40 Acres Sports

Robert Joseph and Andre Jones plead guilty to felony charges. Joseph gets time served and probation. Jones will serve 30 days in jail.

Cedric Benson ordered to get breathalyzer device on car. Since Cedric can’t make good decisions, now a device will help do it for him.

Thoughts later, here’s the story from ESPN.com:

After his boating DUI charge, [tag]Cedric Benson[/tag] remained a starting running back in the eyes of coach Lovie Smith and the Chicago Bears.

His weekend DUI charge while in a car in Austin, Texas, has led to his release, however. The Bears placed Benson on waivers Monday, two years before the end of his contract and three years into a disappointing career with the team.

“Cedric displayed a pattern of behavior we will not tolerate,” Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said in a statement. “As I said this past weekend, you have to protect your job. Everyone in this organization is held accountable for their actions. When individual priorities overshadow team goals, we suffer the consequences as a team. Those who fail to understand the importance of ‘team’ will not play for the Chicago Bears.”

Benson wasn’t present at the Bears organized practice Monday. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on its Web site that Benson showed up and was sent home by Smith.

Reporters waited for a statement from Angelo as he walked off the field on Monday, but he said the team might have a statement later in the day.

The statement turned out to be an action. Benson’s name appeared on the NFL’s waiver wire Monday afternoon, ending the three-year relationship.

Though the 5-foot-10, 220-pound runner claimed his innocence on both DUI charges, the team apparently lost faith in him. Because he’s only been in the league for three seasons, Benson does not have his contract automatically terminated. He can be claimed by any other interested team on waivers.

Before his release, Benson made one last ditch effort to repair the situation, issuing an apology on Monday afternoon.

“I apologize for making the poor decision to drink and drive during the early morning of Saturday, June 7th,” he said in a statement. “Given the incident last month, it was a particularly bad decision. I have no excuse for this lack of judgment.

“Though I strongly believe that I am not guilty of any crime, I realize that the public and the Bears organization hold me to higher standard. Though my local attorneys will continue to work hard to prove my innocence, I confess to using poor judgment. Please accept my deepest apology.”

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Tarell Brown gets six months probation for gun offense. Plea includes 20 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.

Again, video of [tag]Cedric Benson[/tag] looking about as cooperative as you can look when being arrested:

I know I’m a UT homer but every single bit of new news and information I get supports Benson more and more. I have a feeling this gets thrown out at his hearing on May 19th.

We now have another account of this weekend’s events on Lake Travis from a friend of [tag]Cedric Benson[/tag]. Elizabeth Cartwright, a senior English major at Texas, corroborates Benson’s version of the events and also questions why he was pepper sprayed.

Notes on Cartwright’s interview from the Chicago Tribune below:

Cartwright, an English major at the University of Texas who is to graduate later this month, estimated she and her fiance had been boating with Benson six times this spring and each time a Lower Colorado River Authority boat pulled them over for a safety check.

There were about 15 people on the boat, including Benson’s mother, Jackie, who had spent much of the evening swimming in a part of the lake known as Devil’s Cove. Just when the group had decided to head back to shore around 9:30 p.m. and go out to dinner, a patrol boat stopped to conduct a random check.

According to Cartwright, she had consumed one beer and Benson had two drinks.

“I know Cedric and I don’t think he was drunk,” Cartwright said.

The arrival of LCRA police perturbed Benson because of the frequency of the checks on his 30-foot boat, Cartwright said.

When Benson’s boat passed the safety inspection, Cartwright said she and her fiance were surprised the officer then required a sobriety test for Benson.

“We were all like, ‘Why?’ ” she said.

After an officer led Benson to the LCRA boat for the test, the second officer left behind on Benson’s boat assured a nervous Jackie Benson that her son would be fine, Cartwright recalled.

A few minutes later, Cartwright said she heard Benson begin to scream after the officer pepper-sprayed him in the eye. By the time Benson was in handcuffs, he was screaming, “Please stop, Mom, make them please stop.”

Cartwright disputed that Benson was resisting arrest.

Panicked, Cartwright called her father, Jeff, to give him a description of the physical way she saw her friend being treated and told him to call 911.

Unaware the friend in question was Benson, Jeff Cartwright called 911 and told the dispatcher that police “were beating up a black kid on Lake Travis.”

The biggest thing that stands out from her statement is that she had been out on the lake with Benson six times this year and every single time they have been stopped for “random safety inspections.” Doesn’t seem so random anymore does it? If that is true, there’s something clearly wrong here.

Ex-Longhorn running back [tag]Cedric Benson[/tag] was arrested over the weekend on Lake Travis for boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest. According to police, Saturday night he failed a sobriety test and resisted arrest strongly enough that officers had to use pepper spray and drag him ashore.

Benson’s side of the story is very different and according to his lawyer he is going to fight the charges. He claims he was not drunk, did not resist arrest, and was pepper sprayed unnecessarily:

“They gave me a field sobriety test, told me to say my ABCs and told me to count from 1 to 4 up and down,” Benson told the Chicago Tribune. “I’m thinking, I passed all the tests, did everything right. Then the officer told me we needed to go to land to take more tests. I politely asked him why we needed to go to land to take more tests when I took every test. Then he sprayed me with mace, on his boat.

“I’m not handcuffed. I’m not under arrest. I’m not threatening him. I’m not pushing him. I’m not touching him. And he sprays me right in my eye.”

Cedric believes he not only passed the sobriety test but was also cooperative with the police when his boat was stopped for a “random safety inspection.” That sure sounds like a possible BWB (boating while black) issue.

Not a good situation and even worse timing for Cedric as he was already going to spend training camp fighting for his starting gig in Chicago. These are pretty serious charges and a conviction could possibly even mean jail time. The Austin Police Department doesn’t exactly have the best track record and things here don’t seem exactly right, so hopefully Ced is innocent and things are cleared up as quickly as possible.

Note: Some people (including notoriously incorrect blowhard Colin Cowherd) have commented on Cedric’s mugshot as evidence he was drunk. I imagine being pepper sprayed in the face might have something to do with his bloodshot eyes in the photo.

Oklahoma recruit Josh Jarboe was arrested Thursday for receiving stolen property and having a weapon on campus. What the heck are these kids thinking?

Gun halts deposition in Reggie Bush case. Looks like a member of Reggie’s crew thought it was a good idea to try to intimidate witnesses.

Two Texas A&M football players have been arrested for an alleged armed robbery in College Station on November 29th. Less than a week after their upset of the Longhorns, offensive lineman Yemi Babalola and defensive end Brandon Joiner (allegedly) decided it would be a good idea to break into an apartment, wave a gun around, and (allegedly) steal pot from a drug dealer. Seriously.

From the DMN…

According to a College Station police report, officers responded to an armed robbery call at the Callaway Villas Apartments. A resident said two black men entered the apartment and struck the person who opened the door.

A second resident ran upstairs and escaped through a window. The first resident and a friend were bound with tape while one of the assailants pointed a semi-automatic handgun in their faces.

Babalola was charged with aggravated robbery and possession of marijuana. Joiner’s charges include marijuana possession, possession of Ecstasy, and possession of hydrocodone. (Purple drank?)

No, this isn’t a case of the pot calling the kettle black. This is a case of the kettle calling the pot black because the pot wouldn’t shut up the last time the kettle had some guys arrested.

This is not a UT or Texas A&M problem, this is a problem in programs across the country. I’m not sure what’s causing young men to give up very promising futures, but this arrest and the Andre Jones/Robert Joseph/James Henry garbage definitely appear directly tied to drugs. Babalola had actually become a very solid player the last two seasons and was likely just a year away from being a mid-round NFL draft pick and a very rich young man.

These kids are giving it all away to get high.