IRVING, Texas — Troubled cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones is still in the lineup for the Dallas Cowboys after his latest incident involving police.
Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said Thursday that Jones will play Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, and owner Jerry Jones said the team didn’t plan any discipline after the player got into a scuffle with his bodyguard Tuesday night in the bathroom of an upscale Dallas hotel. Police were called, but there were no arrests or charges filed.
“I am very disappointed in that we’re having to deal with this,” Jerry Jones said.
Phillips said he talked to the team about the incident Thursday morning.
“What I’m trying to do is get this team to focus on this game and the team that we are playing,” Phillips said. “We’re moving on in that direction.”
Adam Jones was suspended for 17 months by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for numerous off-field problems. He was arrested six times and involved in 12 incidents requiring police intervention.
Goodell said in a radio interview Thursday that the league was investigating the matter. He said he didn’t speak with Adam Jones individually during a previously scheduled meeting with the entire Cowboys team Wednesday night.
“I’m disappointed that we’re even discussing this at this point in time,” Goodell said on ESPN Radio. “But we’ll have to wait for the facts.”
Nose tackle Tank Johnson, who brought his own checkered past to Dallas, said the incident was overblown and that it wouldn’t distract the team.
“This is not that big of a deal,” Johnson said. “Nobody’s in jail, nobody’s in trouble, nobody’s hurt. We’re all here ready to practice, ready to work.”
An empty locker separates the cubicles of Jones and Johnson, who missed the first eight games last season while serving an NFL suspension for a series of off-field problems. Johnson doesn’t think Goodell will take any punitive action against the cornerback.
Dallas police said officers responded to a disturbance late Tuesday night at an upscale downtown hotel. Officers said the incident was over by the time they arrived and that some hotel employees reported overhearing a scuffle in the men’s restroom in the lobby.
Jones and his bodyguard said everything was OK, and both were driven from the hotel by an acquaintance, police said. The bodyguard told police he didn’t want to press charges.
Drafted in the first round by Tennessee in 2005, Jones was among the Titans’ best defensive players for two years until Goodell suspended him before the 2007 season. The Titans distanced themselves from Jones and eventually traded him to Dallas for draft picks.
The highest-profile incident involving Jones was a shooting at a Las Vegas strip club that left one club employee paralyzed. Jones denied involvement in the shooting.
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