jillcarlson's Blog

I've been asked to describe Cedric Benson the last few days and the best words I can come up with are disinterested and absent.  He just never seemed to care about anything...about his teammates, about his job, about football, about how he was perceived by anyone, etc.  He just wants to float thru life and have a good time...do the minimum necessary to keep the status quo and that's it.  Since I met him and know him only on a professional level, I thought maybe I just misunderstood him.  I asked him that once...are you misunderstood?  His answer...he didn't really care if he was misunderstood.  People come from different backgrounds, they have different experiences in life and that makes them different.  So he didn't really care...that's just the way it was.   I've heard people describe him as selfish.  And I can see how they would think that.  But if he were selfish, he would have done more to protect himself and his future...even if he didn't want that future to be with the Bears...he has to know his actions will affect future employment possibilities.   I'm just not sure he cares to be a football player and all that goes along with that.   And that said, how much blame should the Bears share in all of this?  Should not their very extensive evaluation process have revealed these character issues before he was drafted?  By all accounts, other teams saw these tendencies in him before the draft and shied away from him.  Or maybe, as they've stated in the past, they felt he was past those youthful indiscretions and unmotivated tendencies and worth the risk.  That risk has not been rewarded.  It's the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me."  How many times do the Bears have to be fooled before they figure it out?  Now they're left with no real starting running back, pinning their hopes on rookie Matt Forte...couple that with an offense already lacking big time play makers (Devin Hester aside) and you've got some major problems which you won't be able to address before the season starts.   Cedric Benson wouldn't have made a huge difference in the grand scheme of the Bears offense.  But his departure isn't going to help.  As my Tribune colleague, David Haugh, put it...Benson's presence is the difference between a 7-9 season and a 5-11 one.  Either way...it's not good.