Some would call the ending of the four-year career of Matt Jones with the Jacksonville Jaguars sad, as the 2005 first-round pick was released in March just days after a second arrest that stemmed from a cocaine possession charge in July 2008. Plenty of others wouldn't be so sympathetic to the plights of a 6'6 athlete with world-class speed and a five-year, $8.45 million contract.
On Tuesday, a story told by Houston Nutt, the former coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks while Jones was the team's starting quarterback, shed a little light on the mental state of the future Jaguars receiver.
"One day Matt Jones was in the huddle and our offensive line coach was really barking at him 'Get to line of scrimmage, you're taking too long, come on Matt, get the signal.' Matt gets in the huddle and says 'Rodney' - Now Rodney was this character - 'Rodney doesn't like it when Coach Markuson yells at me."
Through the remainder of the video, Nutt continues to tell instances of Jones using an alternate personality named "Rodney" that he invented in a creative writing class at the University of Arkansas.
While an absurd and bizarre story that draws laughs from the panel of experts on the show, the story is also one that obviously raises eyebrows.
I'm not a psychologist, or really anything even close, but when an adult creates an alternate personality that they are unwilling to let go of...that just isn't the typical behavior of a mentally healthy person. It is the behavior, though, of a person that the Jaguars elected to take in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft despite warnings from Nutt that he is "different."