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Chicagoist wonders whether the Bears did enough homework on first round draft pick Cedric Benson before selecting him with the 4th pick in last spring's NFL Draft. While he demonstrated his tremendous talent on the field while at the University of Texas, his recent behavior leads Chicagoist to question whether somebody else may have been a better fit for the Bears.
The Bears training camp ended the other day, and it ended with Benson still down in Texas. While the rest of the Bears were sweating in the August heat during twice daily practices -- getting in shape, meshing as a team -- Benson was sitting on his ass while his agent tried to strong arm additional millions from the Bears.
Other first round picks held out and made it to camp late. But only Benson missed his team's entire training camp. And only Benson remains unsigned among all first round draft picks. Even after the 5th and 3rd picks signed, which should have clarified Benson expectations, he remains unsigned. Some may want to blame agent Eugene Parker, but Parker represented former first round picks Rex Grossman, David Terrell and Tommie Harris. He got Grossman and Harris signed in time for the start of their rookie training camp with suggests Parker can be reasonable. His client, not so much it seems.
Yesterday, Bears GM Jerry Angelo issued a very strongly worded statement that the current offer was the Bears' final offer to Benson. Angelo's statement said,
After missing all of training camp, we want to make it abundantly clear that the Chicago Bears have made their best and final offer to Cedric Benson. No dollars are left on the bargaining table, and at this point the only contract discussions that will be entertained will be reflective of the considerable loss of value to the club created by the player's extended absence.
Not only is Angelo telling Benson to "take it or leave it" but he's further threatening to begin reducing the value of the offer because of how his holdout will set him back. Chicagoist has to agree with Angelo's tactics and only questions why he didn't do this sooner.
The players drafted around Benson signed a while ago. Benson is looking for a deal closer in value to the five-year, $40 million deal ($18.5 million guaranteed) signed by WR Braylon Edwards, the third pick, than the five-year, $31 million contract ($15.1 million guaranteed) signed by RB Cadillac Williams, the fifth pick . Benson has also been using last year's 4th pick, QB Phillip Rivers, as a comparison. However, Rivers was really closer to a #2 pick and there's always a premium paid for QBs.
In the end, Benson's holding out over $1 million or so. But what can he get with that last million that the first $17 mil won't buy? The damage he's doing to his reputation with the fans in Chicago will likely diminish his endorsement value and could end up hurting him more than he could hope to gain from holding out. And history has not been kind to recent Bears holdouts. The most recent players to have gone through extended training camp holdouts were Cade McNown, Rashaan Salaam and Curtis Enis. And how many of them are currently in the NFL? Zero! Maybe those who know they can't cut it in the NFL are the ones who hold out to get their greedy paws on every penny they can before they have to prove anything!
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The Bears are cheap. This happens every year, except when they get somebody who acquiesces to their demands.
are you kidding? have you ever followed the nfl preseason before? draft picks hold out every single year on every team. there is no more relationship between holdouts and success than there is in the drafting process, in which anyone might flop. whether an individual deserves an extra million or not, and probably not, people should quit being so stunned and indignant about it. the clubs deliberately withhold money they could offer in order to negotiate the tightest budget they can. that's the process of bargaining. knowing that, why should a player take less simply because it makes the millionaires running the team just a little richer?
anyway who the fuck cares? it seems like if this site doesn't deliver any real news it should at least offer more than cursory opinions held by nearly everyone.
Chicagoist needs to quit apologizing for the Bears.
WE, the taxpayers of Chicago, line their fucking pockets with gold in building them that Atrocity By the Lake, and this is how we are rewarded?
Losing season after losing season? A team to tight assed to pay up an extra mil? What are the Bears going to do with that extra mil?
The Bears swore up and down they needed a stadium to be competitive!
They got what they wanted, SO WHY THE FUCK AREN'T THEY COMPETITIVE?
First of all...whether or not one likes the new stadium or not, it has widely been praised in the architectural world. It does take some getting used to... However, I think the experience of actually going to the game and sitting in the stadium has been greatly enhanced...
Secondly, I say stop putting all the blame on the Bears and more on Benson. Fuck him. As Chicagoist pointed out, we've had too many holdouts in recent years who turned out to be pathetic busts. Why is there any reason reason to think that this chump will be any different? Get off the Bears management-hate bandwagon--that's the easy thing to do. Let's start making some of these over-hyped and unproven primadonnas accountable and earn their keep. If Cedric wants an extra million, he can prove his worth on the football field. As far as I'm concerned, he's just another potential bust until he shows otherwise. I could give a fuck what he did in college...
It absolutely is Benson's fault. His agent as proven able to get clients in camp on time and the Bears have put an offer on the table that is squarely between the deals of the players selected around Benson. If it's more important to have that last $1million guaranteed (what, does he need a 4th and 5th Bentley?) then it really says something about his character and desire to play football.
Architects may like Soldier Field for its lines or the way the architect fitted it into the old Soldier Field, but if you have to go there and sit in it, it sucks.
what are you talking about? seating in the new stadium is far better then the seating in the old soldier field.
you are a lot closer to the field and action then you could ever ask for in the old stadium.
Yeah...what are you talking about, Moon?! Are you sure you've been to the new stadium? What don't you like? The better vantage points? Being closer to the field? NOT having to sit in the endzone half the time? The absence of swirling winds which plagued the old design? The fan-friendly amenities? Pleas explain...
Before I start, the old Soldier Field was no bonus.
You have to climb a mountain to get to the seats. It's WORSE than the old Soldier Field, which was really bad.
Second, you are a LITTLE closer, but every time somebody stands up, EVERYBODY has to stand up. Sight lines are worse because of this.
Next, it's claustrophobic in the lower sections with the overhang.
Also, the fan friendly amenities cost a LOT more and you can no longer get a "Beers of the World" beer. MGD doesn't appeal to me, sorry. Also, they haven't figured out that they need a separate beer line.
I'm sorry if you didn't like the old end zone; the few times I sat there I loved it. But, on the other hand, if it's ticket prices that kept you in the end zone, how do you justify the NEW ticket prices??? Do you have a personal seat license, or whatever the Bears call it?
Also, on the end zone, they could have closed the whole end zone in old Soldier Field and still had more seats than the new stadium, right???
They spent $600 million and this is the best they could do? Sorry, give me back the old Soldier Field and my Beers of the World.
For much less than $10 million, they could have put Diamond Vision screens all the way around the top of the old Soldier Field.
What stadium do you not have to stand up in to see when the people in front of you stand up? How is this the architects' fault? Beyond that, it's a football game, not the opera, I fully expect (and hope) to be standing up for a goodly portion of the game.
I drink Leinenkugel's at the game by the way, it may not be a "Beer of the World" but it beats MGD.
The old Soldier Field, for one. At least you didn't have to stand up if 2 people decided to get up anywhere in front of you.
It IS the architect's fault. Who else can be blamed? Other than blaming the politicians who didn't let them make build they way they wanted, you have to blame the architect. $600 million! For this? It's a joke.
/Leinenkugels doesn't quite match Becks, Sam Adams, etc.
Um, we're crying about no Becks or Sam Adams? Now that's crazy,
I'm not a fan of the new solider field, or that my tax dollars funded it, but we're stuck with it. And the old stadium was a fire deathtrap/urinal, so you can;t honestly miss it.
By the way the "new" Browns staduim cost way less and is way better, but they weren;'t stuck dumping it in the old municipal stadium. But to some extent all fields will have the claustraphobic overhang since engineering lets you hang seats way out without support these days.
Benson will pay for holding out with performance and his next contract. The bears need to save that million for the salary cap. They can't pay Thomas Jones, and Benson, and Rex Grossman, and Urlacher, and everyone else all the money in the world, it's not baseball folks.
I don't know where Moon's seats are because I've sat in pretty much every general area of the New Soldier Field and have only had to stand up when the people in the 3 or 4 rows directly in front of me got up.
And sorry, I'll take a good ole Leinie's over a Beck's any day. At any rate, if the beer selection means that much to you, just watch the game at a bar. I think the new stadium's great.
Yeah, but you'll get tired of Leinie's if you go to as many games as I did.
The problem is choice. Beck's and Sam Adams were only 2 of the 20 or so Beers of the World. So, you could drink 2 different beers for every game you went to. Right now you have 3 or 4 corporate sponsored beers. That's it.
I'm not saying old Soldier Field was better the new Soldier Field. I'm saying we spent $600 million and this is the best they could do? The sight lines certainly aren't better. The new one holds LESS people and as near as I can tell, it STILL has bad end zone seats (I haven't sat there yet, but I've walked by there and they look pretty bad)
I sit in the end zone most often and I haven't had any problem with the seats there whatsoever other than the fact that I'm as cold as I was in Old Soldier's end zone.
But it's a matter of personal taste...in pure functional terms, I think the stadium is a big improvment, if only for the fact that I haven't peed in a trough the last couple years.
The beer situation is gonna get worse.
Beer sponsorship worth big bucks to NFL
Pretty soon you'll only be able to drink NFL approved beer.
Peeing in a trough is good.
/I don't remember doing that in old Soldier Field. Are you sure you're not thinking of Wrigley Field? The Bears played there for a while.
As a Chicago resident and University of Texas alumni, I have been watching this closely, and it just confirms what many of us at UT have thought about Benson along . . . a player who is overhyped and has far too high opinion of himslef. he was a major disappointment at UT and really only had one great season - his senior year, when Vince Young blossomed and opened up the running game for Benson.
Benson has Curtis Enis/Ra"Sham" Salaam written all over him . . . the best thing would be for the Bears to trade Benson and get what they can for him.
Moon talks alot and says little. I can't wait to go and sit in Soldier Field tomorrow night. Joel and Michael and Franek write less and say more. My new seats are so much better than my very old end zone seats and my old 107, Row 32 (Joliet!) seats. The aisles are easier to navigate, the restrooms are an improvement (although you're right about troughs!) and the reason we're there, "Da Bears", well they are RIGHT IN FRONT OF US now! The reason the architects like the stadium is because it works for the fans! Its form follows its function.
And, Moonie, ask Urlacher if the Bears are cheap. Ask Grossman. Ask Harris. Ask Muhammad. What a silly statement! You must be drinking that pissy Sam Adams! If the beer at a football stadium is significant to you, you're a chump! I drink my Lienie's at our tailgate. The Bears get plenty of my money; we eat and drink better and much cheaper outside. I'm there for the game. Go Bears!
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