ENGLEWOOD, Colo. _ To prove again that NFL players have it better than almost everyone else on the planet, I asked The Gazette's sports editor if I would still be employed here after 10 arrests.
No, he said.
So it's good to know how far I can take this lawlessness streak that's been bubbling over since the last time I broke curfew, in the 10th grade. (Sorry, Mom and Dad.) It's too bad I'm not an NFL player. If that were the case, I could break all kinds of rules and still have a cool job.
"God has blessed me with so many opportunities," Adam "Pacman" Jones said after his introduction to Colorado and the Broncos on Monday.
Oh, these poor, pitiful NFL players. How do they ever make it through a day? Between the league's unfair helmet rules, oppressive dress code, tyrannical national anthem stance, Thursday night games, too-long preseason, Roger Goodell's salary, dated marijuana policy and lack of fully guaranteed gazillion-dollar salaries, it must be hell on earth to make in one game check what most of us make in a year. Thoughts and prayers to NFL players. Pour one out for the millionaires.
The Broncos signing Jones to a one-year contract underscores the ridiculousness of some pro football players whining and complaining as much as they do. This "Pacman" fella? Roughly 10 arrests that I could find online, though it's tough to pin down the exact number. (Like I've always said, arrests are just a number, anyway.) Nevermind that playing in the NFL is one of the precious few careers that allows an American to get arrested over and over and still draw a paycheck. Seems like a sweet gig, if you ask me. So why are they inevitably complaining about this thing or the other?
I can think of two ways the NFL could handle the types of knuckleheads who head-butt police officers and spit on female nurses, both of which have been alleged of "Pacman": one, fine the teams when troublemakers make trouble (in addition to fining the players) to discourage the signing of said knuckleheads, or two, accept that humans are fallible and simply watch football for what it is, entertainment.
Good luck with either one. The players union would throw a fit over the first one, and the talking heads are too high on their moral high horse to accept the second one at face value.
So here we are: at 11:54 a.m. on Monday "Pacman" hustled on to the practice field at UCHealth Training Center. Working in a blustery, two-golf club wind, Jones caught six of seven punts, the job he was probably brought in to perform, and, at cornerback, covered DeAndrew White (on a running play), John Diarse (on a running play), Emmanuel Sanders (on a running play) and Courtland Sutton (big gain for Sutton, but Sutton does that to everyone).
"He's played in this system," veteran cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said of Jones.
"I really like the signing," said defender Domata Peko, who teamed with Jones with the Bengals.
And here's how Vance Joseph, who coached Jones in Cincinnati, explained a move that's not really all that controversial: "He's here to help us win football games."
Exactly. Nothing more, nothing less. If we're using the NFL as a moral compass, something else went wrong along the way.
I can't begin to say if Jones will play for the Broncos in 2018, or if this is simply a power move to light a fire under the young cornerbacks and punt returners already on the roster. Jones looks _ how do I put this? _ old. But you can't fault general manager John Elway and his merry band of talent evaluators for giving Jones yet another shot. If Elway doesn't make a move and the Broncos' secondary gets lit up by the Seahawks, Raiders and Ravens to open the season, the blame is on Elway. But if Jones spells Aqib Talib and brings some dog to Denver's defense, the Broncos are better for it.
"I'm one of the ones that don't mind telling kids and people about my stories, the mistakes I've made," Jones said. "I don't have no shield. My life is a glass life. It's nothing that I'm hiding from nobody. I have two, three, beautiful kids. That's what life is about for me now."
What it shows in the end is how the NFL is no different from most businesses. It operates with the bottom line at the forefront of its decisions. Social justice warrior Colin Kaepernick isn't on a roster because his politics cost the league fans and money. Meanwhile, Jones sticks around because he's only cost himself fans and money. The whole thing is really not that difficult to understand. Guess they're not listening.
