Ex-Bengals player Adam 'Pacman' Jones arrested at Cincinnati airport

Updated Sep. 11, 2023 2:03 p.m. ET

Associated Press

HEBRON, Ky. (AP) — Former Cincinnati Bengals defensive back Adam “Pacman” Jones was arrested early Monday after police responded to a report of an “unruly passenger” at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, authorities said.

Jones was booked on misdemeanor counts of alcohol intoxication, disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening, Captain Kevin Klute of the Boone County Jail said.

Airport spokesperson Mindy Kerschner said that police were called at 6 a.m. Monday to help crew members with an unruly passenger on a flight scheduled for departure. Kerschner confirmed that Jones was the passenger "arrested prior to takeoff and taken to Boone Country Detention Center.”

Details about Jones' arrest weren't immediately released. Jones told WKRC-TV after he was released that he asked to be moved to another seat because the phone charger for the two seats he had purchased wasn't working and was told that they would have to turn the plane around. He vehemently denied being intoxicated and also rejected the terroristic threat allegation.

“I’m hurt, this is embarrassing,” Jones told WLWT-TV while leaving the jail.

After playing college football at West Virginia, Jones was a first-round draft pick by the Tennessee Titans in 2005 to begin a 12-year tenure in the NFL marred almost from the beginning by off-field incidents and suspensions.

He played two seasons for the Titans but was then suspended by the NFL for the 2007 season for conduct that included at least 10 incidents where he was interviewed by police. He returned to the league in 2008 with the Dallas Cowboys.

He signed with Cincinnati for the 2010 season and would spend the bulk of his career with the Bengals, earning selection to the Pro Bowl in 2014 and ’15. He ended his career in Denver, playing seven games with the Broncos in 2018 before he was released.