CINCINNATI — Cedric Benson knew he and Thomas Jones would be in the playoffs together. He just thought it would be on the same sideline, not the opposing.
The two running backs shared a backfield with the Bears for two tumultuous seasons in which they banged heads (and sometimes fists) over playing time. Three years removed from playing together, they square off today in the AFC playoffs, with Benson leading the Bengals’ rushing attack and Jones leading the Jets’.
“We would complement each other real well,” Benson said this week. “I’m sure some people, very few people, in Chicago saw that. They would have made it work if it was enough (people).”
The truth is the mix of Benson and Jones was toxic from the start. Jones, a veteran who was popular with his teammates, resented Benson, picked fourth in the 2005 draft out of Texas, for his big contract and his attitude. After a 36-day holdout as a rookie, Benson proclaimed he would be starting by Week 2.
Things deteriorated from there, with Jones punching Benson during one practice and Benson alleging teammates tried to injure him in practice out of loyalty to Jones.
“When we were in Chicago, it was a little bit of a disagreement,” Benson said. “Largely for him it was he had been on different teams and on those teams he had a situation similar where a guy came in. I think in Chicago, he saw the same situation reoccurring. It wasn’t so much that it was toward me but it was toward the situation. Indirectly, it kind of stemmed a bad situation or a controversy between us.”