CINCINNATI – Bengals cornerback Adam Jones has been arrested as the result of an incident last Wednesday night.
Jones, 29, announced his arrest on his Twitter account early Monday afternoon.
"Just got arrested for protecting myself, I will not let this break me or change what I have work so hard for,” Jones tweeted.
According to multiple reports, Jones allegedly slapped a woman after he was hit in the head with a thrown beer bottle outside of a downtown bar. The alleged incident took place following the Cincinnati Reds’ game with the Colorado Rockies.
The Bengals had no comment Monday on the incident, according to team spokesman Jack Brennan. Team policy is to wait until legal proceedings are complete before making a statement, and formal charges reportedly have yet to be filed.
Peter Schaffer, Jones’ agent, told USA Today that Jones declined to have his picture taken with two women prior to the incident. Jones is married and didn’t want his picture sent out over social media with two other women, according to Schaffer. That’s when he was hit in the head with the bottle.
“He turns around and immediately slaps the person. He has no idea what’s going on or threw the bottle,” Schaffer told USA Today. “His teammates have enough of this and they walk out.”
The Bengals signed Jones to a three-year contract in March. He has played the past three seasons in Cincinnati, reviving a career marked more by off-field and legal troubles than on-field achievements. At the time of his signing, Jones said the trust the Bengals showed in him the past three years and his life in Cincinnati played an important role in his decision to remain with the team.
“Pretty much all of it,” Jones said March 21. “Knowing that these guys have been with me through thick and thin, coming off a year out of football, and then playing good football and getting hurt, having surgery and still having trust in me had a lot to do with my decision. Plus, the city of Cincinnati had a lot to do with it, too. I like it here, I’ve built a great fan base here, and I do a lot in the community. And I’m content. My family is happy. It’s a nice place for us to build a home.”
Jones was Tennessee’s first-round pick in 2005, No. 6 overall, but during his first five years he was known mostly for his nickname “Pacman” and the actions that often kept him off the field. The NFL suspended him the entire 2007 season for violating its personal conduct policy, and he received another six-game suspension under the same policy in 2008 after Tennessee traded him to Dallas. His problems kept him out of the NFL during the 2009 season.
The Bengals signed him in 2010, taking a gamble that he could live up to the potential as a player while maturing off of the field. He has had two prior off-field incidents since becoming a Bengal, one of which Cincinnati police apologized to Jones for after admitted misconduct on their part. Conversely, Jones apologized to Cincinnati police following a 2011 incident in which he was charged with resisting arrest.
Jones spoke at last year’s NFL Rookie Symposium, an annual event aimed at helping first-year players adjust to life in the NFL. His message: Don’t do what I did. Last year, a Nevada jury found that Jones was responsible for 2007 injuries suffered by two security guards at a Las Vegas strip club and ordered him to pay $11.65 million to them and one of their wives.
Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer coached Jones in Dallas in 2008 and has gotten him to succeed on the field.
Jones is coming off one of his best seasons as a pro, having made 43 tackles with one sack and 11 passes broken up. He played in all 16 games, with five starts, and teamed with Leon Hall and Terence Newman to give the Bengals a solid cornerback trio. He was also integral to the return game, averaging 11.6 yards on 26 punt returns, including an 81-yard return for a touchdown against Cleveland in Week 2.
