Former NFL back Benson dies on bike
Former NFL running back Cedric Benson was killed Saturday in a motorcycle accident in Austin, Texas.
He was 36. Benson, who played for three teams in eight NFL seasons, was one of two people killed in the crash, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
Emergency authorities told the newspaper that they had received information that the former athlete and a passenger had both died.
The Austin-Travis County EMS, meanwhile, tweeted late Saturday local time that a man and woman had died in an “Auto v Motorcycle” accident and that two others suffered non-life-threatening injuries but did not release names.
Benson was a massive star in college playing for the Texas Longhorns, rushing for more than 1,000 yards and scoring at least 12 touchdowns in each of his four seasons there from 2001 to 2004.
Following a senior year in which Benson tallied 1,834 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns, Chicago Bears selected him fourth overall in the 2005 NFL Draft. He spent three seasons with the Bears.
Benson’s greatest success in the NFL came with the Cincinnati Bengals, with whom he ran for more than 1,000 yards every year from 2009 to 2011. He appeared in five games with the Green Bay Packers in 2012, his final season.
His former coach at Texas, Mack Brown, tweeted Sunday that he’s “saddened” by the reports of Benson’s death.
“We’ve coached a lot of tough players but none were tougher than Cedric,” Brown wrote. “He was a true spirit. Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family on this sad day.”