NFL DECLINES COMMENT ON REPORT OF PACMAN FIGHT

Officially, neither the NFL nor the Cowboys are talking about the hottest story in the league. On Wednesday, the Cowboys said that they know nothing about cornerback Pacman Jones getting into a fight at a Dallas hotel, and thus the team had no comment. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello likewise said that the league has no comment, according to the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Jones’ current agent, Worrick Robinson, also said that he had no comment. Before, you know, commenting. “I don’t have any comment,” Robinson told the Star-Telegram. “I don’t have any knowledge that anything happened. I’ve done my due diligence and I’m not satisfied that anything happened with Adam Jones. I know there are rumors. I haven’t put any stock into any of these rumors except they are just rumors.” We’d love to know what Robinson’s due diligence was. “Hey, Pac . . . did you get in a fight Tuesday night? You didn’t? OK. Bye.” But the reports are numerous, growing, and unequivocal. Jones did get in a fight. The Star-Telegram suggests that the fracas involved multiple bodyguards. We’ve heard that at least one of them was an off-duty cop whom the team has been paying to accompany Jones when he is out and about. As several readers have pointed out (including one high-level league source), the arrangement could be a salary-cap violation. Basically, the team is providing Jones with the benefit of paid security, regardless of whether he views them as chaperones. But the thinking is that the league won’t push the issue because the Cowboys and the NFL both have a lot of style points invested in Pacman’s ongoing ability to stay out of trouble, and if having team-issued bodyguards available is the only way to keep Jones from landing in hot water, so be it. Of course, no one expected that the team-issued bodyguards would ultimately be the source of the trouble. And it doesn’t surprise us that the team and the league seem to be inclined initially to look the other way on this one. If forced to throw Jones out of the league only five games after getting back in, the NFL and the Cowboys will face criticism for letting him back in the first place. We also can’t quite figure out why there was no police report or charges filed. Damage was done to a bathroom at the hotel, and Jones reportedly left without paying his bar bill. CBS 11 reports that witnesses believed Jones was intoxicated. And so the cops just let him leave with not a single shred of paper generated? We now have a better understanding as to why no Cowboys have been arrested since we started tracking these incidents in February 2007. If the local authorities are sufficiently large fans of the hometown team to shrug their shoulders, mutter “boys will be boys,” and send them home with a warning, guys who do things for which they arguably should be arrested simply won’t be arrested.