The Associated Press
Bengals cornerback Adam Jones, the player formerly known as Pacman, isn’t talking about the issues facing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell except to say that he disagrees with some things.
Goodell suspended him for the 2007 season and again for six more games. Jones also sat out the 2009 season when nobody gave him a call before going to work for Cincinnati.
But Jones has talked with incoming players at the league’s rookie symposium. He says his advice is simple is for rookies: be careful with their choices and decisions because each is his own corporation.
And when the NFL is taken away, it’s gone.
“No one is going to be calling your phone and all that, so enjoy the time now and make good decisions and get all the money you can while you can get it,” Jones said. “When the checks stop coming in, they stop coming in.”
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SANU CAN FLING IT: Bengals receiver Mohamed Sanu has one of the best arms in the NFL. And he doesn’t even warm up before he shows it off.
Sanu took a pitch from Andy Dalton and completed a 50-yard pass down the sideline to Brandon Tate during Cincinnati’s 24-10 win over the Falcons on Sunday. That left Sanu 3 for 3 in his career for 148 yards and a touchdown with a perfect passer rating of 158.8.
Coach Marvin Lewis expects completions out of his receiver.
“Every time he lines up to throw one,” Lewis said. “He’s got great ability.”
Sanu was a quarterback in high school and threw out of wildcat formations at Rutgers. The Bengals took him in the third round in 2012 in part because of his versatility. He threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Green as a rookie and completed a 25-yard pass last season.
“You’ve just got to have that confidence in yourself to be able to make that throw,” Sanu said. “It’s just excitement when you know you get to make a big play for the offense.”
His pass on Sunday was his most impressive. Sanu delivered the ball between two defenders, hitting Tate right along the sideline.
“It was a perfect throw,” Tate said.
And it was unrehearsed. Sanu doesn’t throw before the game because he doesn’t want to tip off the opposition.
“He doesn’t even warm up!” Dalton said. “You just kind of get it to him and let him throw.”
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CHALLENGING: Maybe the coaches’ challenge system is overrated. It certainly hasn’t been overused this season.
Through two weeks of the schedule, there have been just two challenges — and both failed.
Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy made his 70th career challenge against the New York Jets in last week’s Packers victory. The play was upheld by replay.
Bill O’Brien made his first challenge as an NFL coach in Houston’s opener against Washington and also got it wrong.
According to SportsInteraction.com, which tracks coaches’ challenges, Denver’s John Fox has made the most challenges since he became a head coach in Carolina in 2002, 110. Next is the Giants’ Tom Coughlin with 102, followed by New England’s Bill Belichick with 95 and Kansas City’s Andy Reid with 89.
Fox has won only 40 of those challenges. Indeed, of those four frequent red-flag throwers, Reid comes closest to breaking even at 43-46. Coughlin is 49-53 and Belichick is 39-56.
Baltimore’s John Harbaugh has the best success percentage at 47.619, while Carolina’s Ron Rivera has the worst at 25 percent, going 3 for 12.
The small number of challenges thus far in 2014 can be attributed in part to the extension in recent years of what automatically gets reviewed, including all turnovers and all scoring plays.
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TOP HIGH SCHOOL: Saint Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has 10 players in the league, tops among prep schools as of the opening of the season.
In all, NFL players attended 1,376 high schools in 48 states and the District of Columbia, six countries and two U.S. territories (American Samoa and U.S. Virgin Islands).
The 10 from Saint Thomas Aquinas are Cincinnati’s Geno Atkins and Giovani Bernard; Chicago’s Jeremy Cain; Pittsburgh’s Marcus Gilbert; Jacksonville’s Brandon Linder; St. Louis’ Marcus Roberson; Atlanta’s Dezmen Southward; New England’s James White; Tampa Bay’s Major Wright; and Jacksonville’s Sam Young.
“It was an honor to play for a school with such rich history and tradition,” says Jaguars tackle Young. “We had an incredible coaching staff that took a lot of pride in preparing their players for the next level and above, and I think that shows in the program’s longstanding success. It was great to be a part of building the winning culture and I’m sure it will continue on for many years.”
California tops the list of states with 213 NFL players, followed by Florida (200) and Texas (172).
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