NEW YORK -- North Alabama cornerback Janoris Jenkins was drafted by the St. Louis Rams on Friday with the 39th selection, ending months of debate over his place in the 2012 draft class.

Jenkins, 23, stands 5 -10, runs the 40 in 4.44 seconds, and became a reluctant model for discussion of 'character issues' after being busted twice for marijuana possession and kicked off the University of Florida football team in 2011.

"It felt good to be picked," Jenkins told USA TODAY Sports on Friday. "It's exciting knowing that the Rams accepted me for who I am."

Does he feel the need to prove his doubters wrong?

"People are going to say what they want," Jenkins says. "I ain't got nothing to prove. I just have to go out there and be who I am.

"I see it as another opportunity."

A rare talent with exceptional ball skills, he spent a season at North Alabama, earning Division II second-team All America honors, but more scrutiny followed when he changed agents during the pre-draft process, leaving CAA for Malik Shareef of DSI Sports. The Orlando Sentinel reported Jenkins was released from the agency, which Shareef denied.

Then there was the report that Jenkins told teams at the NFL combine he continued to smoke marijuana after he left Florida for North Alabama, which Jenkins denied to USA TODAY Sports.

In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, he disagreed with those who would call him a bad father (he has four children with three women) and defended the decisions which led to his release from the Gators football team.

"I was just being a college student," Jenkins said. "I'm pretty sure there were more guys than me that smoked. I just got caught."

Jenkins was asked of the popular comparison between him and troubled cornerback Pacman Jones, a draft choice of Rams coach Jeff Fisher when he coached the Titans.

When it was suggested that Fisher liked Jenkins because of his similarity to Jones, Jenkins told SIRIUS XM NFL Radio, "I mean, no, because I never shot up a strip club or nothing like that."

In evaluating players like Jenkins, former Green Bay Packers executive Andrew Brandt says teams must look for a pattern of behavior. Brandt said he wouldn't be concerned with a player switching agents, but would consider multiple arrests and multiple offspring by multiple women a warning sign.

"You'd like to have all of your players have high talent and high character, but that's just not going to happen," Brandt told USA TODAY Sports.

"You are going to deal with less than ideal characters. It's hard to say that it would strike someone from consideration, but it would be something that affected a grade overall. We hear terms like red flag. If there's a consistent pattern of character issues with arrest, with lack of responsibility, with multiple children, with agents, then you have an issue."

Brandt tweeted Friday: "Rams making a $4 million bet that issues are over." Last year's No. 39 pick, Akeem Ayers, inked a four-year, $4.9 million deal with the Titans.

NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin offered the most ringing endorsement of Jenkins this week, calling him the defensive "steal of the draft"

"He is a beast," Irvin said. "You can't play a game like football with all choir boys. You need somebody that is a Janoris Jenkins. The issue is, the proclivity to make some bad decisions might live within him. But, he will make some great plays on the field.

"When you draft a guy like this you have to give him the right support, and then he could be the steal of the draft.

"A cornerback like that with that attitude and that skill set is a rare find in this league. It takes some kind of psychological instability to do what they do. Some guy just went 80 yards on you and you've got to turn right around and step up like you're still the baddest man in the world. Him being crazy, I like. I just don't want him being crazy and making bad decisions off the field."

The Rams added veteran Cortland Finnegan in free agency to fill a hole at cornerback, but fellow starter Bradley Fletcher's two ACL tears in the previous three seasons warranted new blood at the position.