I was named First-Team All-Pro after fighting my own bodyguard and being fired from $13million contract

When the Dallas Cowboys traded for Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones in 2008, owner Jerry Jones hired a security team to protect his investment.

The four-man crew was hired at the team’s expense to keep the talented cornerback out of trouble — it failed.

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Pacman was selected sixth overall in the 2005 NFL Draft by the Tennessee Titans.

He quickly established himself and was named in the PFWA All-Rookie Team.

But off-field issues caught up with him and by the 2007 draft, the Titans were already considering cutting their losses despite success as a player.

Floyd Reese — the general manager who selected Jones — wrote a column for ESPN detailing how things were unraveling behind the scenes.

“In my 13 years as a general manager, Jones was the only extended holdout, because of the Titans’ insistence on writing a contract that would give the club sufficient protection from further incidents<‘ he wrote.

“Included in his contract were clauses to protect the club from paying guaranteed or bonus money in the case of a conviction for a crime.

“The league and the Titans, including coaches and individuals in the Tennessee locker room, have spent countless hours trying to direct and counsel Jones.

“Although not all of his incidents have been catastrophic, the frequency and repetition have magnified the overall effect.

“A major concern is that it appears that each successive allegation is increasing in magnitude and severity. This downward spiral cannot continue.”

Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Jones for the entire 2007 season for violating the league’s conduct policy and he made history as the first player in NFL history to be traded while serving a suspension when he joined the Cowboys in April 2008 in exchange for a fourth-round pick that year and a 2009 sixth-rounder.

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He was reinstated in August and vowed to improve his behaviour after landing a four-year, $13 million contract.

“I know my responsibilities to the NFL and I’m going to hold my own and do what I need to do to make sure I stay where I am right now, which is reinstated,” he said. “I work hard every day to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes.

“Can I say I would never ever make the same mistakes? No, I can’t say that. I’ll make sure I put myself in way better situations than I have put myself in the past.”

“Adam knows how much emphasis I put on making sure that he makes good choices going forward, that he avoids situations where he can reflect poorly on himself, the Cowboys or the NFL,” said Goodell at the time. “So far he seems to have been able to do that very effectively.

“I am supportive of him and am hopeful that he will be able to do that for the rest of his life. I am hoping he will not only be a great NFL player but he will continue to do the right things so he can lead a productive life off the field as well.”

But despite the team’s best efforts, Pacman once again found himself on the wrong side of Goodell.

In October of his first season as a Cowboy, he got into a fight with one of his security team at a downtown Dallas hotel.

KTVT reported that a bathroom was damaged during the altercation.

Dallas Deputy Chief Vince Golbeck told the Dallas Morning News that police were called to the scene at 1:30am and that Jones — a guest of the hotel — may have been drinking.

Nobody was arrested or charged and no police report was filed.

“Someone from the business called police,” Dallas police spokesman Cpl. Jerry Monreal told The Associated Press. “Police arrived and spoke to the parties after they had a verbal argument. Both parties agreed to leave, and they left.”

Jones’ attorney Worrick Robinson told ESPN that the alleged incident may not have occurred.

“I’m not satisfied anything has happened,” Robinson said. “I perform due diligence on rumors anytime there is an allegation made against a player I represent, and at this point I can tell you that I’m not satisfied that anything occurred.”

Cowboys owner Jones had a reputation for taking risks on players with an established policy for how to deal with them, as seen in Dez Bryant being forced to hire his own security team in an agreement known as ‘The Dez Rules.’

“We have in place a staff here that really is good at monitoring what our players do,” Jones told ESPN. “Now I say this at the risk of knowing that in the next minute or in the morning I could get a phone call.

“When you’re dealing with the numbers of people that we’re dealing with and get some news that isn’t too savory. On the other hand, this does call for an awareness on the part of any player that he is being monitored and the reputation of our team is at stake.”

Jones hired investigators to research every incident Pacman had been involved in and asked Cowboys legend Deion Sanders to mentor the youngster.

“When we do have a player come to the Dallas Cowboys,” he added. “I really do expect him to understand that, ‘Look you’ve stepped on some bright lines you may even have gone over them certainly, and we’ve got to really get it back in the middle because all your benefit of the doubt is gone.'”

Depsite all the efforts, it didn’t pan out.

Jones was suspended for six games, and the Titans were forced to give back the sixth-round pick and their own fifth-rounder in 2009 as per the trade terms.

In January, the Cowboys released Jones.

“Surprised? Yeah, I was surprised,” Jones told the Dallas Morning News. “All I can do is keep working hard, keep my nose clean and hope for the best.”

“He was surprised, and I think he was obviously somewhat hurt,” his agent Robinson added. “At the same time, he understands the business behind what is happening here.

“We don’t have any reason to believe at this point that that off-the-field incident had anything to do with the team’s decision today.

“I know there was certainly a lot of bad that came out of that situation, but there was some good that came out of that situation as well.

“He is young. He has a lot of ability and he is eager to get back on the field.”

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He was right — but it took some time.

Jones agreed in principle to a one-year deal to play with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, but the team backed out after he called the CFL the United Football League in a video. 

The UFL offered him a deal, which he turned down, and Pacman got another shot with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2010.

He stayed with the team until 2017 and was named a First-Team All-Pro in 2014.

Jones played seven games for the Denver Broncos in 2018 before being released and retired a year later.

He was arrested in November 2024 at AT&T Stadium over a fight in the bar area after Jake Paul beat Mike Tyson in an exhibition.

Per The Athletic, citing public records, Jones was charged with one count of assault on a peace officer, one count of public intoxication, one count of evading, and one count of resisting arrest.

In June 2025, Jones found himself in trouble again. According to public record he was booked into Kenton County Jail on Saturday morning on charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct on assault of an officer.

He was released later on Saturday and scheduled to appear in court on Monday.