Wins, losses bottom line in sports

Let's not kid ourselves, folks.

If the Bears release Cedric Benson, it won't be because he's found guilty of intoxicated boating and resisting arrest.

If the Bears keep Benson to run the ball, it won't be because the case was dismissed or he was found innocent.

No, the decision will be based on a sliding scale of circumstances -- off-field behavior to on-field performance, health to salary-cap consequences, teammates' sentiment to media fallout.

Overall, the determination will be based on how winning and losing are influenced.

Tell me, do you think the Chargers would cut LaDanian Tomlinson over a couple of misdemeanors? Do you think the Bears would cut Benson if he were as productive as Tomlinson? Do you think O.J. Simpson would be out of work if he were in his prime?

To be honest, I have no quarrel with pro sports teams employing slugs and thugs you wouldn't allow to date your daughters.

The NFL isn't the National Faith-based League. Games are played in stadiums, not churches.

In a fan's fantasies, all athletes are All-American men who live their lives the way clergymen are expected to live theirs. It's an ideal that likely spread from the Olympics before cash corrupted those Games people play.

We fans live our athletic lives vicariously through the remarkable feats of the planet's greatest physical specimens.

Nothing wrong with that except that then we want to live our private lives vicariously through these same individuals.

None of us can be pure, so we look to others to be pure for us, with athletes for some reason at the top of our wish list ahead of the more noble.

Unfortunately athletes -- with big money, free time and myriad temptations -- tend to be as flawed as we are.

Can you say Roger Clemens, whose image was John Wayne one day and John Gotti the next?

(By the way, how many teams do you think would bid for Clemens' services if he were at the peak of his pitching power?)

Anyway, the Bears didn't keep or release Tank Johnson because of his character or legal problems.

First they kept him because he could help them win more. Then they dismissed him because they believed his disruptions would cause them to lose more.

Further from home is the Pacman Jones saga.

Now, if ever a player forfeited the privilege of playing in the NFL, it was this gifted/troubled cornerback/kick returner.

The Titans didn't want him any longer because he became an off-field distraction that trumped his on-field contributions.

Yet the Cowboys traded for Jones even though he still was suspended from the NFL for a variety of transgressions.

Tennessee dumped Jones because it thought he would contribute to losing. Dallas acquired him because it thinks he'll contribute to winning.

If the Bears believe Benson can carry the ball and them to the Super Bowl, he will remain in Chicago. If they believe he's so flawed as a player and person that he will disturb the locker room, they'll cut him and another team will gamble on him.

This extends beyond Bears management to Bears fans.

If Benson does well for them, they'll cheer. If he fails or does well for another team, they'll jeer.

As I was told long ago and repeat often to you, pro sports aren't morality plays.