IRVING, Texas - Add Adam "Pacman" Jones to the list of idle Cowboys players.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has suspended the embattled cornerback for at least the next four games without pay following a week-long investigation of Jones' altercation last week with his bodyguard at a downtown Dallas hotel.
Goodell, in a letter to Jones, said he would readdress the issue following the Cowboys' Nov. 16 game at Washington, the fourth of this tentative four-game suspension. Goodell previously had expressed disappointment over having to answer further questions about Jones following last week's incident.
In the suspension letter Jones received on Tuesday, Goodell called this "a disturbing pattern of behavior and clearly inconsistent with the conditions I set for your continued participation in the NFL."
In a statement released by the Cowboys, team owner Jerry Jones said, "We respect and support the decision of the commissioner. I regret that this issue has brought negative attention to the Cowboys and the NFL. We move forward with a very clear knowledge as to what the process will be for a possible re-instatement. Adam is well aware of where he stands and what he has to do."
The Cowboys chose not to discipline Adam Jones last week after their investigation concluded that he and bodyguard Tommy Jones took "friendly banter" a bit too far in the hotel lobby's bathroom, according to Jerry Jones. Police reports said a glass light fixture was broken, but no arrests were made and no charges were filed.
Jerry Jones and the team has asked Adam Jones to keep a low profile in public due to the "reservoir of doubt" he has created through repeated violations of the NFL's personal conduct policy.
"He has created with his actions no benefit of the doubt," Jerry Jones said last week. "We knew, not from the standpoint of protecting him physically, we knew that if he did go out in public that it was important - because he had no benefit of the doubt left - that it was important that if he got in an awkward situation, which can happen by notable people, that they be there to protect that as well."
Jones' involvement in a Las Vegas brawl on Feb. 19, 2007, along with several previous run-ins with police, led to his one-year suspension while a member of the Tennessee Titans. On draft weekend this past April, the Cowboys traded a fourth-round pick for Jones and signed him to a revised three-year contract with a player option for a fourth.
The league granted Jones partial reinstatement (training camp, preseason) in June and full reinstatement for the regular season in late August. Through six games he has a team-high 11 pass deflections and 27 tackles, including five tackles in Sunday's 30-24 loss to Arizona while the league continued its investigation.
Because of Jones' suspension, the Cowboys will receive Tennessee's 2009 fifth-round pick and do not have to send next year's sixth-rounder to the Titans.
Although Jones' contract carries minimal financial risk, the Cowboys have relied on him as Terence Newman's replacement at left cornerback. With Newman expected to miss at least another three weeks following abdominal surgery, rookies Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick will now be forced into significant playing time during Jones' suspension. And if the defense continues moving Anthony Henry inside in the dime package, second-year veteran Alan Ball likely would have to serve as the fourth corner.
Jones' suspension means the injury-plagued Cowboys must do without yet another key player. Quarterback Tony Romo could miss a month with a fractured pinkie finger on his throwing hand, punter Mat McBriar is out six-to-eight weeks with a fractured foot and rookie running back Felix Jones could miss at least two games with a hamstring injury.
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