Pacman Jones is a regular guest on the Pat McAfee Show, and one day soon, the former NFL star believes his own show will reach an impressive level of fame.
The All-Pro cornerback sat down with SportsCasting for an exclusive interview about the rise of ‘The Pacman Jones Show’ and his thoughts on the Bengals, Titans, Cowboys and West Virginia.
Key topics from the Q&A
- Why Pat McAfee is “a big inspiration” to Pacman
- Finding the right offer to take his show national
- The return of Rich Rodriguez to West Virginia
- Shedeur Sanders vs. Cam Ward
- If L’Jarius Sneed can bounce back in 2025
- Trey Hendrickson’s status among the best edge rushers
- Tee Higgins’ future
- Pacman’s pick for the next defensive coordinator of the Bengals
- How to fix the Cowboys
- The possibility of a return to professional wrestling
Q: What’s up Pacman? So how has it been hosting your own show?
Pacman Jones: “It’s fun, man. I’ve hosted a lot of shows, been a co-host of a lot of shows. It’s fun, putting the rundown together and picking what I would like to talk about. I enjoy having my own opinion, and I’m a guy who knows a lot about pretty much all sports and can relate to pretty much anything going on. So I’m eager, bro. This is my first year and my numbers have been crazy. Way more than I thought they would have been. Way more subscribers. Picked up by a lot of people because of different conversations, and breaking different stories before everybody.”
Q: The Adam Schefter approach, huh?
Pacman Jones: “Yeah, the black Adam Schefter.”
Q: You’ve done a lot of stuff with Pat McAfee. Is that an inspiration to see, as a former athlete, the way he grew his platform? Like you said, you’re on that path. Would you want to do the same thing, go national with all these eyes on you?
Pacman Jones: “I enjoy it, and Pat has been a big inspiration to me. I learned a lot from Pat, being able to pick his brain and sit in on certain meetings. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I’m at business-wise. I give him a lot of credit. I see this being pretty big. I see it getting picked up by a big syndication, probably this year coming up. I’ve had a couple talks with different platforms, had a couple offers. Not one to really make me turn yet. But, yeah, it’s getting there.”
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Q: Podcasting has blown up in the past few years, but maybe not so much early in your career. Did you always think about doing it after you played?
Pacman Jones: “I really fell in love with it when I did a podcast with Solomon Wilcots that was all about the Bengals. I learned a lot from ‘Solly’ too, as far as in and outs, doing a lot of things when it comes to podcasting or TV shows. I’m not going to say I had this as No. 1 on my list, but it was up there. Being an artist was up there, owning my own weed grow was up there. I’d say commentating or podcasting was probably my third one.”
Q: Do you enjoy the freedom of your setup? You pick the topics, you can swear, say whatever. You can be yourself, where back in the day on radio, there were restrictions.
Pacman Jones: “Oh, yeah. It’s politely raw. Now I’m not going to go out and totally disrespect anybody, but it’s going to be as real as it gets, as close to raw as I can make it. And it’s more of a day-to-day conversation. It’s something everyone can relate to, rather than going in there and trying to say everything the correct way. It comes off more real in natural conversation, in that environment, than what it used to be, as far as media-wise.”
Q: I wanted to get your thoughts on Rich Rod going back to West Virginia.
Pacman Jones: “Love it. Country Rooooaaadddds. We back, b——. West Virginia football is back, baby. I’m so excited.”
Q: Well that was my next question. Can he bring it back to the heyday of the early 2000s with you, Pat White, Steve Slaton?
Pacman Jones: “Oh, yeah. I definitely think he can. I was just talking to him this morning. I said, ‘Coach, what kind of guys do we want?’ He said, ‘Tough and physical. No softies.’ So I think with the DC we just got in, Zac Alley, who was at Oklahoma, he’s a pretty good coordinator. And we got a couple old heads in there too. (Jeff) Casteel is going to be around. So I’m eager to see how good we’re going to be. I know Rod, though. Rod is going to do a great job of getting guys that are worried about not just getting paid, but playing to get paid. A lot of these kids are worried about getting paid, and not playing to get paid. But, yeah, I’m excited. WVU football is back. Give us one year. It’ll only take Rod a year.”
Q: What do you think the Titans should do with the No. 1 overall pick?
Pacman Jones: “I think quarterback. I’m not a big believer in Will (Levis). Everybody keeps saying he needs more time. How much more time does he need? But if I was a betting man, I’d go Travis Hunter with the first pick. There’s also a possibility the Raiders trade from 6 to 1. There’s gonna be a whole bunch of sh– going on then.”
Q: Have you watched Cam Ward and Shedeur (Sanders)? Which one of them do you think should go No. 1?
Pacman Jones: “That’s a good question. I think they are very similar, but to me, Shedeur is a little smarter and has quicker zip on his ball. Cam can throw the deep ball really nice. Intermediate passes, he struggled with a little bit, being on time. It depends on who is up there (drafting and their evaluation).”
Q: L’Jarius Sneed got the big contract but didn’t have the greatest year, got hurt. You think he will bounce back next season? Obviously that was a big signing for Tennessee and it didn’t work out Year 1, but is there time for that deal to be OK?
Pacman Jones: “Oh, yeah. It’s the first year, and you can’t judge him off what happened with the injuries. I can’t make myself not get hurt, you know what I mean? I think he will bounce back. He still has a bright future. He’s an unbelievable player.”
Q: When you look at the Bengals, how did you feel about them moving on from Lou (Anarumo), and is there a defensive coordinator out there that you like?
Pacman Jones: “I didn’t agree with that move with Lou. He had been unbelievable the last four years, and then he has one bad year with nobody he could do anything with. The run defense up front, besides the sack leader – I mean, (D.J.) Reader left, we lost a lot of key pieces on defense. But, Mike Zimmer, I could see that happening.”
Q: Was Zim one of the most creative defensive minds you played for?
Pacman Jones: “He was, and he still is. So smart, good with the ‘A’ gaps. You’ve just got to be disciplined in his defense. This year Dallas was not disciplined. They had gaps everywhere. Some of the guys they had out there this year were not the caliber of player Zimmer normally has on defense. I think the Cowboys will bounce back though.”
Q: You mentioned the sack leader. Trey Hendrickson, to me, doesn’t seem like he’s mentioned in the same tier as guys like Micah Parson, T.J. Watt and Myles Garrett. Does he deserve to be mentioned in that elite category?
Pacman Jones: “When you get 10-plus (sacks) every year, you’ve got to be mentioned in that category. Do you know how hard that is to do? And he’s getting doubled. Sh–, he got doubled the whole year this year. He didn’t have no help. So, yeah, he deserves to be in that top tier. That’s not even a question.”
Q: How do you feel about the Tee Higgins situation and how that will play out in free agency?
Pacman Jones: “We’ve got to pay him, man. Mr. Brown has to go ahead and cut that check. I don’t know what’s taking so damn long. We cannot lose Tee Higgins in Cincinnati. We came back on at the end of the season and played good. We need Tee Higgins back. And we need to start off faster. We’ve got to figure out a way to win in the first six f—ing games. The last three years we couldn’t win a game within the first six.”
Q: And what about Ja’Marr Chase’s contract situation?
Pacman Jones: “Oh, he’s getting paid. They already got the Brinks truck down there. They’re just figuring out the details for that. He’ll get more than whatever the highest is.”
Q: Justin Jefferson is at $35 million per year right now.
Pacman Jones: “Ja’Marr will get 36.”
Q: There is a lot of buzz about Deion Sanders potentially going to the Cowboys.
Pacman Jones: “Cap. My sources say, ‘Cap.’ The only way Deion is leaving Colorado is if he can coach both of his sons in the NFL. There is no way he can do that in Dallas.”
Q: How do you think it ends up with the vacancy in Dallas?
Pacman Jones: “Jon Gruden.”
Q: Gruden, huh? Why do you think that pairing makes sense?
Pacman Jones: I don’t know, but my sources are saying Gruden.
Q: This is going to be a prophetic conversation if all of that comes true. You mentioned that you expect a bounceback in Dallas. What’s the reasoning for that?
Pacman Jones: “They need a running back. They need to go get (Ashton) Jeanty because that’s a good fit for them. They have no running game right now. Zero. So start with that, and that will take a lot of pressure off Dak. And then get you one of these young receivers in the draft that can straight-up fly. And then on defense, they need some linebackers.”
Q: But you don’t think they are too far off?
Pacman Jones: “No, they are not too far off. Keep in mind they have a great quarterback, and it all starts with the quarterback.”
Q: I saw a couple days ago that you might return to professional wrestling. Have you thought about that more and would you want to do that?
Pacman Jones: “Yeah, I’m thinking about it a lot. I’ve got some things I’m working on in the pipeline right now.”
Q: Is it fun branching out and doing all these different things?
Pacman Jones: “Oh, yeah. I like to stay busy. It’s a good thing, if you can handle the workload, showing your kids that you can work hard and enjoy it. At the end of the day, it’s a privilege that people want to hear what I have to say. It’s a privilege for people to buy my record. It’s a privilege that people say they want to see me wrestle again. I’m thankful, bro, and I’m just trying to work my ass off. I truly believe that if you work hard, everything else will take care of itself.”
