The Doggy Bag: The Lemonade Edition

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After all the talk about Jon Jones' DUI incident, do you think it will change him at all in a noticeable way? Most of the talk about Jones before the incident was about how he was a young kid who struggled to be "real" for the masses. Incidents like this seem to be what force athletes into their shell, to be private, to not engage with media types. Even if this event helps Jones become a more mature adult, could it impact how much of himself he is willing to put out there? I'd hate to see another GSP-type with a UFC title. -- Derrick from Georgia

Tristen Critchfield, associate editor: Jones’ words and actions leading up to his Sept. 1 showdown with Dan Henderson will be scrutinized more closely than ever before, which is saying something for a world champion who could potentially be the UFC’s figurehead for the next decade. How he chooses to respond to his first mishap could shape popular perception of him for months and years to come. It is an unenviable position -- most 20-somethings don’t have the errors of their youth broadcast and dissected in a national forum.

That said, it is a misconception that Jones isn’t already a private person. As you mentioned, the native New Yorker is a young kid who has struggled to be “real” for the masses. That suggests that he works to carefully craft a public persona, and many of Jones’ naysayers have blasted him for it. He isn’t the first professional athlete to do so, nor will he be the last.

Michael Jordan once famously said that “Republicans buy shoes, too” when explaining why he wouldn’t endorse a black Democratic candidate in a North Carolina Senate race in the 1990s. He remains the most famous sneaker salesman in the world today. During his pre-Thanksgiving 2009 heyday, Tiger Woods was a master of press conference banalities, and he laughed all the way to the bank to the tune of a $105 million Nike contract. In their primes, both of these men made more money by revealing less about their personal lives and deepest thoughts. Other than brief glimpses at Jones’ faith and family, how much does anyone outside his inner circle know about him, other than he might be the most prodigiously talented athlete to step in the Octagon to date?

With that in mind, it is no surprise that “Bones” has been openly courting a Nike contract. The big endorsements don’t go to the characters that lay all their cards on the table, like a Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Instead, they go to those who can represent a brand without ruffling too many feathers. Jones and his management team have been smart enough to realize that. It does not mean the Jones we see was entirely an act. He is very much a man of faith, family and friends who has, by and large, been generous with his time when it comes to media. But those who believed a young man of his wealth and status spent all his weekend evenings partaking in Bible trivia are at best naive and at worst delusional.

The guess here is that Jones’ growing pains won’t necessarily affect his media presence, although a few more carefully chosen words here and there never hurt anyone. Jones hasn’t gotten this far by being the UFC’s most gregarious personality, anyway. His Octagon performance made him marketable -- relative poise and humility in interviews was just icing on the cake. If during his evolution as a person, Jones does turn out to resemble a St. Pierre -- ambassador, pound-for-pound king, genuine nice guy and Gatorade and Under Armour pitchman -- well, things could be a lot worse.

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