Unapologetic Truth: The Relentless Spirit of Adam “Pacman” Jones

18:19Mick:You have that same mentality with what you're doing now the NFL has done. Like, I actually think you get to be more the real Pac-Man, right? But you're doing it your way. And I think that that's critically important. You're not trying to be someone else. You're not trying to be what other people may want you to be. I think this is my perception. You're like, hey, y 'all don't really know PAC or what you think you know about PAC. I'm about to give you the real me. And that's what I love because you're putting in the work ethic to understand different things in media, to understand social more, to look at branding and brand partnerships.

18:57Mick:Like, I've been so proud of you, bro. Like, when I see the things you're doing during college football season, during NFL season, the things you're doing when sports aren't even the topic. Like, you really getting to be you. I'm just so damn proud of you, bro.

19:16Adam Jones:I'm so proud. Hey, man, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. And I'm a big soaker. Like, I watch everything. I watch, like, people just think I'm just a guy that smoked weed and drank, which is a great perception. If y 'all want to think that, ha, shame on you. You didn't read the whole fucking book. You just read the cover. But, like, I watch trends. I watch stuff that's going on. NIL with kids. And, like, at this day and time, that same NIL that we're talking about that the kids are getting right now, guess who else is getting it? The grown-ups, too, if you know how to use it. so marketing yourself believing in yourself and like yeah if if i could change anything bro it's a couple things i could change and i i talk about that when you ask me but as a person me i know who i am like i'm loving and caring like do i got a temper yeah but that come with being a little bit competitive can i turn it turn it down sometimes yeah i can is my words always is right the way I want to say it when I'm hot, maybe not sometimes.

20:25Adam Jones:But passion, that comes with the territory of what I've been doing my whole life. I've been hitting fucking people my whole life, since five years old. So my mental is a whole lot different. It's down there like a person going to war. Your mental is going to be different. Period. Point blank. Regardless of what anybody say. Because you only have a flight or a flight or a fight mode you get what i'm saying and now it's like all right i can go fight or flight but i just need to know all right sometimes i got to turn the light off and and you might say you've got a temper but i think what you really have is a discernment of

21:07Mick:people and pack is never going to let somebody take advantage of you right and i don't give a damages the police the mayor the governor right like i'm standing on business right or wrong if i think i'm right i'm standing on business and that's what i think it is i i don't think it's a temper i think what you're really good at blessing or a curse is you know the true intent and you're just cutting the intent off early right like you're not gonna let somebody mess with you for an extended period of time it's like nah if i see that this is what this person wants or this entity wants, like, I'm just going to cut it off right now.

21:47Mick:I actually think it's a great skill set, bro.

21:50Adam Jones:Well, you know, I do too, but sometimes it bites me in my ass. But for the most part, it's been pretty good to me. Yep, yep.

22:01Mick:So now let's talk about it, though. If you could change something, and I'm not going to call it a regret, I'm going to say change. Like, what's something you would have changed or done differently, knowing what you know now? Once I got to the league, you know, I didn't know how much of a business it was.

22:20Adam Jones:Like, yeah, you're the first defensive player pick, but this is business. And my buddy Keith Bullock was trying to tell me that, like, early on. He's like, Pat, you know, ain't going to be young this whole time. I'm like, yeah, I am. Shit. I'm going to play that I'm 40. You know what I mean? Which I could probably have. I fucking retired at 34, 35. And that was on my own. It wasn't like teams wasn't calling me. But like, I wish that like, if I could change anything, I would have had a better like circle around me as far as making sure that I knew that it was a business. I don't know if I'm saying it right.

23:00Adam Jones:But like, you know, you saw a$42 million deal,$28 million up front. The next day you wake up, you got$12 million in your bank account, which I did have some good financial people around me. I put five of that up to where you can't touch it to 35. So, like, I had some good advice. But when it comes to, like, all right, prime example, I should have never left Tennessee. I should have stayed there. That was my decision. Like, I went and told Fisher, like, I want to be traded. And because all of it, I was just too, at that time, Nashville was, it wasn't a hunky-tonk town. It wasn't a party town. It was all whites, period, point blank.

23:41Adam Jones:And I ain't gonna sugar cut it in the net. If you was white around a Lamborghini, you was cool. And around here, around Lamborghinis and Benleys, it was a problem. And at that time, you know, I just didn't understand that, you know, coming from Atlanta, coming from West Virginia shit, you ride whatever the fuck you want. I was the first person in West Virginia with a Louis Vuitton talk at 18 years old. And a 70 SS Monte Carlo with a 454 in there. So like, this is new to me. Right. This is new to me now that I got a bang, I can't do like move how I wanted to move, which was ludicrous. Like a lot of that shit that happened in Tennessee, man, was just because I was a young, black, flamboyant, and politely raw, I would say, person.

24:30Adam Jones:Yeah. I'm the one, hey, bro, you got a book in your nose. I'm like, oh, damn, why you couldn't wait to tell me? Nah, bro, I'm telling you right now so you don't have to walk around and fucking let everybody see the book in your nose.

24:39Mick:Yeah. And, like, I just think I was a little bit too fast for the culture in Nashville,

24:45Adam Jones:like, when I was there. But going back to what you said, if I could change anything, I would change that little circle when it comes to the business part because I was, you know, it's hard to look up to somebody when you see your daddy get killed in front of you. And when you're going through the hardest times, you ain't got nobody. Now when I get out of my money, everybody want to come around. And like, that was the part that I didn't understand. I'm like, why would I fucking listen to these people? Where have these people been, like, my first 20 years of my life? Yeah. Like, and now that I look back, like, maybe one or two of them, I could have listened to.

25:27Adam Jones:The rest of them was full of shit. But that circle is very pivotal. I'm saying like I truly believe in you are what you hang around. Absolutely. Period point blank. Like yeah you can have your homeboys. You can have your friends. It's a time and place for that. But like surround yourself with either what you want or someone that's got what you got. you know what I mean because if you don't it's always it's always gonna be a little hate yeah and if somebody don't have the I ain't gonna say the means because like if you if you got the hustle and you got the the work ethic you can get get to where we're where we at right now but like if you just hang around anybody and not really paying attention to the details um I think it's

26:19Mick:stature growth for sure you know and again another testament to to pac-man is this i also know the business of football and if you didn't become that circle for other people you personally would not have had as long a career as you did right like you became a locker room glue person and you became the person that teams were like you talked about it you chose to retire but you had people still calling you. Talk to us about that evolution of PAC of going from the person needing the circle to the person that now was a part of the circle for others.

26:54Adam Jones:Well, I've always been a part of the circle for others. Like I took kids that didn't even have a scholarship to West Virginia to stay with me, that stayed in my projects. Like one of my, two of my closest friends, you know what I mean? Because I was trying to show them something different. Like, and in the locker room, like I I really believe lead by example. Once you lead by example, then you own the circle. If I go out and I take a fucking limo all the way back from Magic City on Monday to be at the stadium at 6.30 and we ain't got to be there at 8 o 'clock. Like, damn. He did all that. This motherfucker sleep in the parking lot.

27:36Adam Jones:But I'm the first one in the weight room. 250 on the squats. 300, 400, 450. so like I think the reason why I got a chance in every locker room I've been in I've been pretty much the guy like you know we might be some guys getting paid more than me in certain positions but when we're talking about relationships talking sitting there bonding like I've always been the guy hey Pat what'd you think about that hey Pat what'd you think about that hey Pat what'd you think about that hey Pat what you do in this situation hey Pat how is this right there how is that right there and you you'll be surprised man like how many guys women is probably the biggest questions in the locker room a lot of guys you know haven't really had no girls until they got some money that's the crazy thing about it like and some of the biggest names and have two touchdowns go bar you dating kim kardash like and i grew up i and everybody know like magic city is like the real club like a club to us in alana like all this shit they have right now with girls going while i brought did that shit in college like literally like we had six girls standing in my house like bro we had mud parties every friday beer kegs everything like i've done all that shit like so So you can't, you don't know until you know, like, and I ain't trying to say everything, but like, I grew up in an era where it was popping.

29:17Adam Jones:Like, I grew up in that era, that big mead, you know, Young Jesus, when it was okay to go to the club and spend$20 ,000. Like, that was my era. Like, I understood, like, all right, no, this is not going to last for long. but let's go ahead and enjoy it while we can. You know what I mean? And like, I had a lot of teammates like, bro, how in the hell do you just cut it on and cut it off? Like, I'm like, bro, same way. We get paid to perform. You got to turn the light switch on. Sometimes you got to turn it off. Like, I've always, always been like that, bro. Like, that's just been my mentality of work hard, play hard.

30:01Adam Jones:Sometimes you got to turn it off.

30:04Mick:Absolutely. Absolutely. Man, I could talk with you forever. I know you got stories that are going crazy. We might have to do a part two where we just do story time with Uncle Pac.

30:13Adam Jones:Oh, I got some stories. A lot of stories.

30:16Mick:But I would be remiss if I didn't give you props and give you your flowers for this. Again, people that know the real Pac-Man, that know Pac, that you allow to know you, all will say this. one of the greatest fathers, one of the greatest mentors. Like, Pac does so much in the community that he does not talk about. Yeah. Because you genuinely care about kids, man. And, like, I want to give you just the floor to talk about the things that you do in the community or the things that you do for kids, man, because... That's my calling, man. for that, bro.

30:51Adam Jones:That's my calling. Like, I was one of those kids who lost his dad early, stayed with my grandma, I ain't gonna, we wasn't hurting though. I'll say that. My grandma, we was the bootleggers. So everything went through 146, which was our apartment number. But I seen her work so hard, bro, and try to do everything to provide for us. But I've seen other kids in Boat Rock or Bankhead that didn't have that. who dad was gone away, who dad was incarcerated, who mama was a crackhead. I've seen a lot of shit during my younger age that was just so crazy that I'd be like, damn, if I was back as an adult, I would have grabbed it.

31:45Adam Jones:You know what I mean? I didn't have the means to grab. But now I truly think that my calling are the kids. Like, if I can help, and you know you can't help everybody, but my relationship, like, here, I take care of them. There are 40 kids. We travel all the way around the country to play football. My best friend passed away. I had all his kids here. I got my own kids who I love dearly. But, like, my true calling is, I think, with the kids. The reason why I'm saying this is because I'm vulnerable. I'm not scared to admit when I make a mistake oh dad sent you on the news yesterday yeah I had I shouldn't have been drinking I had a little bit too much to drink that's why you don't need to drink and yeah I just told him to fuck off and he got mad so he locked me up and some parents are not willing to admit their mistakes because they don't want to be shamed on I guess but I live in the glass house.

32:49Adam Jones:Everything I do, if I go outside right now and take a piss, it's going to be on channel 5, 2, 12, 11, and 19. So I've used kind of switch their narrative. It's like, all right, I can touch every kid because everybody is going to make a mistake. During your journey of life, you're going to make some mistakes. But if you can capitalize off the mistakes and flip some of those into a positive and even if you don't and you have to go through something, but you come back out fighting, that's the definition of a man. That's the definition of a winner. You get what I'm saying? It's just like playing a game.

33:30Adam Jones:You ain't going to win every football game. You are going to get a flag sometimes for whatever the cause may be. But at the end of the day, you got to have a quick... I got to forget about the last play. and I ain't saying that in everything some things I'm like god damn why you just couldn't shut the fuck up but most of the things you be like alright I know what this is I know how they trying to make this for instance I used an example in Dallas you know I'm minding my own business I get approached by a Mexican guy he was pretty drunk called me out my name boom boom boom boom this and that So I said, hey, bro, you got two more times to do this or we're going to step outside.

34:19Adam Jones:I'm going to beat your motherfucking ass. Nah, here comes the police. I'm like, yo, you need to get him. Stop fucking talking to me. He calling me da-da-da-da. And so he went to do this. I smacked his hand down. Here I go. Straight to jail.

34:34Mick:Yeah.

34:35Adam Jones:And I do this from the officer in Dallas. Oh, now you're assaulting the officer. Then a week, two weeks later, everything gets dismissed. But on the news to make a headline, oh, here you go again, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You just punch somebody in the club. We're just fucking a total false fucking accusation.

34:55Mick:Yep. So I'm more vulnerable because I don't want my son and all these kids that I'm taking care of to not know how to play the game.

35:10Adam Jones:because the game is to be played regardless of what anybody say. Like, no, I have to keep security with me everywhere I go. Like, I have to have a second opinion with me. Right. Like, I don't drive nowhere by myself. Yep. Like, and it's sad, but, like, I ain't going to say I put myself in this situation, but for what it may be, I did have, I admit to the shit that I've done, too, but, like, you got to learn how to play the game. I got to have somebody with me at all times so I can have a second eye. If not, I don't know what this person's intention of doing or what his narrative of doing about any situation.

35:53Adam Jones:So, like, that's my main thing, man. I love kids, bro. Like, I want all these kids to be better than me. Like, all of them. Like I sponsored three, four football teams, soccer teams. I had a gym over here where I'm at, but they didn't really understand the sports because we didn't like a whitey, whitey, whitey area. So I'm opening up another gym, not too far from like the middle of the city. So I can get back. It's going to be called D1 too. I'm doing it with D1. But yeah, man, my job is to be a sponge for the kids so they can soak up everything I went through, the good and the bad. And if you do it right, it'll help you.

36:44Like, you can take these little pieces that I was taking from everybody and trying to build what I was trying to build. Yeah.

36:53Adam Jones:And it'll help. Bro, it'd be sad. Like some of these kids like don't even have a bed to sleep in. Like up here where we at, like you go over to the house just to deliver a Christmas gift and surprise them. Like, all right, I'm bringing you a PlayStation. Don't even know I'm coming and don't even want me to walk in. That's how bad the houses be. You know what I mean? Yeah. I do a thing called check in, like, well, with my players, I just pop up. You don't never know when I'll pop up, but I want to see what's in the refrigerator. You will be surprised, bro. when you see some of these kids and where they're living you're like god damn like and the parents won't ask for help because they don't want all of their nobody to know their shit but I'm like I'm a private person like I'm not doing this to first of all I don't even like half of the shit that I do I don't even tell the media because then they look like oh Pac trying to do this No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

37:58Adam Jones:But you motherfuckers don't even know 90 % of what I done gave or giving to the family. And I'm talking about Cincinnati-wise now because I do a lot of stuff in Cincinnati.

38:09Mick:Yeah.

38:10Adam Jones:And I still do a lot of stuff in Atlanta too. But like, yeah, y 'all know about the bike drives and all that. I give 100 bikes away every Christmas. But y 'all don't see everything else that I do on the daily when it comes to our community and helping these kids out. But I do that because I ain't have nobody to do it for me. And I ain't saying that it ain't other people that is doing this. But, like, what I'm trying to do for the community, and you hear kids talk about it. A lot of kids now with social media, NIL deal, I've had, hey man, do you mind me talking about what you did for me? To a certain extent, yeah, but to a certain extent no, because I didn't do it for that.

38:56Adam Jones:I did it for you to be where you were. Now you got a full ride at the University of Kentucky. Now you getting paid$250 ,000. Now you getting paid a million dollars. Now you got an Adidas deal. like that's why those you know those are stories people don't know about you man and again i'm not i'm not gonna go into the details of it but that's why i fucking love you bro like like to

39:19Mick:see what you do with intention i think that's what people miss right because you know it's the truth there's a lot of people that do it for the attention yeah and they only do it when the cameras are around or the phones are out right like you see it i see it you do it with intention man and most of it goes unseen and that's why I freaking love it because you don't care you care about the person on the other end and that's what matters yeah I do man um I just did a thing for

39:48Adam Jones:Christmas and my my group uh shot about we was talking about uh all right we gonna go down and get a homeless some coats and feed them food I'm like they don't want no fucking coats and food they want some money. Right. Let's go and get$10 ,000 out the bank and give every last one of them$10. There you go. And maybe a blanket. The food, they don't really care about the food. They're going to find the food. Now, what they do with the money, that's on them. I can't control what they do because that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because this is out of the kindness of my heart. And hey, maybe one of y 'all might take advantage of this.

40:28Adam Jones:Maybe one of y 'all won't. But that's the reason why I do certain things the way I do it. And my team be on my ass like, bro, why don't you just tell people you're doing it? And I'm like, no. Like, no.

40:42Mick:Not about that. No, not about that.

40:44Adam Jones:Like, certain shit I will tell them, you know what I mean, when it comes to organizations and stuff like that. But me personally, my intent for doing it is because I come from this. I come from the struggle. I come from not having shit. I've come from a people around me not having shit. You know what I mean? And like, you never know, bro. Like, I got this one family that was pretty bad. And the mom was just like, I just need to get over the hump. I was like, what's it going to take to get over the hump? She was like, well, my rent is$420. I said, all right. So what are you saying it's going to take for you to get over the hump?

41:25Adam Jones:she's like just maybe help me out for a month and i won't say the people name and um i paid the rent for the whole year all right so you can keep every one of your checks i pay your rent for the whole year and now she is working for fortune 500 company they'll move from the house that she's in got her own little side cleaning business and like that's what we're doing it for bro like and no you don't owe me shit like this is this is like this is what somebody this is what i was i got to see right from some of the kids that i had a chance to play with that was pretty wealthy because i was playing sports that was doing for me the key Aaron Fox dad like taking me in like APEC let's help you get over the hump like so that's why i do it bro like because without the families that I've had that's been in my life, I wouldn't be in the same situation.

42:22Mick:I agree. I agree. Man, I know you're busy. I know you got to run. I'm going to get you out here with my rapid fire quick five. Rapid fire. Ready? Yeah. Alright. Favorite NFL city to play in? Miami. Alright. Your favorite flavor of wings from Magic City?

42:43Adam Jones:Hot sprinkled with lemon pepper. There you go.

42:46Mick:The best teammate you ever had?

42:49Adam Jones:Montez Berkson.

42:51Mick:Greatest NFL player of all time?

42:57Mick:Lawrence Taylor. Love it. Most overrated NFL player, according to Pac-Man?

43:04Adam Jones:Most overrated NFL player of all time? Of all time. Right now? All time.

43:09Mick:However you want to give it to me. I don't care. Right now, all time.

43:12Adam Jones:It doesn't matter.

43:17Adam Jones:all time Steve Smith

43:23Mick:we'll let you tell why on episode 2 how about that

43:26Adam Jones:I would that

43:29Mick:Pat bro love you like a brother you are my brother you already know this but if there's ever anything I can do I'm here this has been an honor just to spend time with you bro

43:42Adam Jones:man I appreciate you for having me man And I hope this can get to somebody, you know what I mean, that might need this. You know what I mean? And mental health is real. I want to say that before we get off here, bro. Make sure y 'all checking on your mental. Like, it's okay to talk to somebody. Y 'all go through something to get to something. I'm a big mental health guy. Like, my family is big in bipolar disorder. So, like, check on yourself. And it's okay to go get checked in to check on yourself. It's okay to talk to somebody and express how you feel. So don't put no shame, guilt, and don't be scared to be vulnerable when you're going and talking to these people.

44:25Adam Jones:And tell the truth, because that's the only way you're going to get some help.

44:27Mick:I love it. I love it. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Pac-Man Jones. And always remember, your because is your superpower. Go Unleash It. That's another powerful conversation on Mick Unplugged. If this episode moved you, and I'm sure it did, follow the show wherever you listen. Share it with someone who needs that spark and leave a review so more people can find their because. I'm Rudy Rush. And until next time, stay driven, stay focused and stay unplugged.