Cowboys' A. Jones Reinstated

Cornerback Eligible To Play on Dec. 7

The NFL has reinstated Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones announced that the reinstatement will take effect after two more games. That makes Adam Jones eligible to participate in the Cowboys' game at Pittsburgh on Dec. 7.

The cornerback has missed the last four games after being suspended by the NFL without pay for violating the league's personal conduct policy.

The suspension came after Jones was involved in a scuffle with one of his bodyguards in a restroom at a Dallas hotel in early October.

Adam Jones will be eligible to practice with the Cowboys beginning next Monday, according to Jerry Jones.

The league did not immediately make a formal announcement. Jerry Jones told reporters that was expected last night or today.

"I think he's done what he was asked to do," Jerry Jones said, according to the Dallas Morning News, "and as anybody that understands the kinds of things that you deal with to get better, it's probably going to be an ongoing thing. I do know that he does have a good sense of where he is, and we could benefit from that."

The Morning News reported that Adam Jones is back in the Dallas area after spending 30 days at an alcohol treatment center in Boston.

Jerry Jones indicated that Adam Jones could be back at the Cowboys' training facility later this week, according to the Morning News.

The owner indicated last week that the Cowboys would welcome back Adam Jones if the cornerback was reinstated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell had said in a televised interview Tuesday that he would make a decision "in the coming days" about whether to reinstate Jones.

"Adam has been through a period of time where he's gone through medical evaluations, and I'll be hearing from those personnel later this week and we'll be making a decision sometime in the coming days with respect to his status," Goodell said during an interview Tuesday in the Los Angeles studios of the league-owned NFL Network. "But he has to understand that there's a certain standard we're going to expect from him and everybody else, and it now will be up to him."

The league announced last month that Jones would miss at least four games without pay and his playing status would be reevaluated following the Cowboys' game last Sunday against the Washington Redskins.

The league said the incident with the bodyguard was alcohol-related when it announced Jones's suspension, and Goodell said that Jones had to demonstrate that he can curb his off-field misbehavior before being reinstated.

Goodell left open the possibility at the time of the suspension becoming a permanent ban from the league. The conduct policy empowers the commissioner to impose such a ban on a player deemed the worst of repeat offenders.

Jones was suspended all of last season, while with the Tennessee Titans, under the NFL's conduct policy.