NFL Suspends Jones Indefinitely

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Oct. 14 -- The NFL imposed an indefinite suspension Tuesday on Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones for being involved in a scuffle with one of his bodyguards last week.

The league announced Jones will miss at least four games without pay for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy. Commissioner Roger Goodell left open the possibility of the suspension becoming a permanent ban from the league if Jones doesn't convince Goodell and other NFL officials that his misbehavior will cease.

"He knows that when he was reinstated over the summer that I didn't feel that he had room for any further errors," Goodell said during a news conference on the opening day of a two-day NFL owners' meeting. "I think what happened last week was significant enough to me to take the action so he understood that there are no free passes and that he was going to have to earn his way back into the league. It's up to him at this point in time."

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said during a break in the meetings that he supported Goodell's decision.

"I am disappointed," he said. "I really thought there was a good plan in place. But everybody has to cooperate to make a good plan work, and we just didn't get it done."

The altercation with the bodyguard occurred in a restroom at a Dallas hotel. Police responded to the scene of the incident, but no criminal charges were filed.

The NFL's personal conduct policy empowers Goodell to impose discipline upon a player even if the player is not charged with or convicted of a crime. Goodell suspended Adam Jones for all of last season under the policy while the cornerback was with the Tennessee Titans following a series of off-field incidents with police involvement.

Goodell warned Jones when the suspension was issued in April 2007 that he was down to his last chance to salvage his NFL career.

Goodell reinstated Jones just before this season, after an offseason trade to the Cowboys.

The NFL said in a written release "the decision on whether Jones can return to play will be based on Jones' strict compliance with his NFL and Dallas Cowboys treatment plans as well as on evaluations of Jones' progress that will be provided to Commissioner Goodell by clinical experts retained by the NFL."

The league's written release indicated Jones "was involved in an alcohol-related physical altercation at a Dallas hotel . . . that resulted in hotel employees calling the police. Commissioner Goodell in today's letter to Jones called it a continuation of 'a disturbing pattern of behavior and clearly inconsistent with the conditions I set for your continued participation in the NFL.' "

Said Goodell: "I think it's going to be up to Adam and what he does in the following weeks with respect to his conduct, with respect to getting an evaluation and whatever treatment may be prescribed to him at that point in time. I think it's up to him at this stage. . . . Part of it is going to be whether he's willing to do some of the things that we have asked him to do and the Cowboys have asked him to do, and that he can demonstrate even for the next four weeks that he can conduct himself in an appropriate fashion."