Former Patriots Star Chandler Jones Arrested

Some sad off-the-field news for the New England Patriots, as former star Chandler Jones has reportedly been arrested in Las Vegas. The specifics of the arrest are unknown, but TMZ is stating that Jones broke a protective order, causing police to respond and eventually arrest him.

The arrest of Chandler Jones, now a member of the Las Vegas Raiders, follows a string of bizarre behavior online.

Social Media Posts

On Sep. 5 Jones went on a tirade on his Instagram account. He claimed to be locked out of the Raiders practice facility and was being forced to work out at a local gym. At that point, his posts seemed to target Raiders general manager David Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels. He claimed this was no reason for this. Jones also posted supposed texts sent to McDaniels imploring him to do something about the situation. He stated that the team never contacted him, but supposedly reached out to his ex-girlfriend instead.

“F— it, I don’t wanna play for the Raiders if that’s my HC, or GM,” Jones concluded.

Jones would not have any involvement with the Las Vegas franchise from that day on. On Sep. 20 he was placed on the team’s Non Football Injured list, but not before another batch of bizarre posts. This time his main target was Las Vegas Raiders owner, Mark Davis.

Chandler Jones posted several unsubstantiated allegations on both Instagram and Twitter/X. He seemed to allege that there was a major conspiracy that he knew about and his not playing was somehow related to that. These posts seemed to accuse Davis of being involved in a coverup of a child molestation situation. There is no evidence to support these allegations.

After the disturbing string of posts sat for quite some time, Chandler Jones eventually claimed to have been hacked in a post since deleted (along with the original accusations).

Chandler Jones claiming he was hacked… pic.twitter.com/KwskYaXNFX

— Raiders Report Mitchell Renz (@MitchellRenz365) September 18, 2023

Sorry for the mix up. I was hacked .. Please forgive me.
– @ChanJones55

Yesterday Chandler Jones took to social media once again. The posts were incoherent and involved many people. Among those mentioned were Mark Davis, Josh McDaniels UFC’s Dana White, his brother Jon Jones, former boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., ex-NFL players Larry Fitzgerald and Taylor Lewan, and many more.  He also posted a screenshot of a supposed text message from a Raiders team employee asking him to give their Director of Player Wellness a call.

Later in the day Thursday, Jones to Instagram live. He began asking if people knew the real story behind Josh McDaniels and his former Patriots teammate Aaron Hernandez. Jones implied that Hernandez, whom he referred to as Chico, did not actually commit suicide while in jail as was reported. He did not give an alternate theory. Jones then got very emotional and broke into tears talking about the death of Hernandez.

Aaron Hernandez played with Chandler Jones with the Patriots. He was awaiting trial on charges for the murder of Odin Lloyd when he reportedly died by suicide by hanging in 2017. Hernandez was 27-years old and played alongside Jones on the 2012 New England Patriots.

New England Patriots Career

Chandler Jones was originally selected New England in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft out of Syracuse. He stayed in Foxboro for his first four NFL seasons. He helped the Patriots make the playoffs all four years, winning two AFC Championships and a Super Bowl along the way. In 55 career games for New England, he registered 36 sacks, and was named to the 2015 Pro Bowl.

There was one odd incident involving Jones during his Patriots years. On Jan. 10, 2016, a shirtless and seemingly confused Chandler Jones arrived at the Foxborough, Mass. Police Department. He knelt and put his hands behind his head, accordingly the police report, but officers did not believe Jones had broken any laws. They opted to call paramedics and have him taking to Norwood Hospital for further evaluation. The Boston Globe reported that the incident was the result of an advance reaction to smoking synthetic marijuana.

The New England Patriots were on their bye week in the NFL Playoffs when Jones incident with the Foxborough PD took place. He returned to action the following weekend and missed no games. After the season however, he departed via free agency to sign with the Arizona Cardinals.

Post-New England Years

Jones did not experience as much team success in Arizona as he had in New England, but he was still excellent individually. In his six seasons with the Cardinals, he was selected to play in three Pro Bowls, was named first team All Pro twice, and twice finished in the top three of NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting. In 84 games with Arizona, he produced 71.5 sacks.

Prior to the 2022 seasons, Chandler Jones signed with the Las Vegas Raiders. In his lone season for the Raiders, Jones had 4.5 sacks in 15 games. His highlight of the year came against the New England Patriots. On the final play of the games, Jones picked off a lateral attempt by Jakobi Meyers, ran over quarterback Mac Jones, and it the distance. Jones was credit with a 48-yard game winning fumble recovery touchdown.

The arrest of Chandler Jones and his behavior in recent weeks is certainly concerning. The New England Patriots have had former players from that same era run afoul of the law before, like Aaron Hernandez and Kellen Winslow II. Most recently, Sergio Brown made headlines for the wrong reasons. The official statement from the Las Vegas Raiders was that they hope Chandler Jones get the help he needs. Everyone is echoing those sentiments today.