Cowboys CB Jones again suspended indefinitely

Goodell said the NFL, if asked, would help set up evaluations.

Asked if substance abuse was involved, Goodell responded, "I don't know. I'm not a doctor. I think that's one of the reasons we want him to get an evaluation."

Jerry Jones called the Oct. 7 incident an "aberration" and said the Cowboys didn't plan any discipline because no team rules were violated. But he knew the NFL might have a different view.

"He was brought back into the league with the understanding that we would have a zero tolerance relative to such things as publicly having a negative issue under any kind of circumstance," Jerry Jones said.

In the latest incident, Dallas police said officers responded around 11 p.m. Oct. 7 and that the matter was over by the time they arrived. Hotel employees had reported hearing a tussle in the men's restroom in the lobby.

The player and the bodyguard, Tommy Jones, said everything was OK. Police said both were driven from the hotel by an acquaintance, and the bodyguard, part of a security detail provided by the Cowboys, didn't want to press charges.

Jerry Jones said last week banter between the player and his bodyguard got out of hand, resulting in the scuffle. A small glass item on the vanity in the restroom was damaged.

The owner acknowledged that alcohol was served at the party, but that witnesses told him the player's "conduct should not be interpreted as over drinking."

Before getting traded to Dallas, the cornerback was arrested six times and involved in 12 instances requiring police intervention after Tennessee drafted him in the first round in 2005.

Jones has started all six games for the Cowboys, partly because Pro Bowl cornerback Terence Newman has been injured. Jones has 25 tackles and 11 pass deflections, and has averaged 5.0 yards on 16 punt returns.

Tennessee got a fourth-round pick from the Cowboys in the April draft and was supposed to get a sixth-rounder next year for Jones. But because Jones has been suspended again, Dallas will instead get the Titans' fifth-round pick next April.

Jones was an elite cornerback and kick returner in his first two seasons with the Titans, but the accumulation of arrests and legal problems, including his connection to a shooting at a Las Vegas strip club, led to his suspension without pay in April 2007.