Are the Cincinnati Bengals in the process of changing their image? Or are they in the process of helping players change theirs. Actually, both.
Yesterday, it was reported that the Bengals worked out Adam "Pacman" Jones. That same report has Cincy offering a contract to former Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Matt Jones.
Interesting. Both "Pacman" and Matt Jones have had their fair share of off-field issues. Pacman because he can't stay off the police blotter and Matt because of substance abuse. Character issues? You bet.
But therein lies the issue.
Would you want your team even giving these guys a look? Most would say no. Look at the landscape of the Bengals past versus the Bngals present, and it's almost a given why the Jones' are getting that "look-see".
The Bengals players at one time had a knack for getting into trouble with local law enforcement (10 times in a 14 month period). We saw it recently with the Rey Maualuga incident, but it had been a while since that last happened.
The Bengals are now getting into the business of helping players get their lives going back in the right direction. We heard that from every Bengals player when the unfortunate and sad news of Chris Henry's passing. All said he was in the process of getting it all together.
Henry was by far the only Bengal earning "stripes" in life. There are others on the Bengals roster that have had questionable pasts. Tank Johnson, Cedric Benson (right), Frostee Rucker, Larry Johnson. We know about Benson's transformation, and the others contributed significantly to the Bengals success in '09. LJ's departure from Kansas City was on every website last year because of comments he made. In Rucker's case, it was an incident during his playing days at USC.Don't forget that the Bengals were also one of the teams after the services of Michael Vick.
