Bad Blood

Adam “Pacman” Jones is on a Pittsburgh-hatin’ tour for the ages ahead of the Backyard Brawl

September 01, 2022

On Thursday night, the Backyard Brawl—the long-dormant Appalachia Border War between Pitt and West Virginia—returns from an 11 year absence. Tensions are high across coal country, as you might expect. Brother has taken up arms against brother. Local bars have boarded up the windows. A storm is coming and everybody is bracing for impact. This includes former NFL cornerback and lifelong Mountaineer Adam “Pacman” Jones, who has used his minor celebrity status to launch a Pitt-bashin’ campaign for the history books ahead of Thursday night’s big tilt.

It all began on SiriusXM on Tuesday, when Jones shared his thoughts on the great Steel City.

If you forgot AirPods on the way to the office this morning, allow us to translate. “Have you ever been to Pittsburgh?” Jones asks. “It’s a sh*t town, man. The roads are bumpy. It’s always raining. It’s cold, drowsy. There’s nothing good about Pittsburgh. That’s why we call Sh*tsburgh.”

OKKKKK. Safe to say Jones, who also spent the bulk of his playing career with Cincinnati Bengals, didn’t pull any punches. His path of destruction wasn’t done there, however. On Wednesday night, the Mountaineers' hype video dropped with Jones as it narrator and emcee. "Our state vs. your neighborhood" he crooned as all of Morgantown punched a hole in their drywall.

Finally, on Thursday morning he went behind enemy lines, joining The Fan Morning Show—one of Pittsburgh’s preeminent sports talk radio shows—to offer an even more succinct criticism of the Panthers ahead of the big game:

Welp, that pretty much covers it. If you were wondering if this rivalry had any juice left after conference realignment, a decade-plus sabbatical, and the modern irrelevance of both programs, Pacman just gave us the answer. Hell yes it does. Take me home country freakin’ roads.