akshaz

What, specifically is so dumb about it? Not a post about Ced. This is a post about the BEARS. I am a BEARS fan. Not a Cedric Benson fan. Selfishly, I just want what makes us a better football team. I want to win games and hopefully a Super Bowl. Again, this doesn't make us a better football team.

Not really happy with this. Where do we go now? I think we HAVE to make a run at another RB now. AP is probably #1 on the depth chart now. Forte had better learn the playbook and get ready in a hurry. His time is coming up sooner than probably most of us expected. Oh brother. I just don't know how some of you guys can actually applaud and cheer this. It is very bad for our team. Clearly doesn't make us better. Makes us much softer. Screw the off the field stuff. Just don't hurt anyone. Sit down a couple of games and get back to work. I don't know how this helps us.

That's a shame. This guy has let down the coaches, the GM and the fans who have been trying to stick by this guy. I think that he'll have a word or two with Roger Godell before he plays his next NFL game. He may even be subject to suspension. That being said. I'm a Bears fan and selfishly want what's best for the team. I want to win. Screw the public relations stuff right now. Honestly, I don't think that we can afford to release our starting RB especially after how we ran the ball last year. We just cannot afford it. I think that Godell and/or the Bears will suspend him for a game and he'll be back in a Bears uniform. I'd hate for us to release him, have him go to the Cowboys and perform like he was supposed to for us this year. I hoped for him and Forte to be a nice 1-2 punch. We still need that to happen in order to get back to the playoffs. Forte-AP or Forte-Wolfe won't work. Don't even mention Forte-Henry. Plain and simple we need Cedric Benson and cannot afford to release him. It will not make us any better. We gotta bite the bullet and keep him.

Not sure if I agree with that. To my understanding the boat was at anchor, they still tested him. He passed the tests, and they still decided to take him away. To my understanding as well, there were others who could have driven the boat. They were at anchor. It wasn't determined when they were leaving or who was going to be the driver when they did decide to go. They have pulled him over six times. So now the debate goes to, as Angelo suggests, whether or not he should have still been out there having a party under that situation. Maybe if he chooses to host this party at home he doesn't get arrested. But if cops still keep coming, geography doesn't matter. The problem is Cedric Benson should have not mouthed off to the cops. He should have just listened to their crap, passed their tests and go on with his business. This probably wouldn't have been an issue.

I clearly said that analogy was used tongue in cheek to articulate a point. You conveniently disregarded that portion of my post. Not going to beat a dead horse. Back to football.

[Point is sometimes these guys just do stuff to do it. And I'm not one to stay quiet when I think I'm being jerked around, cop or not. Dude, in other cases that stuff would get you jailtime at the minimum and or much worse in many cases. The situation is just different. One of my white friends was telling me the other day about how he was arguing with a cop who pulled him over for speeding. He swore that it was the guy in front of him and they ended up cursing back and forth. He got two tickets, but nothing else. There's no way I would EVER curse or argue with a cop even if I know it's BS. The margin of error is WAY too high for me to do anything close to that. Just the way it is.

Understood. But, we're talking about the Guard position. I may be naive. But, I think he can contribute right away. Really, who else do we have? Metcalf? Beekman is backing up Olin. St. Clair is our swing tackle. Unless we bring in a veteran, Chester is probably our guy. I don't think we'll be sorry for it. I've watched this kid. I think he's a good player. Georgia fans love him and always talk about how strong he is.

If you're right on Forte, our running game will look very similar to last year's. I hope we'll have something closer to what we had at the peak when TJ/Ced were being used together.

See, that's the thing AzBearFan. I'm no paranoid guy. Of course, there's no way for anyone to know this. But, I'm actually a former Republican that belongs to several conservative groups. I have worked for years to get rid of the false claims of racism and try to get to a point where we don't use race/skin color as means for torment or advantage. I'm just realistic enough to know that we're not there yet. There's still work to be done. But, first we have to be honest enough to take a frank look at the situation. Yes, it was dumb for me to mouth off to the cops when that incident happened. It was probably dumb for Ced to start mouthing off too. But, I've seen many other people talk back to cops. Worst case, you'll end up in jail. But, you won't end up struggling for breath and/or questioning whether you'll live through it.

Yeah okay. Please specify what exactly I said that what was beyond reason or "so stupid". Nothing I said was based on a conspiracy. I used PERSONAL experience to back up my statements. My "free game" and "beatings come with an arrest" were tongue in cheek and meant to stress a point. Of course, white guys get arrested all of the time. They just normally don't get beat up or killed in the process. I believe that YOUR line of thinking is what keeps this kind of stuff going. According to you, it's all in our imaginations. We're just making all of this up. We don't advance beyond this point because most people don't think there is a problem at all. I guess my eyes have been lying to me and those who witness/document excessive force by the police all suffer from the same imagination disorder. Since we're sending videos. Why don't you check out this video from Monday. Be careful, you imagination may start playing tricks on you.

I don't know why everyone is so down on Chester Adams. I've watched him a UGA and was happy when we picked him up. He played tackle in the SEC. Now, he gets to slide inside; where he should be even better. Now, I know he's not the best pass blocker. But, he's a beast on the run and should be a very good upgrade over Metcalf immediately. As far as other contributors, Williams is a no-brainer. I can see Forte getting at least 10-12 carries a game I had hoped that Bennett would perform better in mini camp. I'll say his impact will be minimal this year. I hope I'm wrong though. Harrison may not start in front of Dusty. But, surely he'll be in the rotation that we use at DT. I can see Steltz contributing immediately on ST and may come give McGowan a run for his money I can see Bowman surprising some folks this year. With his speed, he's probably a lock for ST. He may even compete for the nickel/dime position this year. Besides Adams, I think this will max out the contributions from the rookies in '08. Hopefully, I'm wrong on Monk though. I seen him play at AR. He has pretty good size and can give us an element that we don't have at WR right now.

Doesn't really matter. What's the big deal. Black men are free game for police abuse. We all know that a beating must come with an arrest or a police encounter. Gimme a break. Most people turn a blind eye to this stuff because it's not likely to happen to them, their sons, friends or brothers. Their folks never come home beaten up after getting roughed up by the cops and then let go; or ever got the crap choked out of them by a police baton (I witnessed the first, was the "chokee" in the second) Better yet, they'll just deny that this stuff even happens at all. Everyone is just making it up. The recent case in Philly, the Sean Bell case in NYC.....I can go on and on. The due process that everyone is screaming for isn't granted by the police who many times abuse their authority when they think they have an easy, indefensible target. After looking at the picture on the Trib, are you guys really that surprised that they got stopped by the police? A whole bunch of black guys, some with dreadlocks on an expensive boat with a bunch of white girls. They were almost begging to be pulled over. Nothing will come of this. It's all "he said/she said" and people will always give cops the benefit of the doubt. Even when video evidence is there, they'll say "let's not rush to judgement. We don't know how much they were resisting arrest". Everyone can go back to sleep now.

Pepper spray really has nothing to do with it. I don't want to open a can of worms with this. But, cops many times use pepper spray and other means of force when they are simply scared of the guy they're trying to arrest. Pepper spray alone is no real indication. I've seen Indianapolis cops pepper spray an entire crowd that was watching a fight that didn't even start yet. They were about to fight and people were watching. Cops come in and spray the crowd. Again, I'm not the guy you would go to looking for a vigorious defense of Cedric Benson. But, I'm not going to say that this incident should warrant his release; especially when you look at the folks we have to take his place. We have a rookie and two guys that couldn't get it done when given the chance last year. Now, I would say that Wolfe didn't really get a fair shot. But, there's no way we can afford to release our most proven RB (unfortunately CB is our guy) and risk having the same kind of running game we had last year. My allegiance with Bears football alone won't let me support his release. I don't want to have another year like last year. I would love to see Forte starting with CB coming in like he did with TJ as the #1 guy. That's a good running game.

Of course they didn't know who he was when they stopped his boat. How would they? He owned the boat, so they gave him the test. There were 15 ppl on that boat. But c'mon, are you really saying he was hosting this boat party and doing the driving too? Does that sound like the "team player" we all know? I'm sure he was handing out hor's d'oeuvres (sp) too. LOL!! There's no way he was driving that boat. Dude, the fact that it isn't widespread; almost by definition means it isn't as much of a threat as you are making it out to be. Sure, I don't advocate it. But, I'm not paranoid and unrealistic about it either. Clearly, it isn't as dangerous as DRIVING while intoxicated and we see athletes get off all of the time with DUIs. Wow, I'm defending Cedric Benson.

"Field" sobriety test on a boat? Gimme a break. There were 12-15 people on that boat. Do you guys REALLY think that he was the one driving the boat? I'm no Cedric Benson apologist by any means. I'm glad we sent a message to him by drafting Forte. But, before people start getting all holy and stuff, let's be real here. More than likely, he was a drinking and ended up mouthing off to the cops who stopped his boat party. They didn't like it and arrested him for it. He won't be cut and there's no way that we'll bring in Dominic Rhodes because of this.

What about Jeff Graham? I can't believe his name wasn't mentioned in this conversation. This guy was our most consistent WR for a few years and put up some pretty good numbers. I think I would have MRob and JG as my Bears all time WRs. Also surprised that nobody brought up "My fault Gault".

Bring him back!!! He'll be our best possession WR immediately. You could always count on Marty making the tough catches on 3rd down, get leveled and still hang onto the ball. We really haven't had anyone like that since he left.