Giants safety Chad Jones out of surgery after car accident

New York Giants third-round rookie safety Chad Jones(notes) was awake and alert and visiting with family after surgery to repair his left leg that his father has deemed successful, according to New Orleans television station WWL-TV.

"He looked like Chad," said his father, Al Jones, after seeing him the hospital. "The surgery was successful. I want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers, the numerous phone calls, text messages and e-mails...It just lets you know the type of person Chad is and how well loved he is ... It is just a matter of the healing process right now."

Jones was injured in a serious car accident early Friday morning in Louisiana. He suffered multiple fractures to his left leg, including fractures of his tibia and fibula, and there were arteries and nerves exposed, according to reports at the scene of the accident. The 21-year-old lost control of his SUV at about 6:15 EST Friday morning and crashed into a pole on Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans. Two passengers riding with Jones suffered minor injuries and weren't taken to the hospital, WWL-TV reported.

Rocky Arceneaux, Jones' agent, issued this statement through LSU: "Chad Jones was involved in a serious auto accident early this morning. The severity of Chad's injuries up to this point is unknown. At this point, we are praying for Chad and ask that everyone does the same."

Police and fire teams lifted Jones from his SUV and took him to a local hospital, where he underwent hours of surgery to try and promote blood flow to the injured leg. Jones was listed in guarded condition upon arrival at the hospital, and there was concern that he might lose the leg.

Jones was a two-sport star at LSU, excelling in baseball and football. He was thought by most to be the best strong safety candidate of the 2010 draft, and was also drafted by the Houston Astros in the 13th round.

The WWL report indicates that Jones will charged with careless operation of a vehicle, though there is no word as to whether alcohol was involved.

Related: New York Giants

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Pacman Jones gets two-year deal from Bengals

When he signs his new two-year contract today or Monday, the seemingly inevitable will happen - cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones will become a Cincinnati Bengal. And given Pacman's off-field history, and the Bengals' history of taking on troubled players, the only question is why it took so long for this to happen after Pacman tried out for the team in February. After displaying major skills with the Tennessee Titans in 2005 and 2006, Jones was suspended by the league for the entire 2007 season for a series of incidents in which he was interviewed by police. Jones' most notorious involvement was the strip club incident during the NBA All-Star weekend, when a fight and shooting left one man paralyzed. Given another chance by the Dallas Cowboys for the 2008 season, Jones was suspended six games that year for yet another scuffle, this time with a bodyguard provided by the team. In 2009, Jones was close to signing a contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. But an outburst that became a viral video staple, in which Jones dug his own grave in many different ways, put an end to that speculation.

Now, this. The interesting thing about this phase of Jones' career is that the abilities which allowed him to give up the fewest yards per target in 2006 (5.4 YPC on 69 targets, according to Football Outsiders' metrics) were pretty much shot during his time in Dallas. Jones looked slow and out of place with the Cowboys, allowing 6.4 yards on 51 targets. After that lost 2007, Jones' passes defensed dropped from 14 to 9; his interceptions from four to zero. And he showed none of the dynamic return ability that also typified his Tennessee career.

The move is low-risk for the Bengals from a financial perspective -- it's a veteran minimum flyer with incentives (and certainly language allowing the team various out clauses in the event that Jones can't stay out of trouble). How Jones might meet those incentives, even if he's able to regain any percentage of his former skill set, is unknown. In Leon Hall(notes) and Johnathan Joseph(notes), the team already has one of the best cornerback tandems in the league - unless there's an injury, Jones would be a nickel guy at best. Perhaps there's some room in the return game, but this looks like a depth signing - the kind the Bengals do all the time. They'll bring troubled players in on short deals, hoping they can help, but it's a "churn-‘em-and-burn-‘em" game for the most part. All Jones can do is keep his nose clean and seize the opportunities on the field when they present themselves. He'll also have to forgive the skepticism regarding the notion that he's capable of either act at this point in his life.

Related: Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans

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Pacman Jones has all the partying out of his system

Despite some tepid interest from the Lions a few weeks ago, Pacman Jones remains unemployed and extremely available.

He's so available, in fact, that he's not afraid to text Lions head coach Jim Schwartz and remind him of that fact. From Nicholas J. Cotsonika at the Detroit Free Press:

"I texted him and just told him that I’m still available, I like what they did in the draft," Jones said today in a telephone interview. "It was just a simple text message. And he was like, 'Thanks. Keep your head up and keep the faith.' We left it at that."

I don't know if Pacman should like Detroit's draft too much. After all, they spent a third-rounder on a cornerback, Amari Spievey out of Iowa. Every cornerback on the Detroit roster puts Pacman one step closer to remaining unemployed.

What does he think, that the Lions will want him to come in and tutor the rookie? That he can be of value to the Lions as Spievey's wise old mentor? He might get back into the league, but I don't think he's quite at the "mentor" stage yet.

Anyway, Pacman also addressed the chief reason why he doesn't have a job yet: the omni-present character questions. He assures us that he's past that part of his life.

"I don’t do the things that I used to do," Jones said. "I don’t hang out with the crowd that I used to. I’m a grown man now. I have a little girl. I have a fiancée with another baby on the way. So them days are over with, the kid days. It’s about my family now."

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Walter Jones, Seattle's nine-time Pro Bowl tackle, retires

Thursday, the greatest player in Seattle Seahawks history -- and the last tie to the amazing tackle classes of the late 1990s -- retired from the game. Walter Jones, the nine-time Pro Bowler and four-time First-Team All-Pro announced that he can no longer play the game he's graced since 1997. Various injuries prevented Jones from playing at all in the 2009 season, and with the selection of Oklahoma State tackle Russell Okung with the sixth overall pick, there was also the quick draft weekend announcement from Seattle GM John Schneider that a statement would be made in the following days about Jones' future. Now, we know what we previously suspected.

Having watched Jones since his early days, when he came to the NFL about the same time as Orlando Pace and Jonathan Ogden, I'll remember him as the player who forged my interest in offensive line play. I will especially remember his week-to-week play in the Seahawks' 2005 season, when he nearly guided his formerly moribund team to a Lombardi Trophy with a series of superhuman performances. If you can find a video clip of Jones taking Carolina Panthers defensive end Mike Rucker and riding him back about 15 yards on a Shaun Alexander run in the NFC Championship game at the same speed Alexander was running ... well, it was the damnedest play I'd ever seen. (Update: In this official tribute video released by the Seahawks, the Rucker block is three minutes in). In my opinion, Alexander was a miscast MVP that season -- Jones was by far the best player in the NFL in 2005, and the award should have been his. As perhaps the one 9,000-plus-yard rusher more dependent on great line play than any other, Alexander would certainly agree.

But the unheralded nature of his position suited Walter Jones -- he's always been a gentle giant who laughed at pain (a kidney condition prevents him from taking any painkiller stronger than Tylenol) and shrugged off the conga line of defenders who wanted to make their bones by taking the big man down. I'll never forget what he did to Falcons end Patrick Kerney in the second game of the 2005 season. Kerney was a Pro Bowler coming off a 13-sack season, one of the most dynamic pass rushers in the game. By the second quarter of his "battle" against Big Walt, Kerney was a spent, wheezing mess. He was one of many elite defenders to receive a lesson in advanced protection concepts from this graceful and humble technician.

Perhaps former Seahawks and current Colts line coach Howard Mudd, who pushed for Jones to be drafted by Seattle with the sixth overall pick in 1997, said it best when he reflected on Jones' legacy:

"He had this phenomenal athleticism. Walt is the kind of guy who does things so easily, it almost looks like he's playing at 75 or 80 percent. Like Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, he never really struggles to get his job done, even when he's playing against the top NFL players. I don't think he ever lined up in a game where he thought he was closely matched, athletically, to the guy across from him."

Once the announcement is made, and he says a few perfunctory words, Jones will probably go back to his hometown of Aliceville, Alabama, where he used to push Escalades as a form of off-season conditioning and start the countdown to Canton. But the city of Seattle will always remember him.

It was once said of Jim Brown that there are many superstars but only one Superman. It was my good fortune to watch Walter Jones ply his trade for over a decade -- and to understand, for a time, what Superman actually looked like.

Related: Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks

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