The Blog

No one’s a bigger SportsCenter junkie than I am, but the geniuses at ESPN apparently missed–or chose to ignore, maybe for legal reasons–the significance of troubled Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones dropping his nickname, “Pacman.”

The network guys dutifully reported that Jones has asked the media to stop using the name as part of an effort to clean up his image, but, at least in the editions I saw, SportsCenter failed to explain why some people might consider Pacman offensive.  The moniker was blithely dismissed as a “video game” reference–which, admittedly, was how I used to naively view the nickname when I first heard it.  That interpretation seems to make some sense if you imagine Jones’s elusive running abilities as evoking the chase and escape theme of the classic video game.

Only recently, when I read a feature story profiling another “Packman” (this guy used a “k” in it), did I realize the darker implications of the nickname.  Apparently, on the streets such a name refers to someone who packs a gun.  Given the circumstances, I can only infer that Adam Jones did not pick up the appellation by spending hours on end in an arcade. 

Too bad so few in the media are savvy enough to give us the real story.  Now we’ll have to see if the name change signals any meaningful change in Adam Jones’s behavior, or whether he will remain the thug he’s been up until now.

Let’s hope, for the good of society, the guy can turn it around.