Cedric Benson Begins to Make Case for Attempted Blackballing by the Bears

At the University of Texas Cedric Benson was the heir to Ricky Williams. Benson even grew his hair out and into dreadlocks to honor the Heisman Trophy-winning Williams. It was said that Benson was a faster version of Williams and was sure to win a Heisman one day.

Williams was perpetually shy and it was not until he was with the Miami Dolphins that he was diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder. Benson was quiet until he was asked a question. His answers were too blunt for the local Ausin press, just as they were nationally. Soon enough the Austin and national press was calling Benson aloof and uppity. Then it was being said that Benson, like Williams, smoked pot. And marijuana became responsible for Benson’s attitude. The funny thing about that is that Cedric Benson claimed he never smoked pot – ever. He was so incensed, so infuriated with the media that he cut his dreadlocks to separate himself from Williams.

In the end at Texas Benson had a great career but he never reached the heights Williams reach, and he left the Longhorns feeling misunderstood.

Benson, though, felt all the misunderstandings would be left when he was drafted and playing with grown men in the NFL. But on draft day the one team, based on his talks with teams that seemed least interested in drafting him, the Chicago Bears, was the team that picked Benson:

Benson was the last first-round pick to sign in 2005 after a standout career at Texas and missed training camp that year, setting a bad tone for his three seasons in Chicago. Complicating matters, incumbent Thomas Jones was a popular figure in the locker room and the two never really meshed….

“You know how in drafts teams always want you to agree to something before they pick you or they’re probably not going to go with you?” he asked. “There was a bit of that before I was picked. I never agreed to anything but still managed to get picked there.”

He said a “small group of people” in the organization believed in him, but most were against him. While Smith might have been in his corner, Benson said “no” after a lengthy pause when someone asked if the offensive coaches had his back.

Why the Bears drafted Benson will always remain a mystery. Chicago already had an established running back in Thomas Jones. And Jones was the type of back who needed at least 25 carries a game, which let no carries for Benson.

From the moment he was picked, Jones played the role of quintessential hater; he hated the perception that Benson was picked to replace Jones, hated Benson’s first round guaranteed money, hated the thought of being traded from a team on which he was very popular.
Jones made life difficult for the 2005 rookie first round pick and it was said that Jones constantly attempted to incite Benson and goad him into a fight. Jones also talked down Benson in the press:

He [Benson] once told the Chicago Sun-Times that Jones, who eventually was traded to the Jets, punched him in the face during a practice drill, and Benson wondered why the Bears even drafted him.

Benson was often injured with the Bears and was labelled “soft” by certain members of the Chicago management and coaching staff. And though head coach Lovie Smith had no ill words for Benson, that sentiment was not shared by players or other coaches.

In 2008 Benson had an overhyped run-in with the police on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas(over-hyped except for the beating he took), not far from his home:

Well well, Cedric Benson has a completely different story to tell than does the Lower Colorado River Authority officer who arrested the Chicago Bears running back. Remember, here’s what the “authorities had to say:

Benson was operating the boat with 15 passengers aboard when he was stopped by a Lower Colorado River Authority officer for a random safety inspection. He failed a field sobriety test on the officer’s boat and was uncooperative when the officer tried to take him ashore, the authority said.

“When Benson did not pass the test, he presented himself as a threat to the officer and argued about whether or not he would be taken to land to have a follow-up field sobriety test performed on land and refused to put on a life jacket,” the authority said in a statement. The officer had to use pepper spray to subdue Benson. He then refused to leave the officer’s boat and authorities had to drag him to a car to be taken to the Travis County jail, the authority said.

Benson, though, has an entirely version of the events Saturday night on Lake Travis:

“There was no resistance on my part,” Benson told the Tribune on Sunday night. “Was I drunk? No.”

“They gave me a field sobriety test, told me to say my ABCs and told me to count from 1 to 4 up and down,” Benson said of Saturday’s incident. “I’m thinking, I passed all the tests, did everything right. Then the officer told me we needed to go to land to take more tests. I politely asked him why we needed to go to land to take more tests when I took every test. Then he sprayed me with mace, on his boat. “I’m not handcuffed. I’m not under arrest. I’m not threatening him. I’m not pushing him. I’m not touching him. And he sprays me right in my eye.”

“Nobody saw what he did to me,” Benson said. “I started screaming for my mother to come. That’s when they put me under arrest. And the officer threw a life jacket over my head.

“Once we got to land, the Travis County police grabbed me and kicked my feet from under me. So I landed on my back while I was handcuffed. They held me down and held the water hose over my face. I couldn’t breathe, I’m choking, I’m begging the cops, ‘Please stop. Please stop.’ Then they picked me up and dragged me backward toward their car. And I’m still being polite, asking them, ‘Sir, could you please allow me to walk like a man to your cop car?’ They just kept dragging me on.”

The national and local Chicago press pilloried Benson, placing him in criminal allegiance with everyone from former Bear and current Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Tank Johnson to Adam “Pacman” Jones. Bears management quickly rid themselves of Benson, only to see him later be exonerated from all charges.

Benson played in 12 games, starting 10 for the Bengals in 2008 and rushed for 747 on 214 carries yards. However, through six games this season he has already rushed for 531 yards on only 127 carries, good for the number three spot among all running backs in the NFL..

For the Bengals running back, distance from the travails of his recent past and present success has brought a clearer understanding of the machinations undertaken by the Bears to, perhaps, blackball Benson:

Bears coach Lovie Smith insisted, “He was not blackballed by anyone in our organization.”

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said Smith even gave a good review of the running back, but Smith’s endorsement aside, Benson believes he had little support in Chicago. He wasn’t particularly popular with his teammates, either, and he believes the reason he remained unemployed until Cincinnati signed him on Sept. 30 last season was that alleged smear campaign by the Bears.

There were a few times where I was kind of down on myself,” Benson said. “But I knew that would get me nowhere. All I wanted to do from that point on was to move forward. So I accepted the situation and found a way to learn from it, found a way to be somewhat thankful that it happened, and move forward.”

In Cincinnati, playing alongside Carson Palmer(notes) and Chad Ochocinco(notes), Benson seems to be a good fit. Palmer was skeptical at first, but now has him over for dinner.

“None of the stuff I read was true. I don’t know exactly what happened,” Palmer said.

Maybe Benson changed. Maybe the perception and reality didn’t quite mesh. Or maybe it just helped that he joined a team needing a running back.

“Dreams are coming true,” he said. “It’s a wonderful feeling and I will promise you that I will take full advantage of it all the time.”

While it seems Lovie Smith had good things to say about Benson, it is also apparent that someone – more than likely general manager, Jerry Angelo – in the Bears organization was spreading misinformation about Benson to the press and to other NFL teams.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and all the brush around the Chicago Bears facilities has burned down.