The announcement that Green Bay Packers defensive end Datone Jones would be suspended for the first game of the 2015 NFL season likely came as a complete shock to fans of the team. Jones' name had never come up in regards to off-the-field issues before, he's got no prior convictions or citations in Wisconsin and simply seemed nothing more than another in a recent string of underachieving draft picks by Packers GM Ted Thompson.
The revelation, revealed today by Ryan Wood and Doug Schneider of PackersNews.com, that Jones was actually suspended by the league due to a marijuana citation; a citation that apparently came only a few short hours after the Packers loss to the Seattle Seahawks in last year's NFC Championship Game, is likely then to raise a few eyebrows of its own.
"About seven hours after the Green Bay Packers' shocking loss in the NFC championship game, defensive end Datone Jones was ticketed for marijuana possession, according to Green Bay police.
"Jones was cited at 12:29 a.m. Jan. 19, a couple of hours after the Packers' plane returned from Seattle. Last week, he was suspended for the team's 2015 opener in Chicago because of a violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy."
Jones, a first-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft who seems to be entering something of a "prove-it" year in the NFL and with Green Bay, was apparently discovered by police in the parking lot of an apartment complex with a woman and marijuana and responded just as one would expect a petulant professional athlete to.
"Green Bay Police Lt. Chad Ramos said a woman called police to report a suspicious situation in the parking lot of an apartment complex off Capitol Drive on the city's west side. The woman said loud music was coming from a black Jeep occupied by a man and a woman, and said she saw money and a sandwich bag change hands," Wood and Schneider write.
"Two officers approached the Jeep and noticed 'the clear, distinct odor of marijuana,' said Ramos, reading from a report. Ramos said Jones 'became emotionally upset, and told officers he was the first-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers' in 2013."
Jones was issued a citation for possession of THC, convicted on Feb. 10 and forced to pay a fine of $880. He will now miss the Packers season opener against the NFC North rival Chicago Bears and likely faces an uphill climb back into the good graces of Green Bay fans and decision-makers.
