David Cornwell, the lawyer for Bengals running back Cedric Benson, confirmed via text Thursday evening they met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York City about the assault charge in Austin, Texas. He's not sure if Goodell will make a call before the season or wait to see if the case is resolved in court.
"The Commissioner and Cedric had a frank and productive discussion regarding the benefits of playing in the NFL as well as the price to enjoy those benefits," Cornwell wrote. "Cedric is his best advocate and I believe the Commissioner was pleased with their discussion."
Benson also has an advocate in his head coach. Marvin Lewis said earlier this week that Benson was "jumped" and "sucker-punched."
TOUGH CUT: Hate to see a good man go.
Center Dan Santucci, waived Wednesday to get the roster down to 81 players, never really had a shot because of health reasons.
After the Bengals drafted him in 2007 out of Notre Dame in the seventh round, they cut him at the end of his rookie training camp and when the Colts put him on their practice squad the Bengals plucked him for the active roster when they had some injury problems up front. He ended up playing on special teams in two games and that was it because foot and ankle problems the past two years in the preseason shelved him for both seasons and he was never able to really get into the center derby that yielded Kyle Cook last season.
Cook is clearly the guy here for the long haul. But you hope Santucci gets a shot somewhere. He's a solid, smart Chicago guy who bought into the program and was good with the guys. He started his family here in Cincinnati with a baby last year and you've got to like any guy that won the Knute Rockne Student Athlete Award when he was a senior.
The move certainly indicates that the Bengals are doing what they can to make sure they have both kickers in camp, per Lewis' comments earlier in the week. They need to cut one more guy to get to the minimum of 80 for Thursday's first practice. The secondary would seem to be the most likely target because the Bengals are so heavy there, but it could be anywhere at this point.
DOUBLE TALK: ProFootballTalk. com picked up an interesting item from Gerry Fraley of The Dallas Morning News that noted the Falcons lead all teams with 14 two-a-day practices this summer. The Cowboys, who open with the Bengals in the Hall of Fame Game Aug. 8, are second with 12, and the Bengals' AFC North rival Baltimore is third with 10.
Fraley also expects the Patriots to be up there because while they've only made public their schedule for the first week, Bill Belichick has scheduled a double session each day.
The Bengals, on the other hand, are trending back like most teams and have scheduled only five doubles. It will be a good compare and contrast because the Bengals play the Pats and Ravens in the first two games of the regular season.
While Lewis' teams as a rule have struggled in December, he's done a nice job getting the Bengals out of the gate in the first quarter of the season. In the last four seasons Carson Palmer has been healthy, the Bengals have a record of 11-5 in their first four games of 2005-2007 and 2009. And Lewis has been pulling back, it seems, little by little each year in camp.
