No more Pacman; call him Adam Jones

Newly signed cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones met with Bengals reporters today after an Organized Team Activity (OTA) workout, and had an interesting session in which he addressed a number of topics. That included the fact that he'll no longer go by the name Pacman, at least when dealing with the media.

“Of course. It’s been gone to you guys, anyways, since Dallas," Jones told reporters, according to a piece by Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Inquirer. "My teammates will probably call me Pac, but with you guys, it’s straight business. That’s how I’m going to treat this moving forward. I’m not going to treat this no other way.”

More highlights from the interview, via Reedy: 

• On working with Mike Zimmer: “I respect someone who respects me. Zim is a great coach. Who else better to learn from? I heard tremendous stories about Zim before I got here. I liked to be coached, period. Whatever way he wants to coach me, I’m willing to listen and learn, because I want to get back to where I was. At the end of the day, I’m willing to take any coaching. I’m listening because I want to get better. That’s my goal.”
• On how he is doing now: “I’ve got all my T’s crossed and my I’s dotted. I know what it takes. I know what I have to do. Period, point blank, I know what I have to do as a role model. I know what my job is here, and I know what the coaches expect out of me and I know what the team expects out of me. It’s straight to the cut. It’s not like Dallas. It’s Cincinanti. I love it. Hey, do your job, don’t get in trouble, you’ll be all right. I was young and made some mistakes. That’s in the past, all I can talk about is the future right now. I feel good about about it.”
• On where he fits in: “Whatever they ask me to do. This was a good defense last year. All I can do is do my part. If I do my part, I help the team. There’s no ‘I’ guy around here. I’m just working every day, man, and getting better. I go to those guys, [cornerback] Johnathan [Joseph] and say, ‘What’s this, what’s that?’ they’ve been tremendous in helping me out also.”
• On being out of football for a year: “It was miserable. Something I’ve been doing my whole life -- started playing football when I was five years old. It takes a real man to have been through what I’ve been through. It’s hard to sit back from something you’ve been doing so long.
• On if he has made any changes: “Of course you change as you grow. 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.”
• On if he still has that swagger on the field: “Oh no, I have a swagger on the field, period. I’m never going to lose my swagger on the field. If you see me out there, I compete every play. If I don’t make the play, I’m upset with myself. That’s the kind of swagger I’m talking about. I’m not talking about a swagger with your pants down or nothing like that. I’m talking about on the field. If I’m not playing with a swagger on the field, I don’t think I need to be out there.”