(Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)
Early on Tuesday morning in East Boston, Jack Jones was arraigned on weapons charges. Jones posted a $30,000 cash bail, pleaded not guilty and has a probable cause hearing on August 18, a day before New England will play Green Bay in a preseason game. The Patriots will have joint practices with the Packers that week as well.
Jones’ attorney Rosemary Scapicchio spoke following the arraignment.
“He had no intention of bringing any guns into Logan Airport that day. He had no intention of bringing any guns to an airport that day. I expect the evidence is going to show that he had no knowledge of what was going on,” she said.
According to the police report, the duffel bag that had the guns inside had a customized luggage tag that all players received last summer when the team visited the UFC headquarters out in Las Vegas. Scapicchio quickly blamed the media coverage for Jones almost getting fired.
“It’s the social media and the media, who have turned him into a thug, who have labeled him a thug, with no evidence whatsoever” she added. “Because he’s a young black man, all of the sudden, he’s a thug. That’s what happened here. It’s disrespectful to Mr. Jones and every other black man in America. This is the institutional racism we deal with every day in the court system.
“That label that was attached to him through social media almost got him fired, and it was completely unfounded.”
The key word there is ‘almost.’ With the obvious past history lingering – both Jones’ and the organization’s – it’s surprising that Jones is still here. But, it may also speak to the team knowing more details than we do and perhaps believing Jones really may have a story of his own to tell.
“We’re grateful to the Patriots organization and the leaders of the Patriots that they didn’t believe and feed into what was happening on social media where people were saying he was trying to get guns past security,” Scapicchio said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. That’s not what happened in this case. I suggest we wait to hear all of the evidence before people jump to conclusions.
“All Mr. Jones wants to do is play football. He doesn’t want to be a distraction at all. H wants to support his family and play football.”
In terms of on the field reasons to keep him around, Jones and Christian Gonzalez had a chance to be one of the best one-two combos in the AFC this year. You can understand why Bill Belichick would want to wait as long as he could to keep that kind of talent around, even if he’s been an issue already in his very young career. The quickest way back to prominence and the Shula record is a talented roster. The Krafts ultimately have the final say of course, and after the Aaron Hernandez fiasco now 10 years ago, there must be some extremely angry people inside the building.
How the team handles this over the next few days and weeks will be fascinating.