Message clear: Enough Ced
Now Angelo, Bears have no reason at all to bring back Benson
The big white bus with ''COACH USA'' sat in front of Halas Hall on Sunday afternoon, and I kept waiting for Cedric Benson to get on.
That was silly.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)
The bus was for rookies leaving Lake Forest after the just-completed minicamp, taking them to O'Hare, some never to return.
Benson, presumably, was still in Texas after being arrested Saturday night for drunken boat operation and resisting arrest before being pepper-sprayed into submission.
Several police officers reportedly were needed to drag the Bears running back to the squad car.
It is not clear if the car was more than 3.4 yards from the dock or if Benson used second effort to avoid capture.
The multiple tacklers were, however, a record -- the previous high being one.
At any rate, the Bears' fourth-year back, a gridiron bust of severe proportions, symbolically should have been on that bus, which left at precisely 2 p.m.
Benson was chosen by the Bears with the fourth pick of the 2005 draft, and he basically has been waiting to be given a ticket out of town ever since.
I remember him crying on draft day, seemingly overwhelmed with being drafted to play at the same position in the same city where Bronko Nagurski, Beattie Feathers, Rick Casares, Willie Galimore, Gale Sayers and Walter Payton had played.
I remember asking him a slightly abstract but relevant question that day, via speaker telephone, and Benson saying, essentially, ''Huh?''
He had those problems back at the University of Texas, including a little of the weed variety, and when the intoxicated boating report came out, I couldn't help wondering if his hero and former Longhorns running and doping star Ricky Williams were aboard.
But no, apparently there were just a dozen or so of Ced's best non-football-playing friends partying with him on Lake Travis.
No one should get too sanctimonious about this stuff.
Being on the water on a warm day and having a beer or two sounds like a good time to this reporter.
And maybe, as Benson now claims, it was all a mistake, overzealousness by the cops.
But driving a big, powerful craft allegedly hammered, then getting nutty when the river authority pulls you over, that's a little reckless and career-damaging.
In this case, at least as far as the Bears are concerned, it should be career-ending.
The very fact the oddball, listless running back cared so little about his future as to let this incident occur tells you about all you need to know.
The Bears may be screwed at the tailback position -- my, have you got some signing leverage now, young Matt Forte! -- but Benson is worse than a screw. He's an anchor, pulling things down.
General manager Jerry Angelo, the guru who went after this guy from Midland, Texas, said recently that Benson is not going to be the featured back for the Bears in 2008.
With only a minor salary-cap whack to be received from cutting this nautical nut, the Bears have no reason even to bring Benson to the late-May minicamp for veterans.
Angelo blew it by taking this barnacle.
Now Angelo at least can come clean by cutting Benson's pull rope.
It should be noted that, according to the police report from Lake Travis, Benson refused to put on a life jacket when ordered to by the arresting officer.
Sink or swim, dude.
It's pretty nasty down there with the bottom-feeders, Ced. But you can learn to fish or cut bait somewhere down the road.
Preferably not in Chicago.
I'm not sure what Angelo and his brain trust should say to the other Bears who have been immature and stupid, starting with Lance Briggs of the wrecked luxury car fame and Brian Urlacher of the weird off-field adventures and contract greed, and even to Olin Kreutz, who seems to have turned his wild ways around and become a solid captain and leader.
Maybe you just remind them of Tank Johnson's bye-bye.
Or you note that in his entire Bears career Benson has gained 91 fewer yards than Payton did in 1984.
In this brutal game of inches, where character often takes a back seat to talent, performance is the final yardstick.
And Benson performed like a stiff, like a drunken sailor.
I watched that chartered bus leave the parking lot Sunday.
One of the 28 undrafted, unsigned rookies in for the weekend had stopped prior to climbing aboard and had taken a photo of the sign in front of the building, the sign that reads ''HALAS HALL -- 1000 Football Drive.''
The kid knew he likely wouldn't be passing this way again.
With luck, he'll send a copy to Benson.
