CINCINNATI -- Adam "Pacman" Jones didn't even try to put a positive spin on his year away from football.
The cornerback who entered the NFL with such promise in 2005 spent all last season trying to return to the game, looking for someone -- anyone -- who would give him another chance. For a while, it looked like that chance might not come.
"It was miserable," he said.
Miserable enough to make him learn anything?
Jones said Wednesday that he has changed his lifestyle and reordered his priorities in the past year, the result of much soul-searching while he was outside the NFL. The Cincinnati Bengals gave Jones a two-year deal that represents what could be his final chance to prove it.
During his first interview session in town Wednesday, Jones told reporters that he no longer hangs around with the same people who helped him get into trouble after he was the Tennessee Titans' first-round pick in 2005. He recognized that a lot of things had to change.
"Of course, you change as you grow," Jones said. "Like I said, it ain't overnight. I'm 26 years old now, so I can't do the same things I was doing at 21, or I'm going to be dead or in jail. I know what my passion is, and my passion is football. I know what I've got to do to keep playing football, and that's what I'm working on doing."
Jones signed last week, but he chose to stick with a 58-second statement when he came to town for his first workout. He took questions after a voluntary practice Wednesday, answering all but one.
Jones moved into a wooden locker at one end of the football-shaped room, mixed in among defensive linemen. Wide receiver Chris Henry's former locker was across the room -- Jones faced in that direction while he took questions for 14 minutes.
Henry and Jones were teammates at West Virginia and kept in touch, but they became the NFL's poster boys for misconduct, both being arrested and suspended repeatedly. Commissioner Roger Goodell toughened the NFL's personal-conduct policy largely because of their misdeeds.
During their tough times, Jones -- six arrests, 12 incidents involving police intervention -- kept in touch with Henry. Jones became emotional Wednesday when asked about Henry and declined to talk about what he learned from his friend's life -- the only subject he wouldn't address.
"Chris was a great friend of mine," Jones said. "It would depend on what situation you're talking about. Chris touched a part of me. I really don't like to talk about it."
There's enough to discuss in his own life.
Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season for his run of trouble. The Dallas Cowboys took a chance on him, but he was suspended for six games in 2008 after being involved in an alcohol-related scuffle with a team-provided bodyguard. He didn't have an interception that season, and the Cowboys got rid of him.
No one else wanted him.
"I did a lot of soul-searching," Jones said. "That's why I'm right here talking to you all. I did a lot of soul-searching, I did a lot of corrections, everything. Right now, everything is pretty good -- family-wise, spiritual, mentally. I'm at ease right now, I should say."
Jones is still recovering from the year away from football. He said he's rusty on the field, where he finds himself off by a little bit in coverages. It was evident during practice Wednesday that his quickness hasn't suffered.
The Bengals have one of the NFL's best cornerback tandems in Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall, but Jones will have a chance to see the field on passing downs as an extra cover man. Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer is pleased with how Jones looks on the field.
"There's a long way to go," Zimmer said. "He's making progress. I'm more concerned that he's listening, trying hard, that he's doing things the way we want him to do it. He's trying to understand the coverages and the techniques and how we want to play. To me, that is much more important than anything else right now.
"So far, so good. No issues whatsoever with him. He sits in the front row in the meeting, listens to me. He's one of the guys right now."
Quarterback Carson Palmer befriended Henry during his troubles and already has spent time trying to get to know Jones.
"I like him a lot," Palmer said. "Playing here, you learn to give guys the benefit of a doubt, and there are guys here that have been through a lot of things. A lot of things have been said by people who don't know that individual.
"He is who he is and has tried to learn right away and compete. Everything else that has been in the past -- I'm not going to let that make my mind up for me."
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
