[CBFF] All Business Is Personal

[Tom Shannon]

http://bloggeddrain.typepad.com/cbff/2007/11/all-business-is.html

 "Don't let anybody kid you.  It's all personal, every bit of
business...  They call it business.  OK.  But it's personal as hell."

These are the words of Michael Corleone from the classic novel, The
Godfather, by Mario Puzo.  They express an everlasting truth that
applies to all of us and no less anywhere than in the NFL.

I have, in the past, been accused of letting my dislike of Cedric
Benson on a personal level affect my view of him as a professional.
But the truth is that I was as prepared going into this season to
praise Benson's performance to the sky if he performed as I ever was
to criticize him in other respects.  Like most fans, I don't care too
much what a man's personality is like off the field as long as he
performs on the field.

But it's not that easy, is it?  The fact is that a man's personality
off the field can give some indication of what he is going to be like
on the field and the two are rarely, if ever, completely separable.
And in this respect, much though I would have wished it otherwise,
Cedric Benson's performance on the field this season is hardly
surprising.

To be fair, let's start with the positives.  I don't think any
reasonable person could deny that Benson runs hard when he's handed
the ball.  He has looked noticeably less quick this year and he does
look heavy-legged.  I don't know why.  It has been suggested to me
that he may be injured and I must say that he does have that look
about him.  If he is, kudos to him for not making excuses and for
playing with it.

Whatever the problem, it does look to me like he gives good effort -
when you hand him the ball.  But there is much more to being a good
running back than that and this is Benson's primary problem.  Run hard
all you want but you can't be a complete player at the position unless
you can block and catch as well.  And Benson is a miserable failure at
both.

Never was this more evident than when the Bears played Minnesota two
weeks ago.  The Vikings have Pat and Kevin Williams, two very large
and very good run-stopping defensive tackles who do an excellent job
clogging the middle.   Knowing this, offensive coordinator Ron Turner
decided (correctly) that it was best to attack the edges.  A major
part of the game plan was to get Benson outside, often by throwing the
ball to him in the flat.  Despite the fact that we have been told
repeatedly that Benson has "surprisingly soft hands" he played
miserably, dropping the ball three times.

If the Bears make any kind of recovery in the second half, it will be
that loss to the Vikings which they will look back on with the most
regret.  With a defense that totally failed to stop Adrian Peterson, I
won't say that the loss was entirely Benson's fault.  But there's
little doubt that he was a major factor in their failure to win the
game.  The Bears needed a complete running back that day.  Benson
failed them.

What is behind Benson's failure to develop?  Some might suggest
coaching and I certainly can't deny that the job that running back
coach Tim Spensor is doing can't be discounted.  But my gut feeling is
that this goes much deeper than that.  Benson continues to show
disturbing off field tendencies that may indicate that the issues have
less to do with outside factors and more to do with him.  He has not
taken responsibility publically for his own evident failures.  He has
indicated that he doesn't listen to the things Spensor is telling him.
 Indeed, he continued right up to the beginning of the season to make
comments that were less than tactful and that were hurtful to the
team.  Benson continues to act like a self-centered immature child,
being 24 years old going on about 16.

What that indicates about his higher level functions, I wouldn't know.
  It could be that he has a simple lack of the intelligence necessary
to know the damage that such behavior results in, not only to others
but also to himself.  More likely, it could be a certain disconnect
with reality, a total lack of empathy with the other human beings in
the environment around him.  It could be overcompensation for his own
insecurities.  What is it about the University of Texas that screws
these running backs up?

Whatever the problem is, it definitely translates onto the field.
Benson appears to be more than physically capable of blocking and
catching the ball.  But whether its because he isn't mentally capable
of the necessary concentration or because he's simply too
self-centered to put in the necessary effort , he simply seems to be
unable to expand beyond the limits of what he did at Texas to become
the complete, every down running back the Bears drafted him to be.

To be clear, I don't really blame Cedric Benson for this.  Whatever
the limitations of the person he is, they are his business.  You need
to walk a mile in a man's shoes and its not may place to judge.  The
person I do blame is general manager Jerry Angelo, who has evidently
wasted an extremely high draft pick on him, a waste which, as Brad
Biggs put it this morning, makes Benson "on his way to dwarfing Cade
McNown in terms of being a draft failure".  Indeed, many of us saw
this coming when Benson exposed his emotional imbalances to the world
after being drafted.  Alarms literally started going off in my head
the minute it became evident that he was unable to see the world from
the point of view of the NFL teams who were considering the
possibility of investing a great deal in him.  Instead, he literally
broke down and wept on national television, complaining of the
"degrading" draft process which made him a millionaire.

How Benson's personal problems got by Angelo and yet could be so
evident literally minutes after the young man was drafted is beyond me
but it was clearly a grave failure for a franchise that could so ill
afford it.  How, under the circumstances, he could leave Benson as the
only every down starting option with no competition, especially after
making the same mistake with Rex Grossman for years, is even more
puzzling.   Angelo's concern (and mine) is, indeed, one of business.
But his poor judgment bodes ill for the long-term health of the
franchise and indicates a lack of recognition that, especially in the
NFL, all business is, indeed, personal.