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LeCharles Bentley / Special to The Plain Dealer

The most difficult task for even the most astute marketing expert to assess is the value of any given NFL franchise to its respective city. Certain cities are just happy to have something to do on Sunday afternoons in the fall, while in others the team and the city are synonymous. This is the reality for the city of New Orleans and their beloved Saints.

I had the honor of being selected by the New Orleans Saints in the 2002 NFL Draft, but when my telephone rang and former Saints coach Jim Haslett notified me I was their next selection, I was anything but honored. Considering I had just taken team visits to Miami, Dallas and San Diego, I was far from excited about being drafted by the city that was the poorest and most dangerous in America.


View full sizePatrick Semansky / APNew Orleans residents have a strong connection to the Saints, as barber Willie Pearson proves with his Saints tattoo at Impressive Barber Shop in New Orleans. A lifelong Saints fan, he got the tattoo after the team's 2006 comeback season following Hurricane Katrina.It didn't take me very long to realize statistics were not the sum of what the Crescent City represented. As I grew from a bright-eyed-and-naive college athlete, the city not only grew on me but became a part of me. Growing up in Cleveland, I was fortunate enough to land in a city that mirrored much of what I understood home to be. Both cities were represented by hard-working, resourceful, prideful, compassionate and passionate individuals that above all adored their football teams


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New Orleans loves the Saints without measure: Former NFL center LeCharles Bentley | Cleveland Browns - cleveland.com





Thought Canton would like this

CheramieIII

I hate it that LeCharles didn't make it with us. Great center and how many others can you name? I couldn't think of any besides Jim Otto and that was because he was double zero!

subguy

Good read....

CantonLegend

very good lineman

its a shame he was always hurt for the browns.....he could've been an integral part in rebuilding their front 5

QBREES9

LeCharles ran into some bad luck. He was a great center.

ScottF

I remember him differently- I seem to remember that he was one of the first to leave when things looked bad, real bad, for us:



Bentley started in 13 games and earned a spot in the 2003 Pro Bowl.

In the 2004 season he moved back to his original center position and started in all 16 games, he went on to be voted as an alternate to the 2004 Pro Bowl at that position.

Bentley started 14 games at center in 2005 and was voted to the Pro Bowl again. He left the Saints saying he would rather sit out the season than play with them again.

After backing out of an unofficial agreement with the Philadelphia Eagles, Bentley signed with the Cleveland Browns in 2006, and was regarded by ESPN as the top-rated free agent.

Boutte

Great article by Bentley. The guy has some talent as a writer.

Because of Bentley's what happened at end of his stay here I'm surprised by what he says but I guess you'd have to have walked in his shoes to know why he departed on such a sour note.

It's sad that such promising career was cut so short.

TheDeuce

I agree with you ScottF. Bentley was a good player when he was here, but he took some jabs at us on his way out the door. I wanted him to be a Saint because he was a damn good center, but he definitely wasn't a Saint at heart.

mikesaintfan

i remember it that way too