Dem Boyz

Late last night I had the good fortune of reading Nick's excellent post on the Cowboys and Pacman Jones. Do yourself a favor and read it immediately. He brings up a host of good points, the most important of which is this: Pacman's signing is not out of character for Jerry Jones. In fact, if you follow the NFL, it should come as no surprise.

The Cowboys have a history of signing or carrying troubled players who either break the law (Irvin) or piss off their owners (TO). Take Michael Irvin for example. Irvin was arrested twice for cocaine (and once for drug paraphanalia), accused of sexually assaulting a woman, and apparently cut his teammate with a pocket knife "by accident." The cocaine arrest came on the eve of an important game, and when he went to court, he made a mockery of the system by wearing a full-length mink. Classy, Michael.

How about Nate Newton? Remember him? Newton was arrested with 200 pounds of weed in his van and after securing bail two weeks later, he was caught with another 175 pounds of weed. While it's tempting to laugh about a 300 pound lineman smoking weed and getting snacks, I really just find this absurd. 375 pounds of weed is not for person use; it's for drug dealing. So what was Jerry Jones thinking when he signed this guy? I promise you it was all about football and not about character. You don't go from being an upstanding guy to selling 400 pounds of weed in a few years...sorry.

Now the Boys signed Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson, two of the most notorious off-the-field-distractions in recent NFL history. For those of you who don't follow the NFL, let's review Pacman's rapsheet which is about as long as the line outside Chipotle every night:

2005: He's arrested on charges of assault and felony vandalism; incident occured at 4 AM at a strip club.

2006: He's arrested for disorderly conduct and public intoxication; a few months later, he's arrested for misdemeanor assault when he apparently spat in a woman's face.

2007: Late one night the police say Pacman and a stripper got into a fight over money. To get back at Pacman, the strippers took his money off the stage "without his permission" and Pacman got furious. In retaliation Pacman slammed the strippers head against the stage which prompted the security guards to get involved. A fight broke out with Jones' entourage and the guards eventually kicked them out of the club. A few hours later, the police say members of Pacman's entourage came back to the club and shot three of the security guards. Now one of the guards is paralyzed from the waist down.

A few months later, he's caught doing 80 in a 55 MPH zone.

See a pattern yet? Do I need to go over Tank Johnson's rap-sheet to get the point across? The Cowboys have no problem signing troubled players, so now the question is, "why?"

The easy explanation is that Jerry Jones will do whatever it takes to win and if that involves signing troubled players, so be it. Jones can easily say to himself: let's give this guy a chance, pay him next to nothing, and give him a way to redeem himself. The Cowboys organization will provide a culture which helps troubled players move beyond their bad habits and back into success. With mature leadership we can rehabilitate Pacman Jones into a contributing member of the team and society (okay, maybe not).

(The obvious assumption here is that the redemption players are very good to begin with. Why bother otherwise? It's only their lack of maturity, their questionable friends, or some sort of criminal streak which distracts them to the point of not being able to play professional football, right?)

The more difficult explanation is that Jerry Jones doesn't give a shit about anyone except his team and their W-L record. Everyone knows this and that's why the Boys signing Jones was no surprise. It's a very selfish mindset and unfortunately guys like Dan Synder emulate it. Let me explain:

The NFL suffers when guys like Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson are given second chances. Like it or not the NFL is a brand and a brand always has to be concerned about its reputation or appeal to consumers (fans). When the league gives a second chance to a guy with six arrests and a record of spitting in a woman's face, they run the risk of pissing off regular guys because this is unacceptable behavior; it's even repulsive as far as I'm concerned.

Other teams have to suffer from a diminished image thanks to guys like Jerry Jones who keep giving these guys second and third chances. Along the same lines, a terrible example is set for young kids when they watch Pacman and Johnson get millions of dollars despite their reprehensible actions. It sends a terrible message and it's basically an afront to fans: we know you dont give a shit about how these players act or carry themselves. We're assuming all you care about is wins at the end of the day, and regardless of how badly these players act, you'll just turn a blind eye or pretend not to notice. We know you don't care about the example these guys are setting, so we're going to sign him anyway.

What the league should have done is this: establish a policy that says if you are arrested more than twice, you are out of the league for good. You get one freebie and that's it. If you screw up again, you have no one blame except yourself and you're out.

No exceptions. And yes, I really don't like the Dallas Cowboys.