Adam Jones blames officials after Bengals’ playoff loss

Adam Jones is not happy with the referees or Pittsburgh Steelers coach Joey Porter and he’s not afraid to say so.

In a deleted Instagram video, Jones lamented the fact that Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter was on the field jawing with Bengals players during an injury timeout. He followed it up with a friendlier version after deleting his NSFW expletive-laden masterpiece.

Okay, a few points need to be made here.

First, we need to concede that Jones is right, to an extent. Porter was on the field, that is a penalty and it was missed.

That’s a bad miss by the referees.

But Jones should also be more accountable for his own actions. One consistent no-no in all sports is touching the officials. Jones did that, which is what drew the penalty on him.

In one way or another, he needs to at least acknowledge his own mistake and apologize for it. While Vontaze Burfict’s penalty put the Steelers in field goal range, Chris Boswell would have still needed to make a 50-yard kick in bad weather. With Jones’ additional foul, it became a simple 35-yarder.

Porter should have been flagged, but that doesn’t justify the actions taken by Jones afterwards. At some point in the very near future, Adam Jones needs to acknowledge his own contributions to the loss. While other penalties were missed, the one called against him was obvious.