Geoff Hobson
The night they were drafted 20 years ago, Chris Henry came to Atlanta to celebrate with Adam "Pacman," Jones. Even though Henry owed him fifty large.
The bet had been hatched the season before their draft while they were playing at West Virginia.
Who would go first?
Jones, the Mountaineers' dynamic playmaking cornerback who had scored touchdowns on a kick, a punt, and a fumble?
Or Henry, the towering Big East rookie of the year who burst on the scene with more than 1,000 yards on just 41 catches using an impossibly slight body that earned him the nickname "Slim."
"We bet fifty thousand," Jones remembers in 2025. "Whoever goes higher. He was coming off an unbelievable year. It was a good thing for us to compete with each other and push each other to work hard."
Jones won the bet going away. He was the sixth player chosen, and when the phone rang as the Browns were picking Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards at No. 3, he thought he was going higher. But when he picked up the phone, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher assured him he was coming to Nashville at No. 6.
"Can't wait to get there, Coach," Jones told him.
He never thought Henry would last until the third round, where the Bengals took him at No. 83. Four years later, Henry was gone, killed in a road accident at age 26 with 21 touchdowns on his 119 catches that left everyone wondering how many more were out there.
Everyone except the man who says Henry was his best friend.
"I hate doing all that. We all know what he was and what he could have been," Jones says. "He reminds me of Randy Moss. He didn't have the tools Randy had, but as far as speed, the deep ball, going to get the ball. He could do all that."
If Jones sounds a bit reflective these days at age 41 during a life he's been trying to tame the emotion that helped make him such a good football player, he is. Jones toured Paycor Stadium Monday and gave his podcast a heartfelt behind-the-scenes look at where he spent eight of his 12 NFL seasons as a fiery part of five straight playoff defenses ranked in the top ten three times.
"This ball right here opened up my life and changed my life," says Jones of an NFL football that Bengals equipment manager Adam Knollman gave him to carry through the podcast. "I'm not even talking about the money part. The money part is cool, but it's the relationships that are way bigger than the money part. It's football."
The latest episode of "Politely Raw: The Adam Jones Show," drops Friday and it catches him alternately analyzing next week's draft and waxing nostalgically about his time in the NFL that began with that eventful draft of 20 years ago.
It was quite a class.
From immortal (Aaron Rodgers) to Incognito (Richie). Harvard quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick was taken in the seventh round and played 166 games. South Carolina wide receiver Troy Williamson was taken with the seventh pick and played 49 games. Edge DeMarcus Ware is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, running back Frank Gore is making a run at it, and top pick Alex Smith is in the Hall of Good to Very Good at quarterback.
As Pacman Jones talked to Tennessee's Fisher, it was Texas running back Cedric Benson who went to the Bears at No. 4. Like Jones, Benson and second-round kicker Mike Nugent recycled their careers to become key figures for Bengals' division winners.
Meanwhile, the Bengals' own draft class of 2005 became tragically star-crossed. First-rounder David Pollack's career was cut short by injury in its 16th game. Second-rounder Odell Thurman's runner-up NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year season was his last in a career derailed by off-field issues. Henry was headed to the best of his five seasons with nearly 20 yards per catch when he was sidelined with injury in October of 2009, two months before his death.
They played a total of 87 games. Henry's best friend played in 100 Bengals games.
"That's crazy. That's God's work, bro," Jones says.
Jones signed with the Bengals in 2010. He barely missed Henry as a teammate. "A day late and a dollar short." But he's still grateful he was right on time to have a dormant career revived by Bengals president Mike Brown, as well as executive vice president Katie Blackburn, vice president Troy Blackburn, head coach Marvin Lewis, and defensive coordinators Mike Zimmer and Paul Guenther.
Pacman Jones says that's where you have to start. The relationships.
"Definitely, Mr. Brown first and foremost. Katie and Troy," Jones says. "You know and I know my (bleep) wasn't squeaky clean. I had a lot of run-ins. But I never let them down once I walked into this stadium. I was always first at the meetings. I was always pushing everybody else to be better. Always competing in practice and a game. I never had a problem at the facility. When I left here, it might be something different."
Seven years after the last snap, Jones still misses the locker room interplay and intimacy. He beamed as head coach Zac Taylor looked at the trim 5-10, 185-pound Jones and said, "It looks like you can still play."
("I could play three games if I was on defense," Jones later said. "All of them if I just returned punts.")
It was for this reason that the other day Jones coordinated a conference call with 16 Bengals teammates and Marvin Lewis.
"Everybody having a little bit of wine or something. It was kind of late. Marv was still at the country club. He had just finished playing," Jones says. "For me, I can get a little bit of the locker room feeling doing what I'm doing. I think guys need that when you leave the game. You have to realize, 90 percent of our time was here when we were playing. Wife and kids, you see them, but you're here from six to six and, if you're getting treatment, you're here until eight. From April, May, June, get a little break, and then July all the way to January if you're lucky enough to play in the after part."
So pretty much every player who was on those defenses got on the horn. Leon Hall, Reggie Nelson, Carlos Dunlap, Terence Newman, Darqueze Dennard, Vontaze Burfict, Dre Kirkpatrick, Wallace Gilberry
"I think sometimes we as athletes, some are afraid to express 'Hey, I just need to holler at y'all for a second.' Or, 'I need to call Pac and say 'Hey brah, I'm pissed off today.' I want to see everybody win," Jones says.
That includes Chris Henry Jr., the two-year-old who was scurrying around his dad's last training camp at Georgetown College. He has grown into the top recruit in the country as Jones has shepherded his scholastic career through Cincinnati and out to Los Angeles, complete with a 2026 commitment to Ohio State.
"It's where the kids want to go. I've got no say in that," Jones says. "My job was to put him in a better position than he was in, and I think I did a good job."
They still keep in touch, and let's see, that would make him eligible for the draft in 2029. If there looms a second-generation bet, Jones sounds like he's putting the chip on himself once again 20 years later.
"He's a first-round guy," says Pacman Jones of Chris Henry Jr. "But six is hard. Six is hard."
