Bengals Agree To Terms With Cedric Benson

Added on Jul 31, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been busy all summer trying to broker a labor deal. It’s starting to look like he’ll be busy all season long trying to enforce the league’s personal conduct policy. The Cincinnati Bengals are the latest team to look the other way at criminal activity by signing running back Cedric Benson to a one year deal worth $3 million with another $2 million in incentives.

Benson has had trouble staying on the right side of the law for his entire career. The Chicago Bears drafted Benson in 2005 and then released him in 2008 after a couple of booze fueled rampages in Texas. Benson got off after grand juries declined to prosecute and the Bengals took a chance on the reprobate running back.

He has been productive on the field. and ran for his second 1,000 yard season in 2010. Despite this, the Bengals finished 4-12. One would think that they’d opt to try something different than bringing back a thug head case that led them to a dismal record, but apparently not.

Benson’s most recent run in with the law happened just a couple of weeks ago–he was arrested on a misdemenor domestic violence charge with what is described as ‘a male former roommate’. His attorneys quickly moved to advance the theory that the situation was an ‘extortion threat’, likely to preclude suggestions that it was a ‘lover’s quarrel’. Despite the legal issue hanging over Benson’s head due to the physical run in with his ‘special male friend’ the Bengals apparently wanted to reinforce the message that ‘crime pays’ by signing him to a multi million dollar deal.

Las Vegas sportsbooks aren’t exactly impressed with the Bengals’ moves though they are expecting the Bengals to return to a level just below mediocrity. Cantor Gaming–who manages several high profile Las Vegas books including M Resorts, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino and the Cosmopolitan–posted the Bengals Over/Under win total at 7 wins. The proposition bet opened with the ‘Over and ‘Under’ priced at -110. Several very sharp bettors in the ‘Silver State’ have already taken a position on the ‘Under’ based on the expectation that it’ll be more of the same bumbling Bengals in 2011.