Shortly after Adam "Pacman" Jones was informed that the Cowboys are releasing him amid an ESPN report that he was involved in a 2007 shooting, Jones said he's going to sue the Worldwide Leader in Sports.
"It will be a lawsuit in a week against ESPN," Jones told Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News. "That's stupid. It's so stupid I have no more comments."
ESPN reported that in mid-2007, Jones (who was already suspended by the NFL for his role in a different shooting incident) allegedly offered an accused murderer money to carry out a shooting at a nightclub.
If the report is false, Jones should do all he can to denounce it. But as Mike Florio notes at Pro Football Talk, there's not much chance he'll get any money from ESPN in a lawsuit. For a public figure like Jones to win such a lawsuit, he'd have to prove not just that ESPN got the story wrong, but that it acted maliciously and damaged his reputation. It would be tough to prove malice on ESPN's part and almost impossible for Jones' reputation to be damaged any worse than it already was.
So Jones isn't likely to get any money out of ESPN, and he isn't likely to earn any more paychecks from the NFL. I hope he saved the millions he's already made, because at age 25, his ability to make a living is just about gone.
Adam 'Pacman' Jones Says He'll Sue ESPN Over Report of His Involvement in Shooting originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:21:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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