Former Titans GM: Pacman's Been a Disaster

Former Titans general manager Floyd Reese knows that for all of his successes, he will also be remembered as the GM who drafted Pacman Jones. In his first article for ESPN.com, Reese tries to explain how he and the Titans were hoodwinked by the troubled cornerback.

According to Reese, all the reports about Jones' character and off-the-field behavior were solid when the Titans drafted him. As he explains it, Jones had one fight in college, but everyone at West Virginia vouched for him and he had no other trouble. That doesn't really jibe with what West Virginia strength coach Mike Barwis says now. Barwis says that Jones was the kind of player who needed plenty of day-to-day attention to keep him on the straight-and-narrow. That's the kind of attention that an NFL player can't really get--something that Lawrence Phillips had proven years before.

Just a paragraph later, Reese admits that Jones' long holdout before his rookie season came because the team was worried enough to ensure that language in his contract allowed the team to get back bonus money if Jones got in future trouble--that's the kind of things you do if you're already very worried about a player's character. And Reese doesn't pull any punches about what ended up being one of his biggest mistakes.

He was treated just like the other draft choices and with no sugarcoating. Yet despite Jones' Pro Bowl-caliber potential, he has been nothing but a disaster off the field.

That's pretty clear at this point. Now we all just wait to find out whether the NFL will take the decision of what to do out of the Titans hands by suspending Jones.