Boating while intoxicated? Seriously?

This is just one of the charges Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson faces after a run-in with police near Austin, Texas, late Saturday night. He allegedly failed a sobriety “float test” – an abbreviated version of a field sobriety test – administered by the Lower Colorado River Authority before allegedly resisting arrest by arguing over a retest on land, where apparently he felt his balance and motor skills would be much better.

The resisting arrest charge he also faces just adds to the irony of this situation, as he has never seemed in his first three seasons as a Bear to put half as much effort into resisting the tackles of opposing NFL defenders. He’s averaged just 3.8 yards per carry and failed to post a 1,000-yard season in his three years since being selected fourth overall in the 2005 NFL Draft.

If he’d put just half as much energy into resisting those pesky defenders as he did into resisting a police officer’s attempt to take him off the water, the results could be quite beneficial for his so-far unimpressive career.

He was also pepper-sprayed, which leads me to wonder how this method of taking down a 5-foot-11, 220-pound “power back” stacks up against the more conventional method of tackling one. In Benson’s, case at least, it seems like they work well.

John Puterbaugh, editor in chief