The Charleston Gazette Wrote:Rodriguez learns lesson from Pacman, Henry woes
By Dave Hickman
Staff writer
July 26, 2007

http://wvgazette.com/section/Sports/Dave...2007072530

MORGANTOWN — If Rich Rodriguez had it all to do again, he would still recruit Pacman Jones and Chris Henry. The fact of the matter is there was little, if anything, in their pre-West Virginia histories to indicate they would eventually become poster children for NFL naughtiness.

What he might do just a little bit differently with a second chance, though, is stress more strongly to both how much character matters in regard to their chances of collecting a multi-million-dollar paycheck from the NFL.

Rodriguez could talk until he was blue in the face about representing WVU with character and class, and it was just that — talk. But if Jones and Henry knew that how they conducted themselves would have a direct bearing on their money-making futures, it might have been more readily absorbed.

Times have changed since Jones and Henry left West Virginia, and they are two of the major reasons why. Both were suspended by the NFL for their conduct off the field as part of new NFL commissioner Roger Goddell’s crackdown on stupidity.

And it’s not just the pro game that has changed. In light of the suspensions of Jones and Henry, college coaches are seeing pro scouts paying much more attention and asking a lot more questions about character when they visit college campuses.

“It’s already affecting college football,’’ Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said last week during the Big East’s media day in Newport, R.I. “Players who think they might have NFL aspirations — and that’s just about all of them these days — better understand now that everything they do will be scrutinized.’’

Wannstedt said that every NFL team that attended the school’s pro day this spring asked about the character of the players before anything else.

“They already knew whether they could play or not,’’ Wannstedt said.

Rodriguez is tired of hearing the questions about Jones and Henry, both of whom had a few problems while at West Virginia but nothing like the off-field circuses of which they are now a part. Jones was arrested once and put on probation after a bar fight, while Henry’s only college indiscretions were poor on-field habits (penalties) and even poorer academic pursuits.

Rodriguez compares the questions he gets now about two long-gone former players to Southern Cal’s coaches being asked about O.J. Simpson.

“It is ridiculous people are still calling us about a couple of guys who we have no control over,” Rodriguez said. “How can you blame us for guys we haven’t talked with in years? We recruit quality kids who are quality students and we go to great lengths to make sure those are the kind of players we recruit. And we’ve had very few problems. There are bad apples but not nearly as many as some people would have you believe.’’

Of course, Rodriguez is headed for more character questions with at least one of his newest recruits, linebacker Pat Lazear. Lazear, who has been in school all summer and working out, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery after a March 2006 incident. He’s on three years probation.

A character problem?

“Character is in the eye of the beholder if you ask me,’’ Rodriguez said. “How can you judge character without knowing a person? You take a kid like Lazear, who we believe, after doing a lot of research into his family and background, is a good kid. He just made a poor decision to get in the wrong car with the wrong buddy and ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.’’

What happens to guys like Jones and Henry after they leave school — both early and without the full four- or five-year exposure to the program, by the way — is largely a crapshoot.

“We had [Jones] for three years. He got in a bar fight his first year, but other than that he was good in the community, a hard worker, did all he had to do,’’ Rodriguez said. “But, you know, you lose contact with them. I haven’t talked to him in probably a year and a half, two years. He used to talk to Coach [Tony] Gibson about once a month, but even he hasn’t heard from him in a year. It’s disappointing. He is really up against it now.

“All of the sudden you have money and freedom and less structure. If you aren’t mentally prepared to handle it, bad things happen. I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing that the NFL is taking such a harsh stance on the off-the-field issues.’’

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call (304) 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickman1@aol.com.