T.O. misses flight to Bengals camp!! WTF??

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (AP)—Terrell Owens(notes) arrived fashionably late, received a white jersey with his favorite number, and got a smattering of applause for doing even the simplest thing.

Every catch was an event.

A few thousand fans showed up for Owens’ first practice with the Cincinnati Bengals, who signed him to a one-year deal on Thursday evening, then got a preliminary glimpse of what the 36-year-old receiver has left.

“He hasn’t slowed down,” quarterback Carson Palmer(notes) said. “He’s a guy that’s kind of ageless and he’s still got a lot left in the tank.”

The day didn’t come off as planned.

Owens missed an overnight flight that would have brought him to town earlier in the day, allowing for a proper introduction. Instead, he caught a later flight, rolled in less than an hour before an evening practice and suited up without talking to the media.

He and buddy Chad Ochocinco(notes) were the last two to jog onto the field, drawing loud applause. Owens occasionally waved to the fans in appreciation, but played it comparatively low-key throughout the two-hour workout.

So began the TO-and-Ocho era.

“It’s a circus,” Palmer said. “Him and Chad, them being them. It’s funny. I was laughing.”

Owens wore his customary No. 81, part of a deal he made with the previous owner. Receiver Antonio Bryant(notes) got the number when the Bengals chose him over Owens in the offseason, giving him a four-year deal. Bryant said after a morning practice that he had already talked to Owens and agreed to give up his number.

“I’m a realist,” Bryant said. “I said, ‘Hey, man, I’m not going to make no big spectacle about it. You’ve got a bigger legacy and a number than I do. I’ve been on several teams like you, but I’ve changed my number several times. You’ve had the same number.

“I don’t need your money,” Bryant said. “All I want you to do is take care of one of my little league programs in Miami. Send them a small donation and we’ll go from there.”’

First, Owens had to arrive. It wasn’t as easy as planned.

The Bengals expected him to show up early in the day, take his physical and sign his one-year contract while the rest of the team held its first workout. They scheduled an introductory news conference after the morning practice.

The news conference had to be rescheduled for after the evening session because Owens missed his red-eye flight.

On his Twitter account, Owens mentioned the delay.

“My Press conf about my “Decision” 2 take my talents 2 Cincy will b held 2nite after 7pm practice!!” he tweeted, playing off LeBron James’ one-hour television show announcing his decision to leave Cleveland.

Owens also misspelled Cincinnati in one of his tweets and was corrected by a follower.

“Okayyyyyy I got it now, 2 n’s & 1 t! CINCINNATI!! LOL!” he tweeted.

With Owens showing up late, Bryant was a focus of the Bengals’ first workout — for his knee, not his number.

He had surgery for torn cartilage in his left knee during training camp with Tampa Bay last year. He was limited to 39 catches for 600 yards and four touchdowns. The Bengals signed him to a $28 million deal, hoping he would provide another outside threat with Ochocinco.

Bryant backed off workouts last month because the muscles around the left knee didn’t feel strong enough. He went through drills tentatively on Thursday, never running at full speed, and planned to sit out the evening practice to work on strengthening the leg.

“The only thing I’m struggling with right now is just being comfortable and mentally just putting (the left foot) down and doing what I want to do without thinking, ‘Oh, I might feel pain,”’ Bryant said. “That’s my biggest hurdle right now.”

Coach Marvin Lewis insisted that Bryant’s knee problem had nothing to do with the decision to sign Owens this week. Bryant isn’t so sure.

“If I owned the team, I would definitely go after the best players if possible, especially with the situation they acquired him,” Bryant said. “I definitely would have went after the guy.”

Running back Cedric Benson(notes) fully participated in the workout. Benson met last week with commissioner Roger Goodell about his offseason arrest in Texas on a charge of misdemeanor assault. Benson is accused of punching a bar employee, a charge he has denied.

Benson hasn’t heard anything more from Goodell, who could discipline him.

“We had a good talk, a good session,” Benson said. “I guess no news is good news.”

And things had been going so well for Cedric Benson ...Ceddy why??

Cedric Benson's(notes) resurgence in Cincinnati last year was a great story and a rare one. The fourth overall draft pick in 2005 spent four years as a full-fledged draft bust, having never approached a 1,000-yard season and being arrested twice in 2008.

But somehow, despite an early career marked by criminal mischief and going to the ground easier than Joan Capdevila, Benson turned into some kind of stud in 2009. It so rarely happens that a running back — especially one drafted so high — will have four Blair Thomas-esque years to start his career, and all of a sudden become a fierce and feared workhorse back. I don't think a lot of people saw that coming.

Which is what makes the Tuesday arrest of Benson so disappointing.

The incident in question happened a month ago in a bar in Austin, the same city in which Benson's other two arrests took place. Here's how things went down, via Jim Vertuno of the AP.

According to the Austin police arrest affidavit, Benson was at Annie’s West bar in the Sixth Street entertainment district on May 30 when he got into an altercation with another, unknown bar patron that left him spitting blood from a cut lip. After staff intervened, witnesses told police Benson shoved a bar worker and was verbally abusive. After being asked to leave, Benson was escorted to the door.

“As they took him outside, he continued to push and shove,” Senior Police Officer Veneza Aguinaga said.

Bartender Bryan White told police that once outside, Benson complained to people passing by that “all these white boys are ganging up on me and kicking me out.”

White said he told Benson he wouldn’t take time out of his night just to kick him out, then Benson punched him in the face.

Now, why it took a full month to make the arrest, I don't know. Also, Benson's lawyer says that Benson has his own side of the story, which police have never heard, and that Benson will tell it "at the appropriate time" (note: now seems like a good time).

And maybe his story is 100 percent true. Maybe Benson was wronged here. Maybe police in Austin just really like arresting him. I don't know.

Here's my issue, though. Between the original altercation with the guy at the bar, that guy busting him in the lip, being asked to leave by bouncers, pushing and shoving on his way outside and complaining about the actions of a group of white boys ... somewhere in there, Cedric Benson had time to stop and say to himself, "Hey, Ced, you've got a lot to lose, so maybe you should just get out of here." But he didn't.

Anyway, whatever ends up happening with this, it's Benson's task now to make it just an odd little footnote in the story of a remarkable career comeback. How does he do that? By keeping himself out of trouble off the field, and continuing to produce on it. If he can manage that, his comeback story will trump a bar fight in which no one was seriously injured.