[CBFF] [Fwd: Adversity could spur Cedric Benson]

[Tom Shannon]

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Adversity could spur Cedric Benson
Incident making an underdog out of him
David Haugh
On the Bears

May 11, 2008, 12:46 AM CDT

Once Cedric Benson reflects on how his life has changed since the night 
of May 3 on Lake Travis outside Austin, Texas, he may conclude he has 
had better weeks as a Chicago Bear.

But not many.

Surely he doesn't see it that way. Apparently Jerry Angelo, based on 
surprising comments Saturday night that Benson shouldn't have put 
himself in that position, doesn't see it that way. And admittedly it 
sounds a little crazy to suggest after an incident that lengthened 
Benson's arrest record. Nobody recommends getting handcuffed, 
pepper-sprayed, hosed, kicked and dragged as a means of reviving one's 
professional career either.

But in the long run—not a term associated much with Benson as a pro—this 
week's pain could be worth a substantial gain.

This is opportunity disguised as adversity with a Texas accent. 
Ultimately the episode could buoy Benson, who faces misdemeanor charges 
of boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

Except for a six-game stretch at the end of the 2006 season, Benson's 
Bears career always has been two parts distraction for every one part 
production. Yet none of that really matters in the context of a 
situation that has much more to do with fairness than football, no 
matter how few people can see beyond a 100-yard grass rectangle when it 
comes to Benson.

That's why this tale has been so fascinating to see unfold. Not because 
it revolves around a running back who would have been in jeopardy of 
losing his roster spot even if this never happened.

But because there are folks in Austin and around the Texas blogosphere 
who, based on observation and experience, contend Benson being black and 
rich might have had more to do with police arresting him than the 
allegation of his being drunk and belligerent.

Suddenly, that possibility threatens to recast one of Chicago's most 
vilified athletes in recent years in the odd role of victim.

Even with a May 19 court date looming, Benson faces his best chance 
since coming to town to prove himself as a player and a person worthy of 
all the time, money and emotional capital the Bears have invested in him.

He can use the experience of being targeted and roughed up by police, as 
Benson alleges, as motivation to sharpen an edge that was decidedly dull 
and return with a purpose that has been lacking.

Benson always has encountered more enmity than empathy in Chicago, and 
maybe that still will be the case if he ever carries the ball again for 
the Bears. But this incident has garnered him more sympathy than at any 
other time in his NFL career and made Benson an underdog.

He's 25. If something as traumatic as Benson says these events were 
doesn't shake his emotional core, nothing will.

No way the Bears can cut him now, by the way, not after two witnesses 
publicly came forward independent of each other in support of Benson's 
version. Elizabeth Cartwright, Benson's friend on the boat who first 
told what happened to the Tribune, and Toby Patch, a bystander, both 
described similar scenes of questionable police tactics. The Bears can't 
take the chance the witnesses were wrong and be viewed as denying a 
player due process if they were to cut Benson.

Benson's newly hired attorney, Sam Bassett, has interviewed 10 friends 
who were on the boat, and all 10 corroborate the story, according to 
Bassett. Back in Chicago, the headline to that development wouldn't be 
"Benson's story is corroborated." It would be "Benson has 10 friends."

He has been easier to tackle than embrace here, for fans, media and 
teammates alike.

Though if Benson is exonerated, his popularity will peak. Angelo might 
even forgive him for having the temerity to go out on his boat with 
friends on a familiar lake in a familiar town. It might be a small 
percentage, but there are people pulling for Benson who never have 
pulled for him before simply because of what he says police did to him. 
Therein lies Benson's best chance for career and image rehabilitation.

That's the power of perception Benson never has grasped.

Of course, the reality is it may change nothing about his football 
future. The incident hasn't altered him from the heavy-legged, 
injury-prone running back the Bears have been hoping would justify his 
fourth overall selection in the 2005 NFL draft. It didn't make Benson 
quicker, shiftier or healthier.

The Bears are hoping it might have made him hungrier.

The best stretch Benson has had as a pro came near the end of the 2006 
season when he was forced to run with urgency as a complement to Thomas 
Jones, the featured back. Now second-round pick Matt Forte has arrived 
with the expectation of starting as a rookie, the ideal alarm for 
Benson's slumbering ways.

He heard more alarming sirens than that May 2 night on Lake Travis.

Who knows, the intangibles Benson never has possessed as an NFL running 
back could have been planted deep within him between the moment he had 
his legs kicked out from him by police and the time he posed for his mug 
shot.

There was fear in Benson's voice his friends say they never have heard 
before as police arrested him that night. It probably was still there 
the next day when he called Bears coach Lovie Smith.

By all means Benson should bring that fear to Bourbonnais and use it as 
fuel.

Running scared might be the only way Benson ever resembles the running 
back in Chicago the Bears thought he could be.

dhaugh at tribune.com <mailto:dhaugh at tribune.com>

Copyright © 2008, The Chicago Tribune <http://www.chicagotribune.com/>


-- 
Another unsettling element in modern art is that common symptom of immaturity, the dread of doing what has been done before.
  - Edith Wharton