[CBFF] Bears need Jones, Benson to get heads, bodies in the game (Pierson)

[Victor Waldron]

Bears need Jones, Benson to get heads, bodies in the game
Don Pierson
On Pro Football

August 23, 2006

Now the Bears' running backs are even.

Thomas Jones left his teammates during organized team activities in
the spring and summer. Cedric Benson left his teammates during Friday
night's exhibition game, seeking refuge in the training room, where he
could watch on television. Then he skipped a meeting.

Coach Lovie Smith wasn't happy either time, demoting Jones, then
reprimanding Benson.

There's a difference. Jones skipped out on so-called voluntary
sessions. Benson ignored mandatory appearances on the sideline and at
a meeting.

There's another difference. Jones' teammates backed his choice.
Benson's teammates ratted him out.

Supposedly, they are all teammates, which looks like it is a bigger
problem for Smith at the moment than who starts at running back.

No wonder NFL teams dread the off-season and think the preseason is
too long. When players aren't playing football, they specialize in
playing all kinds of different games.

If Jones and Benson can't coexist—or, more importantly, if teammates
won't allow them to coexist—it can't be good for the Bears. Any team
would be happy to have both. It's very likely any team would discover
it needs both. If they don't like each other, so what? But if
teammates start picking sides, maybe it's the teammates who need to be
rooted out.

Dividing a locker room over a quarterback controversy is the usual
road to ruin. In Chicago, the Bears are happy with more than one QB
but not more than one running back?

If Benson were Cade McNown, this would be more understandable. McNown
had proven to be a poor teammate by acting like a big-time quarterback
but preparing like a small-time punk. Benson hasn't been healthy
enough to show what he can or can't do.

The Bears had good reason to think they needed Benson enough to make
him the fourth pick in the 2005 draft. Jones had never produced a
full, healthy season in five years, the life span of many runners.

They still need Benson. Unless the guy is doing things behind the
scenes that aren't obvious when he's practicing, he can be a
difference-maker on offense for a team with precious few of them.

They still need Jones. Neither Jones nor Benson has demonstrated
enough durability for Smith to feel comfortable without both. Witness
their training-camp injuries.

This shouldn't be a personality or popularity contest. If the Bears'
players think they can compete without the best running game they can
buy, they haven't been paying attention to their own game tapes or to
their coach.

If there is more than smoke to this rift, Smith needs to squelch it
immediately. He can tell the media there's no problem and that
everything is overblown, but if resentment in the locker room is
allowed to fester, the Bears are doomed.

Fans can take sides all they want, and they have. Just know this: They
will care less once the season starts whether Jones or Benson is
playing as long as the job is getting done.

The underlying fear is the same as it is when quarterbacks are
involved. If you think you have two, sometimes you really have none.
It's called NFL math.

What if instead of two big-time running backs, the Bears really have
two big-time crybabies?

Jones may have every reason to sulk and feel disrespected and
underpaid after his 1,335-yard season. So put two seasons together.
How does he think Shaun Alexander and Edgerrin James and Ahman Green
felt when their teams balked at stepping up with big contracts?

Benson has a worse problem. He hardly has played at all. Forget Texas.
On second thought, better remember Texas. If Benson lives up to his
stellar college career, nobody will care if he left the sideline
during an exhibition game.

Benson, however, has to overcome his Texas background as well. There's
a reason Longhorns quarterback Vince Young was the first of coach Mack
Brown's players to come out early for the college draft. Texas players
have it made. It's a country club.

It just was voted the No. 1 party school. The players who go to the
NFL have to prove they're serious.

Receiver Roy Williams went to Detroit and was surprised to discover
that pass routes in the NFL were so precise.

If Benson left the Soldier Field sideline to get out of the rain,
Bears fans better start crying right now. If his teammates squealed on
him because they wanted to get out of the rain, too, everybody better
run for cover. If Jones was one of the teammates who complained, start
feeling sorry for Lovie Smith.

Just run, guys. You're on a team where running backs end up in the
Hall of Fame. So far, you haven't run out of the detention hall.