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Family members express worries over "Pacman's" behavior, future
By: Katie Allison Granju, Producer
Date created: 2/28/2007 12:44:59 PM
Last updated: 2/28/2007 1:10:16 PM
By JIM WYATT
Staff Writer - THE TENNESSEAN
Robert Jones loves his nephew, Pacman.
Over the years, Robert said, he's done his best to advise Pacman and lead him in the right direction. But their relationship has been more distant of late, largely because their conversations haven't been on topics Titans cornerback Pacman Jones wanted anything to do with.
"Everybody tries to talk to him," Robert Jones said. "I do. His mother talks to him, his grandparents talk to him. . I don't know, I just think he is out of control. I've told him I think he is out of damn control, but he doesn't want to hear it.
"I hate to say things on the negative because I want to see him do good. But it is hard to see him keep getting involved in stuff like this. .''
Pacman Jones' latest brush with trouble - he was at the scene of a triple shooting in Las Vegas on Feb. 19 and has been accused of being a friend of the shooter by the co-owner of the strip club where the incident occurred - wasn't talked about much during a birthday party Jones attended in Atlanta over the weekend, according to three relatives who were present.
The party was for Jones' daughter, Zaniyah, who turned 1 last Thursday. Las Vegas police haven't identified a suspect in the case. Jones was interviewed, but it was as a witness and not a suspect, his attorneys said.
"The baby was the main focus of the weekend, and he was real happy for his baby. But deep down inside I can see a little fear in him,'' said Willie Louise Davis, Pacman's grandmother. "Deep down in my heart, I know he didn't do any of this. I can tell when he is guilty. I can tell when he does something he isn't supposed to do. I know Pacman, and I know he didn't do this.''
Jones has since returned to Nashville to have the stitches removed from a shoulder that was operated on earlier this month and to begin rehabilitation.
In recent days his attorneys have declined to comment on the case. Several of his teammates returned calls to The Tennessean but indicated they didn't want their voice in a story about the controversial cornerback, who has been involved in eight incidents since the team drafted him in the first round of the 2005 draft.
Jones has not returned calls to The Tennessean since the incident in Las Vegas.
Advice 'on deaf ears'
Some of his family members contacted Tuesday said they are concerned about his future, largely because of a past that has some of those around him frustrated and wondering what they can do to make a bigger difference.
Robert Jones (his uncle) talked to Pacman Jones about the incident in Las Vegas.
Robert Susnar, co-owner of the club, said Jones started a melee by throwing money into the air, and he reacted angrily when some of the dancers tried to pick it up. Susnar said Jones threatened one of the security guards, and later a man he was with came back and opened fire outside the club, hitting three people, paralyzing one.
"He said it's going to show he wasn't involved, but maybe he is putting himself in the position to getting the criticism he gets. That is just being real,'' said Robert Jones, 41, who's in the trucking business in Atlanta. "I have told him about trying to be in the right place at the right time so much instead of always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it kind of goes on deaf ears.
"I told him: 'You don't have to try and prove your guilt or innocence to me. All I want you to do is understand you are putting yourself in bad situations, and putting the Titans in bad situations.' I understand he is young and he wants to have fun and all, but sometimes he has to take into consideration the places he's at and the things he's doing.''
Robert Jones said his nephew is aware of the consequences of his actions but doesn't seem too worried.
Claude Jones said he believes people have a wrong opinion of his grandson, and Robert Jones said his nephew "really is a good person.''
"It is just bad that he puts himself in bad situations every time he goes out. I don't want to say every time, but 2 out of 10 times you go out something is going on," Robert Jones said.
"It just seems like it doesn't dawn on him about where he is at and what he is doing until the police have been called or it is in the papers, until the (expletive) has done got out of hand. It is just kind of crazy to me the stuff he goes through that could've been avoided.''
Bad crowd blamed
Jones had an entourage of people with him at the strip club last week, according to Susnar, who accused one of those in Jones' group for being responsible for the shooting.
Claude Jones said his grandson needs to change his company.
"We are all worried about his future because it gives a bad impression of him, the things happening,'' Claude Jones said. "Overall, he just seems to be hanging with the wrong people. The hangers-on just seem to keep staying around him and bringing him down.''
Robert Jones said his nephew needs to learn a lesson from some of his teammates, naming linebacker Keith Bulluck as a player who knows how to handle himself and as someone Jones could learn a lot from.
"When those cats come to a party or club, they sit down and have themselves a good time, and then they go home," Jones said. "Pacman just draws attention to himself with the way he carries himself. He goes into clubs with six cats that call themselves 'security.' Well, what kind of attention do you think that's going get? He doesn't need all that. . They know he's there, but he has all these cats surrounding him like he's the Buddha or somebody.
"And a lot of people around him don't have his best interest at heart. I tell him, just like I'm telling you, but he'll leave me or go on out the room when I am talking to him. He knows right and wrong, I guarantee you that. But he just thinks the dollar bill can get you out of everything. Well, the dollar bill isn't always going to get you out of this (expletive)."
His dad died young
Pacman Jones is due to turn 24 on Sept. 30.
His grandmother has been counting the years since he was just 5, when Pacman's father - her son Adam - was shot in the back of the head and killed.
"He is the only child my son had, and I worry every day about him. I got this age number - if he can just make it to 26, I think he'll be OK," Willie Louise Davis said. "But his daddy didn't make it past 26. I worry, and I hope and pray that (Pacman) can go beyond that and many, many more years. Me and his mother both talk about that all the time.''
Robert Jones said he hopes his nephew will change his ways before it's too late.
His career, and his life, may depend on it.
"I have told him a thousand times he is no bigger than that game, and that game is going to keep going with or without him. Whether he is taking this seriously, I can't really say," Robert Jones said. "But he is going to have to change, and I don't know if he ever will.''
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