that could injure him. He gave hundreds of tickets to Georgia school children to watch him at a wrestling pay-per-view in October.
Another criminal case is pending, a felony count of obstruction in Georgia from a February 2006 arrest.
The Titans (5-2) certainly aren’t missing Jones on the field even though he had been their best defensive player. They ranked last in the NFL in yards allowed with Jones in 2006, but now they are fifth in that category and first against the run without him going into Sunday’s game with Carolina (4-3).
They filled Jones’ spot on the roster and have new starters in veteran Nick Harper and Cortland Finnegan at cornerback.
Safety Chris Hope said Jones will be welcomed back whenever he returns.
“We’ve been supportive of him before he got in trouble, when he’s been in trouble and what he’s going through now. We’re not going to turn our back on him,” he said.
Defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth said the show must go on. If the commissioner did allow Jones to return this season, Haynesworth doesn’t think that would disrupt the defense’s chemistry.
“I don’t think Jeff would put him on the field instantly. The way this defense is playing right now, you have to earn your way on the field. Everybody on the field has earned their way. Nothing is given. We’ve proved ourselves,” Haynesworth said.
“I don’t think he would be on the field right away, and if he earned his way back on the field, then you’d see him play.”
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