Jamal Adams has, at times, behaved like a jerk. Recently, he has acted like a jerk on multiple occasions.
The Jets experienced his attitude. They tried everything they could to handle him. They eventually gave up, concluding that there was no getting through to him.
The Seahawks knew or should have known he was hard to handle. They traded for him, and after that they paid him.
His playing abilities have caused multiple NFL teams to make excuses for him. The excuses need to end.
Adams crossed the line last week in a social-media spat with Jets reporter Connor Hughes. We decided not to give the brouhaha any oxygen. On Wednesday, however, Adams had a chance to make things better. Instead, he made things worse.
“It’s always the athlete that crossed the line when he responds,” Adams said. “But at the end of the day, disrespect is disrespect, however you want to take it. So I responded. I knew when I did hit that tweet, I wasn’t in it to win it. At the end of the day it was to get him to understand, ‘Leave me the hell alone. . . . When others go low, I go lower.”
In response to Hughes posting a video of Adams being beaten for a touchdown last Thursday night with the word “yikes,” Adams posted a photo of Hughes and his wife, with the word “yikes.”
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was asked about Adams’ social-media post on Wednesday.
“We already addressed it with him,” Carroll said. “I don’t know if it was a great decision. I’m not sure about the details of it, but I know that he realized that he needed to take it down. We don’t want to be part of that.”
That’s good. It would be even better if Adams had used Wednesday’s press availability as an opportunity to apologize and not to double down.
What will the Seahawks do about it? Probably nothing. Most teams think it’s harder to put that kind of fire into a player than it is to control it when it’s already there.
As to Adams, it’s definitely there. The question is whether the Seahawks can find a way to control it.
