Marvin Harrison, Cedric Benson—Too Quick to Judge?

Quick!  What do Marvin Harrison and Cedric Benson have in common?  Well, aside from taking the field for Super Bowl XLI, not much.  However, these NFL stars find themselves mired in legal issues.

Well that doesn't really separate them from the rest of the NFL either, does it?  There have been plenty of NFL players to run afoul of the law recently. 

Pacman Jones.  Chris Henry.  Jared Allen.  Cedrick Wilson.  Tank Johnson.

These are names that come to mind when thinking about those lovely times when the NFL and the law meet.  However, Benson and Harrison are different from these players. 

How?  There's a good chance that Harrison and Benson did nothing wrong.

First, let's look at the shorter, and less complicated story: Harrison's.

Harrison and another man get into an argument at a bar.  They elect to "take it outside."  They fight outside the bar.  The next morning we come to find that the man has a gunshot wound to the hand, a boy was injured by shattered glass, and Harrison's gun is found at a car wash. 

Marvin has quietly put together a very nice Hall of Fame career.  He is arguably the quietest, and inarguably the best, receiver from the 1996 draft.  He never talks to reporters, never makes flashy moves on the field, and doesn't need to have a different touchdown dance every time he scores.

Now, in about three years Harrison has twice been accused of very violent acts.  (This incident, and the 2005 Pro Bowl incident.)  Does Marvin have a bit of a temper?  Maybe, but good luck finding out.  Even Peyton doesn't really know much about him. 

Thanks to the five names listed above being guilty (or involved) to some degree, all NFL players that have a run-in with the law are now considered guilty until proven innocent. Plus, their reputations never really recover. 

After the incident, people were ready to write Harrison right into prison for assault.  There were three articles on this site demanding that Harrison fess up, talking about how much respect they had lost for him, how suprised they were, and how they could never trust an NFL player again.

At that point in the investigation of the incident, Harrison had been interviewed by police.  He had not been arrested, or charged, or even named as a suspect in the shooting.  The gun had not been positively identified as Harrison's gun, either. 

Harrison had been thrown under the bus, and there wasn't even any evidence against him!

We still don't know much more about it yet, due to the fact that later that week a police officer was killed in a bank robbery gone bad.  The police department's best efforts have been focused on this much more important incident.

We do know that the gun has now been identified as the same kind of gun that Harrison owns, and that Harrison has fully cooperated with police in the investigation.  He still has not been charged or named as a suspect in the case.

This case could be an aberration, though.  So I came prepared with another case.

Cedric Benson was also involved in an incident on his boat.  He was stopped for a safety check, and supposedly reacted violently.  He failed sobriety tests both on the boat and on land.  He again got violent, had to be pepper-sprayed by police, and was arrested for boating under the influence.

Open and shut case, right?  It's the word of the cops against the word of an athlete.  Who has more credibility? 

Except for one thing: it may not have happened as the police said it did. 

Witnesses have now come out saying that Benson was not drunk, and did not resist police. 

What really happened?  The truth probably falls somewhere between the witnesses' versions and the account of the police.  After all, you have to have a darn good reason to pull out the pepper spray.

So, what do Cedric Benson and Marvin Harrison have in common?  They both deserve the right to have people reserve judgment on them.  The breaking news is not always right or complete. 

When all the facts have come in, I think that we as fans will owe these two a
big apology.