[CBFF] Drunk or victimized, Benson has no Bears future :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Jay Mariotti

[Kenny Claxton]

If there isn't there should be, lol!

On 5/8/08, Kenny Claxton <kenny.claxton at gmail.com> wrote:
> I thought that was the rule also.
>
> On 5/8/08, mom2iancal <senzigx4 at rucls.net> wrote:
> >
> > Hey!  I thought we weren't allowed to post any of "his" articles here!!  I
> > did a year or two ago and got blasted for it!!!    LOL
> >
> > teri
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Tom Shannon
> > To: post at chicagobearsfanforum.com
> > Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 4:30 AM
> > Subject: [CBFF] Drunk or victimized, Benson has no Bears future :: CHICAGO
> > SUN-TIMES :: Jay Mariotti
> >
> > http://www.suntimes.com/sports/mariotti/938561,mariotti050808.article#
> > Drunk or victimized, Benson has no Bears future
> >
> > May 8, 2008
> > BY JAY MARIOTTI Sun-Times Columnist
> >
> > Who hasn't been there, on a boat with beer and bikinied beauties? But when
> > Cedric Benson chose to throw a party on his new motorboat last weekend, at a
> > lake in his native Texas, he had to know trouble could await him. Wasn't
> > Lake Travis a popular drinking spot outside party-daffy Austin? Hadn't he
> > been pulled over for safety checks several times in his boat? Weren't local
> > police concerned about numerous boating-related fatalities, many fueled by
> > alcohol?
> >
> > And wasn't he the problematic Cedric Myron Benson, the man-child who cried
> > tears of bitterness on draft day, the underachieving running back pummeled
> > by issues and dogged by controversy ever since the Bears selected him with
> > the No. 4 pick in 2005?
> >
> >
> > I'm not suggesting he hide in his house, coil into a ball and not come out
> > until training camp. But sometimes, when life is running you down and the
> > karma isn't fair, the smarter option is to find a means of entertainment
> > that doesn't involve beer, boating and watchful cops. If the Lower Colorado
> > River Authority had been cracking down on boaters of all sorts, why would
> > Benson, with his NFL career at a crossroads and the Bears sending a message
> > with the second-round drafting of Matt Forte, allow beer on his 30-foot boat
> > and turn himself into a target?
> >
> > How dumb can you be, Ced? Where's your better judgment? Just as you don't
> > run straight ahead into a swarm of five Green Bay Packers, you don't tempt
> > fate in a lively part of the lake -- Devil's Cove -- where you obviously
> > aren't liked and you thought the boat police were picking on you.
> >
> > It certainly wouldn't surprise me if Benson, a black man in the South, was
> > roughed up by the authorities as he and at least one friend on the boat
> > claim. But that should be neither here nor there in regard to his Bears
> > future. Even if legitimate evidence surfaces to suspect police brutality, it
> > shouldn't be a factor in whether he's retained by Halas Hall. Before his
> > arrest on charges of drunken boating and resisting arrest, Benson was a
> > whiny, soft, insanely overpriced back who did more to sabotage the Bears
> > last season than any combination of bad quarterbacks. Just because a debate
> > is raging over what actually happened last Saturday evening, in the Hill
> > County near Austin, doesn't mean a sympathy party should break out in
> > Chicago and across a football nation.
> >
> > What I wrote weeks ago unequivocally still stands: The Bears must cut their
> > losses, acknowledge their mistake on Benson and move on. I say this not only
> > because he's a flop on the field -- as general manager/Benson enabler Jerry
> > Angelo finally began to admit after drafting Forte last month -- but because
> > a franchise inundated by criminal behavior and scandals can't afford another
> > without developing a wretched identity as the Cincinnati Bengals of the
> > North. During their safety inspection, the authorities say Benson appeared
> > drunk, had bloodshot eyes, refused a breath test and failed a
> > boater-specific sobriety test with a "cocky," "combative," "insulting,"
> > attitude that included profanity. They say he refused to come ashore,
> > forcing them to handcuff him and blast him with pepper spray. If true,
> > Benson would become the latest Bear to face the wrath of NFL commissioner
> > Roger Goodell, whose eight-game suspension of Tank Johnson last season led
> > to his eventual departure. Johnson's lawyers-guns-and-money saga was
> > supposed to lead to behavioral reform at Halas Hall, but the hits kept
> > coming -- including the night Lance Briggs fled the scene of his car crash
> > at 3 a.m., followed by his recent admission that he has perfomed only a wee
> > portion of 120 hours of required community service.
> >
> > Benson would avoid league punishment if he indeed wasn't drunk and didn't
> > resist arrest. "I was not intoxicated. There was alcohol on the boat, and
> > others were enjoying themselves, but I wasn't drunk," he told the Sun-Times
> > earlier this week, adding that he was cooperative throughout the ordeal. His
> > description of how he allegedly was dragged to a car, which hauled him to
> > jail, is chilling.
> >
> > "They kicked my feet out from under me and slammed my face down," he said.
> > "They had a hose and were running it over my face. They were choking me and
> > stuff, not with their hands but with the hose
> >
> > in my face. I couldn't breathe. I don't know if they did that because of the
> > pepper spray, but I didn't ask them to put the hose in my face."
> >
> > Obviously, someone here is lying, either Benson or the arresting officers.
> > If we ever learn the actual truth, it will be inside a courtroom in several
> > weeks, which is about the last soap opera needed by a franchise that is
> > free-falling into the league's lower ranks after a Super Bowl appearance 15
> > months ago. The Bears can wish Benson well in his court case, but they
> > cannot have this mess in their lives. They've given him too many chances to
> > succeed to watch him fail again. They need a new running back. He needs a
> > new lease on life.
> >
> > It's interesting that a friend of Benson, 22-year-old Elizabeth Cartwright,
> > is rushing to his defense publicly. In an interview with Channel 5, she said
> > Benson wasn't drunk, would have passed a breathalyzer test and was unfairly
> > targeted by the authorities. "Cedric got off the boat voluntarily, you know,
> > stepped from his boat to the other one and he was fine. He didn't stumble,
> > there was nothing wrong with him," Cartwright said of the field sobriety
> > test. A little while later, she said she heard shrieks of horror.
> >
> > "We heard Cedric scream like he's in pain, and he screamed for his mom. And
> > it was horrible because I've never heard him scream like that," she said.
> >
> > But when beer is on the boat during a party that went for hours, Benson will
> > have to prove to his doubters that he had only a beer or two. If his record
> > was clean, maybe he could be granted the benefit of the doubt. But the Bears
> > drafted him with the knowledge of two episodes during his productive
> > University of Texas career: (1) Searching for what he said was a stolen TV
> > set, Benson received an eight-day jail sentence in 2003 for misdemeanor
> > trespassing after forcing himself into a residence; and (2) A year earlier,
> > he was busted for drug and alcohol violations before both charges were
> > dropped.
> >
> > Are they picking on him in Austin? Maybe. That's his problem, though. The
> > Bears have enough problems to keep taking on his. "Any time we're talking
> > about one of our players getting arrested, you're disappointed in it," said
> > coach Lovie Smith, whose tenure is being marred by a relentless run of
> > incidents.
> >
> > We talk about the quarterback hex in this town. What about the running back
> > jinx? Turns out Rashaan Salaan was stoned during his bouts with fumbleitis.
> > Turns out Curtis Enis had a screw loose.
> >
> > Now we have Cedric The Entertainer, party animal, sinking fast on his
> > personal Titanic.
> > --
> Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of
> > immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.
>  - Edith Wharton
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> >
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