Cedric Benson: RB Joins Prolific List of Troubled Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals franchise seems to be eternally plagued by character concerns and bad decision making, and that’s from the top down.

If it seems like every time you turn around another member of the Bengals is in trouble, you are not alone.

Whether it’s players in trouble with the law, in trouble with the league or in trouble with their personal lives—there is just something that seems to permeate the organization that leads to trouble.

The Bengals have a list of screw-ups so long that it will make your head spin.

There’s no use in rehashing the past and bringing up old mistakes. All it will do is make you sick to your stomach. Plus, the Bengals have given us more than enough problems to look at this year, so bringing up the past would just be unnecessarily piling on at this point.

They took a flier on cornerback Pacman Jones, who has a long history of character issues, and he went ahead and got himself arrested.

Don’t think anybody was too shocked when that news broke…

The biggest story coming out of Bengals camp this offseason was the continuing feud between the front office and franchise quarterback Carson Palmer.

He wanted out of the organization and even threatened to retire if the Bengals didn’t honor his wishes.

Instead of dealing honorably with a quarterback who gave them the best years of his career, the organization didn’t budge and forced Palmer into retirement. It has been a highly-scrutinized move for more than one reason.

Aditionally, receiver Jerome Simpson was arrested in a drug sting that allegedly included a total of 8.5 pounds of marijuana.

Needless to say, it’s been a rough year for the Bengals so far.

It turns out the fiasco isn’t over just yet though.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk writes on a report that Bengals running back Cedric Benson has been handed a three-game suspension for events that took place during the lockout:

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Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports reports that Benson has been informed that he’ll be suspended three games.  His appeal will be heard next Tuesday.

Benson will be permitted to play this weekend, when the Bengals host the 49ers.  Silver writes on Twitter that, if the appeal isn’t successful, Benson will miss the games against the Bills, Jaguars and Colts.

Benson was cited for assault of a former roommate during the lockout.  He eventually resolved an assault charge from 2010 (for which he had been told he wouldn’t be suspended) with a plea deal that resulted in a handful of days in jail before the start of the season.  Benson also agreed to a deferred prosecution of the more recent charges, which will be dismissed if Benson stays out of trouble for a year.  Under the personal conduct policy, a resolution of this nature is enough to trigger punishment.

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There is something utterly and horribly wrong about the Cincinnati Bengals franchise.

It’s getting to the point where player issues, legal issues and franchise embarrassment are almost the norm for the organization.

With this news, Benson adds himself to a long and prolific list of players with character problems.

He’s certainly not the first, and unfortunately he probably won’t be the last.