Keith Lewis
Footballguy
Bringing the bile for Benson
Bears coach Lovie Smith (don't worry, I have enough bile left for the Cubs) has refused to have an open competititon for the quarterback and running back spots, places where Jerry Angelo spent first-round draft picks.
Connect the dots, people. I mean, Smith demoted one of his Super Bowl defensive ends -- the wrong one, it says here -- but it worked out because all three of them made big plays last week, so the idea that your job is on the line seems to make sense, more sense than just handing the job to Cedric Benson. What really frosts me is not so much that I believe Angelo is dictating Smith's decision in these two areas, but that Benson acts like he's entitled to it and makes public the slights from teammates, real or imagined, as if to say, "Mommy, make it stop.''
Trib colleague David Haugh suggests Adrian Peterson should be given a start ahead of Benson to get the attention of Benson and the rest of the team. I don't think Peterson is the answer--and really, neither does Haugh. Peterson hasn't been for the series of coaching staffs around here. Thing is, it really doesn't matter if Peterson is the answer as long as the Bears are afraid to confront the question the right way.
But wait. It gets worse. First, there was some unnamed Charger talking about how they figured they could make Benson quit the way he is viewed as quitting on his team in the Super Bowl. Here's the key part from what I highlighted yesterday:
"I talk to guys around the league. [benson] took himself out of the Super Bowl. That's letting down your team. I guess that's what kind of guy he is. We knew that, and we played accordingly."
First of all, talking to "guys around the league'' sounds like a bunch of hooey. You don't get that "quit'' label from guys around the league. You get it from a guy's teammate. I mean, who would know whether Benson quit on his team better than a teammate in the Super Bowl locker room and on the Super Bowl sideline? So I'm thinking that unnamed Charger has some unnamed Bears friends.
But now a Charger has put his name to some comments that will damn Benson for now, for a while and maybe forever: Shaun Phillips echoed the idea that Benson is considered soft to the point that the Chargers built their game plan around it.
"When we studied him that was one of our knocks on him. If you hit him a little bit he can get a little disgruntled and talk a little trash to him and give him a couple of shots, he'll fold and take it in," Phillips told a San Diego radio show. "That's what we were able to do and I'm pretty sure that's going to haunt him the rest of his career."
This gets back to the refusal to allow someone to compete with Benson the way the Bears refused to allow anyone to compete with Rex Grossman, and it's clearly because of the mental and emotional stuff. The Bears coddle and enable in a game where toughness is the coin of the realm. Grossman seems like he can handle mental and emotional adversity like an adult. Benson not so much. Not even close a lot of times. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jerry Angelo's idea of a "special"' back. Thank you, good night, and drive home safer than Lance Briggs.
Bears coach Lovie Smith (don't worry, I have enough bile left for the Cubs) has refused to have an open competititon for the quarterback and running back spots, places where Jerry Angelo spent first-round draft picks.
Connect the dots, people. I mean, Smith demoted one of his Super Bowl defensive ends -- the wrong one, it says here -- but it worked out because all three of them made big plays last week, so the idea that your job is on the line seems to make sense, more sense than just handing the job to Cedric Benson. What really frosts me is not so much that I believe Angelo is dictating Smith's decision in these two areas, but that Benson acts like he's entitled to it and makes public the slights from teammates, real or imagined, as if to say, "Mommy, make it stop.''
Trib colleague David Haugh suggests Adrian Peterson should be given a start ahead of Benson to get the attention of Benson and the rest of the team. I don't think Peterson is the answer--and really, neither does Haugh. Peterson hasn't been for the series of coaching staffs around here. Thing is, it really doesn't matter if Peterson is the answer as long as the Bears are afraid to confront the question the right way.
But wait. It gets worse. First, there was some unnamed Charger talking about how they figured they could make Benson quit the way he is viewed as quitting on his team in the Super Bowl. Here's the key part from what I highlighted yesterday:
"I talk to guys around the league. [benson] took himself out of the Super Bowl. That's letting down your team. I guess that's what kind of guy he is. We knew that, and we played accordingly."
First of all, talking to "guys around the league'' sounds like a bunch of hooey. You don't get that "quit'' label from guys around the league. You get it from a guy's teammate. I mean, who would know whether Benson quit on his team better than a teammate in the Super Bowl locker room and on the Super Bowl sideline? So I'm thinking that unnamed Charger has some unnamed Bears friends.
But now a Charger has put his name to some comments that will damn Benson for now, for a while and maybe forever: Shaun Phillips echoed the idea that Benson is considered soft to the point that the Chargers built their game plan around it.
"When we studied him that was one of our knocks on him. If you hit him a little bit he can get a little disgruntled and talk a little trash to him and give him a couple of shots, he'll fold and take it in," Phillips told a San Diego radio show. "That's what we were able to do and I'm pretty sure that's going to haunt him the rest of his career."
This gets back to the refusal to allow someone to compete with Benson the way the Bears refused to allow anyone to compete with Rex Grossman, and it's clearly because of the mental and emotional stuff. The Bears coddle and enable in a game where toughness is the coin of the realm. Grossman seems like he can handle mental and emotional adversity like an adult. Benson not so much. Not even close a lot of times. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jerry Angelo's idea of a "special"' back. Thank you, good night, and drive home safer than Lance Briggs.
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Move along. Nothing to see here.
Hopefully I'm not the only one remembers his idiotic post about Vick being absolutely 100% not guilty just because he wasn't included in the original indictment, in huge red type. Not only is he ignorant, he's loudly and obnoxiously ignorant.
though as the two things aren't even remotely related.
Although I think the quotes above have been taken out of context and blown out of proportion.
