Bears might be wise to say bye to Benson
The sound was down on the TV, but the shot of Cedric Benson blared loudly.
Nothing good could come of this, could it?
Some athletes, you see their pictures on ESPN and assume they completed work on a PhD, visited kids in a hospital, or rescued a dog from drowning.
This athlete … uh-oh, hope for the best and expect the worst.
Remember, we're talking about a football player who already plunged from the fourth overall selection in the 2005 draft to a burgeoning bust by 2008.
The best hope was for the news flash to be as uncomplicated as the Bears releasing their frustrating running back.
The worst was that, say, Benson was charged down home in Texas for allegedly boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest.
Do you need to be told which possibility was fulfilled?
"Any time you're talking about one of our players being arrested, you're disappointed," Lovie Smith said Sunday afternoon.
The Bears' head coach made no further judgment. After all, dropped charges or a not-guilty verdict wouldn't be unusual.
But the knee-jerk thought -- one I admit having -- is to release Benson even if Smith's wait-and-hear approach is fairer.
Any Bears decision on Benson will come later based on the outcome of the case, rookie Matt Forte's performance and salary-cap considerations.
One thing is for sure, though: Smith didn't need this as rookie minicamp ended on an otherwise beautiful spring day.
The Bears already have Tank Johnson on their recent resume. They drafted a couple of players with character blotches on their records. Now this Benson business sets another bad example for incoming rookies.
Over to Smith's right, fresh-faced running back Forte discussed his to-do list for between now and full-team minicamp later this month.
Fortunately, intoxicated boating and resisting arrest aren't on the second-round draft choice's agenda. Studying the playbook and getting in physical shape are.
"I've played football all my life," Forte said. "I just have to get used to the speed of the game when everybody gets here."
Forte was drafted just nine days ago because the Bears weren't thrilled with Benson even before an injury ended his 2007 season.
Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo would love for Forte's arrival to serve as a kick in Benson's rear and a kick-start to the incumbent's career.
Instead, a Lower Colorado River Authority officer had to subdue Benson with pepper spray.
(NFL defenders might suggest that a simple nudge would take down this running back.)
Anyway, such incidents are prime examples of why pro athletes aren't like the rest of us. We might expect that at this career point Benson would understand he has to behave properly off the field and perform better on it.
Apparently, Benson's initial $16 million signing bonus means never having to change.
If Benson were a 1,500-yard rusher, Saturday's incident would be tolerated like a couple of legal scrapes were while he was in college at Texas.
After three sluggish years here, the latest news is another reason to release him and acquire a back to complement Forte.
The Bears have to consider it now that Benson, guilty or not, has added insult to injury and embarrassing to disappointing.
"You guys know what we expect of our players … stay out of trouble," Smith said.
Yes, we do know that, but does Cedric Benson?