OPINION

By Tim Dahlberg

updated 8:34 p.m. ET June 20, 2007

You know you’re a big time athlete when you’ve got a posse to do your dirty work for you. As posses go, Pacman Jones has a pretty good one, full of guys equally adept at picking up dollar bills showered on the strip club stage as they are trading shots with whoever gets in their way.

Pacman’s entourage was at it again the other night in Atlanta, where police say they were involved in a shooting after an altercation at, yes, a strip club. This is a posse that seems to travel well, mixing it up on both sides of the country in the name of their man.

The timing of the shooting was a bit awkward, coming less than a week after Jones pledged to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that he was going to turn his life around and become a productive citizen so he could play in the league once again.

It could be Jones thought the best way to become that new person was to make sure Atlanta strippers had enough money for taxi fare home. Or maybe he just wanted to give the posse one last night out for old times sake.

It doesn’t much matter now, because Jones has far more serious problems. And there’s not a lot the posse can do about it, unless it includes a good criminal defense lawyer or two.

If Las Vegas prosecutors have their way, the next time you see Jones with a number on his uniform, it will be prison garb, not an NFL jersey.

They charged Jones with two felonies Wednesday stemming from a shooting over NBA All-Star weekend in February that left a strip club manager paralyzed. Jones faces a possible 12 years in prison on coercion charges for his role in the melee in the early morning hours of Feb. 19 at the Minxx Gentlemen’s Club just off the Las Vegas Strip.

The court, of course, presumes that Jones is innocent until proven guilty. That’s a basic tenet of the legal system that serves our country so well, and Jones will have his day to defend himself.

But the NFL is free to judge things by a different standard. The league doesn’t need proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

'Pacman' in big trouble iPredict: Will 'Pacman' play in NFL again? 'Pacman' will surrenter, fight felony charges Titans' teammates unhappy with 'Pacman' Opinion: Jones deserves lifetime ban from NFL Celizic: Ban players from nightclubs? Fat chance JT the Brick's Rant: Titans must cut 'Pacman'   Sound off on NFL discussion boards

With that in mind, maybe it’s time for Goodell to begin rethinking the one-year suspension he handed down recently to Jones.

Maybe it’s time to make it a lifetime ban.

Goodell certainly has the power to do just that, and there couldn’t be a better candidate to remove from the game than Jones. He and his posse have wreaked havoc everywhere they’ve gone, and when he’s booked in Las Vegas it will be his sixth arrest since he was drafted by the Titans in April 2005.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Wednesday the league would not speculate any further on Jones’ future at this time. One read of the Las Vegas police report, though, should be all Goodell needs to bounce Jones from the league forever.

In it, police detail the events of the morning, which began when Jones and a half dozen members of his posse went to the strip club to watch some of their favorite dancers. They sat in a private booth with a garbage bag full of money so they could “make it rain” by throwing money on the women.

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