T-post Tom
03-23-2010, 03:03 PM
Lions' G.M. says Pacman "has a skill set that would help us"
Posted by Michael David Smith on March 23, 2010 3:58 PM ET
The Detroit Lions definitely think former Titans and Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones can help them on the field. Now they need to be convinced that he won't embarrass them off the field.
Lions General Manager Martin Mayhew said today at the annual league meetings that VP of Player Personnel Sheldon White liked what he saw at Jones' workout last week, and now that the Lions are convinced he's in good enough shape to play, they're taking a closer look at all the other issues that come with signing Jones.
"He had a really good workout, from what I understand," Mayhew said, per the Detroit News. "But we need to do some more research on him."
Is a really good workout enough to overcome the fact that Jones has been arrested several times, and that both the Titans and Cowboys were burned when Jones got into off-field trouble?
"I would say nothing's imminent," Mayhew said. "But we're definitely tracking that and gathering more information. And he's a guy that has a skill set that would help us."
Mayhew said he's been talking to Lions coach Jim Schwartz, who coached Jones for two seasons in Tennessee, as well as Deion Sanders, who has mentored Jones and who was a teammate of Mayhew's at Florida State. So far, Mayhew says, he's encouraged by what he's hearing.
"He hasn't been in trouble for almost two years now," Mayhew said. "That's a pretty big hoop to jump through."
AND IN A RELATED STORY:
Yes to booze, no to pasties
The ongoing drama that is the Detroit City Council recently completed its three-year run of “Much Ado About Nothing,” in which the Council voted Tuesday 6-3 to approve strip club restrictions that left neither supporters nor opponents satisfied.
With apologies to Shakespeare, however, the proceedings more closely resembled a Greek tragicomedy. The most striking aspect of the entire sordid affair wasn’t that community leaders and activists were attempting to curtail the freedom of strip clubs to – gasp! – serve alcohol and expose women’s bodies. It was the sheer volume – both in number of attendees and their clamorous arguments – generated by an issue that, by all rights, should take a back seat to much more pressing issues for city being swallowed whole by crime, blight and nihilistic narcissism.
Councilman Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who supported the changes, nonetheless was a voice in the wilderness in his assessment of the topic.
"Where is that outrage about a young girl being raped on the way to school?" Cockrel asked in a Detroit News story. "We have bigger fish to fry. Let's get passionate about that stuff."
Cockrell’s insight points up a fundamental flaw in most of the media’s assessment of Detroit. While the City Council traditionally conducts itself in a circus-like fashion and provides tabloid-worthy fodder suitable to scorn and derision, the citizens of Detroit are as culpable for the city’s plight as are its leaders.
The Tuesday vote came one day after nearly 500 people (500!) spent 3 ˝ hours – yes, 3 ˝ hours! – arguing for (mostly) and against the seemingly trivial rules of conduct for what is, after all, an adult entertainment industry. The proposals – of which the major ones, notably a ban on booze and the requirement by strippers to wear pasties, were defeated – seem like band-aids on brain tumors.
If the issues raised by strip club opponents were, indeed, as important as they claimed, then why not push for a total ban on such establishments? Why the milquetoast half-measures?
The rules – barring a veto by Mayor Dave Bing -- will take effect in about a week and outlaw VIP rooms, touching among strippers and patrons, require licenses for most employees, limit dancers to 18-inch-tall stages (huh?), and ban new clubs from opening on Eight Mile Rd. But the council again shelved proposals resurrected from last year that would have required dancers to wear opaque pasties and outlawed alcohol sales.
Not surprisingly, supporters of the bans were disappointed in their less-than-total victory.
"Detroit deserves better," said the Rev. Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church, who led the fight for tougher rules. He promised to continue the fight but didn't elaborate. "The people are going to have the last word."
Which can only mean, of course, that this issue will be revisited in the future, accompanied by the resulting lack of focus on other issues – like, maybe, the city’s crumbling infrastructure and a high school dropout rate approaching 75 percent. Not a graduation rate of 75 percent, mind you, but a drop-out rate that is, by far, the highest in the nation.
Winans and City Council President Charles Pugh, a staunch opponent of the proposed ordinances, had heated exchanges at pre-vote hearings, during which Pugh likened the targeting of strip clubs to Jim Crow laws. Pugh also challenged Winans about the pastor’s non-residency in the city.
Along with Cockrel, other Council members who supported the new laws were President Charles Pugh, President Pro Tem Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, Andre Spivey and James Tate. Kwame Kenyatta, JoAnn Watson and Brenda Jones opposed the measures. The council also approved zoning changes governing areas in which new clubs could open.
Spivey, a pastor, told the News that he took heat from fellow clergy but claimed the alcohol ban would have gone too far. "I am not here to bring back prohibition," Spivey said. He had earlier indicated he was on the fence about the issue, saying he didn’t want to appear “self-righteous.”
Supporters of the bans had no such compunctions.
"We don't want our city patterned after Sodom and Gomorrah," said 61-year-old Detroiter Jerome Williams at the Monday evening hearing.
"We are here today to say that if you don't change it, we will," Winans said the day before the vote, drawing a standing ovation. "You can trust we are united."
Some dancers appeared at the Monday hearing to argue against the new ordinances, citing a lack of job alternatives in the city. One, Kweli Buffalo, a dancer at All Stars, accused some in the crowd of hypocrisy, claiming she recognized some in the audience as bar patrons.
Perhaps the most ridiculous argument for the ordinances was posited by Winans in a letter to the editor published in The Detroit News prior to the vote.
“About the 6-foot buffer rule (it is already illegal to receive lap dances) and the pasties' regulations, they are designed in part to curb assaults against the dancer,” Winans wrote.” As a pastor, I have counseled some dancers when they are suicidal and confused. The regulations will not end all of these problems, but could help save the dignity, even life, of these dancers. That is likely why Grand Rapids and other cities have implemented such regulations.”
Not only will these regulations not address all the problems Winans outlines, as he himself admits, they will address none of the problems. And had Winans gotten his way, and had the pasties and no-alcohol ordinances passed, those would have done nothing to help, either. How wearing pasties would somehow contribute to a dancer’s sense of worth or self esteem – how it would prevent suicide, for goodness sake – is a remarkable and reckless claim.
Winans went on to write:
“The serving of alcohol makes strip clubs a target for criminals -- drunken patrons will not report crimes committed against them for fear of being discovered and are more likely to commit lewd sex acts outside of the clubs (which happens a lot in Detroit).”
All this is true, of course, but . . . so what? How is this different than in any bar, anywhere? People drink in bars; some of them get drunk. Why are strip clubs any different in that respect?
Kudos to those citizens who are attempting to redeem their city. God knows Detroit is in need of deliverance. But the bottom line is that Detroit – a city larger in area than Boston, San Francisco and Buffalo combined – is not reeling due to the activities taking place in a couple dozen strip clubs. If that were the case, it seems counter-productive that the Council would pass the portion of the ban prohibiting clubs to open on Eight Mile Rd. Why not concentrate such establishments in a designated area, the better to oversee and patrol?
As Cockrell pointed out, the city will begin its atonement when citizens pack City Hall for more serious issues, and demand of their leaders the same attention to detail that lewd vaudeville venues
Posted by Michael David Smith on March 23, 2010 3:58 PM ET
The Detroit Lions definitely think former Titans and Cowboys cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones can help them on the field. Now they need to be convinced that he won't embarrass them off the field.
Lions General Manager Martin Mayhew said today at the annual league meetings that VP of Player Personnel Sheldon White liked what he saw at Jones' workout last week, and now that the Lions are convinced he's in good enough shape to play, they're taking a closer look at all the other issues that come with signing Jones.
"He had a really good workout, from what I understand," Mayhew said, per the Detroit News. "But we need to do some more research on him."
Is a really good workout enough to overcome the fact that Jones has been arrested several times, and that both the Titans and Cowboys were burned when Jones got into off-field trouble?
"I would say nothing's imminent," Mayhew said. "But we're definitely tracking that and gathering more information. And he's a guy that has a skill set that would help us."
Mayhew said he's been talking to Lions coach Jim Schwartz, who coached Jones for two seasons in Tennessee, as well as Deion Sanders, who has mentored Jones and who was a teammate of Mayhew's at Florida State. So far, Mayhew says, he's encouraged by what he's hearing.
"He hasn't been in trouble for almost two years now," Mayhew said. "That's a pretty big hoop to jump through."
AND IN A RELATED STORY:
Yes to booze, no to pasties
The ongoing drama that is the Detroit City Council recently completed its three-year run of “Much Ado About Nothing,” in which the Council voted Tuesday 6-3 to approve strip club restrictions that left neither supporters nor opponents satisfied.
With apologies to Shakespeare, however, the proceedings more closely resembled a Greek tragicomedy. The most striking aspect of the entire sordid affair wasn’t that community leaders and activists were attempting to curtail the freedom of strip clubs to – gasp! – serve alcohol and expose women’s bodies. It was the sheer volume – both in number of attendees and their clamorous arguments – generated by an issue that, by all rights, should take a back seat to much more pressing issues for city being swallowed whole by crime, blight and nihilistic narcissism.
Councilman Kenneth Cockrel Jr., who supported the changes, nonetheless was a voice in the wilderness in his assessment of the topic.
"Where is that outrage about a young girl being raped on the way to school?" Cockrel asked in a Detroit News story. "We have bigger fish to fry. Let's get passionate about that stuff."
Cockrell’s insight points up a fundamental flaw in most of the media’s assessment of Detroit. While the City Council traditionally conducts itself in a circus-like fashion and provides tabloid-worthy fodder suitable to scorn and derision, the citizens of Detroit are as culpable for the city’s plight as are its leaders.
The Tuesday vote came one day after nearly 500 people (500!) spent 3 ˝ hours – yes, 3 ˝ hours! – arguing for (mostly) and against the seemingly trivial rules of conduct for what is, after all, an adult entertainment industry. The proposals – of which the major ones, notably a ban on booze and the requirement by strippers to wear pasties, were defeated – seem like band-aids on brain tumors.
If the issues raised by strip club opponents were, indeed, as important as they claimed, then why not push for a total ban on such establishments? Why the milquetoast half-measures?
The rules – barring a veto by Mayor Dave Bing -- will take effect in about a week and outlaw VIP rooms, touching among strippers and patrons, require licenses for most employees, limit dancers to 18-inch-tall stages (huh?), and ban new clubs from opening on Eight Mile Rd. But the council again shelved proposals resurrected from last year that would have required dancers to wear opaque pasties and outlawed alcohol sales.
Not surprisingly, supporters of the bans were disappointed in their less-than-total victory.
"Detroit deserves better," said the Rev. Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church, who led the fight for tougher rules. He promised to continue the fight but didn't elaborate. "The people are going to have the last word."
Which can only mean, of course, that this issue will be revisited in the future, accompanied by the resulting lack of focus on other issues – like, maybe, the city’s crumbling infrastructure and a high school dropout rate approaching 75 percent. Not a graduation rate of 75 percent, mind you, but a drop-out rate that is, by far, the highest in the nation.
Winans and City Council President Charles Pugh, a staunch opponent of the proposed ordinances, had heated exchanges at pre-vote hearings, during which Pugh likened the targeting of strip clubs to Jim Crow laws. Pugh also challenged Winans about the pastor’s non-residency in the city.
Along with Cockrel, other Council members who supported the new laws were President Charles Pugh, President Pro Tem Gary Brown, Saunteel Jenkins, Andre Spivey and James Tate. Kwame Kenyatta, JoAnn Watson and Brenda Jones opposed the measures. The council also approved zoning changes governing areas in which new clubs could open.
Spivey, a pastor, told the News that he took heat from fellow clergy but claimed the alcohol ban would have gone too far. "I am not here to bring back prohibition," Spivey said. He had earlier indicated he was on the fence about the issue, saying he didn’t want to appear “self-righteous.”
Supporters of the bans had no such compunctions.
"We don't want our city patterned after Sodom and Gomorrah," said 61-year-old Detroiter Jerome Williams at the Monday evening hearing.
"We are here today to say that if you don't change it, we will," Winans said the day before the vote, drawing a standing ovation. "You can trust we are united."
Some dancers appeared at the Monday hearing to argue against the new ordinances, citing a lack of job alternatives in the city. One, Kweli Buffalo, a dancer at All Stars, accused some in the crowd of hypocrisy, claiming she recognized some in the audience as bar patrons.
Perhaps the most ridiculous argument for the ordinances was posited by Winans in a letter to the editor published in The Detroit News prior to the vote.
“About the 6-foot buffer rule (it is already illegal to receive lap dances) and the pasties' regulations, they are designed in part to curb assaults against the dancer,” Winans wrote.” As a pastor, I have counseled some dancers when they are suicidal and confused. The regulations will not end all of these problems, but could help save the dignity, even life, of these dancers. That is likely why Grand Rapids and other cities have implemented such regulations.”
Not only will these regulations not address all the problems Winans outlines, as he himself admits, they will address none of the problems. And had Winans gotten his way, and had the pasties and no-alcohol ordinances passed, those would have done nothing to help, either. How wearing pasties would somehow contribute to a dancer’s sense of worth or self esteem – how it would prevent suicide, for goodness sake – is a remarkable and reckless claim.
Winans went on to write:
“The serving of alcohol makes strip clubs a target for criminals -- drunken patrons will not report crimes committed against them for fear of being discovered and are more likely to commit lewd sex acts outside of the clubs (which happens a lot in Detroit).”
All this is true, of course, but . . . so what? How is this different than in any bar, anywhere? People drink in bars; some of them get drunk. Why are strip clubs any different in that respect?
Kudos to those citizens who are attempting to redeem their city. God knows Detroit is in need of deliverance. But the bottom line is that Detroit – a city larger in area than Boston, San Francisco and Buffalo combined – is not reeling due to the activities taking place in a couple dozen strip clubs. If that were the case, it seems counter-productive that the Council would pass the portion of the ban prohibiting clubs to open on Eight Mile Rd. Why not concentrate such establishments in a designated area, the better to oversee and patrol?
As Cockrell pointed out, the city will begin its atonement when citizens pack City Hall for more serious issues, and demand of their leaders the same attention to detail that lewd vaudeville venues