by Dan Parzych
NFL Network Manager
(Dale Zanine/US PRESSWIRE)

On Monday, Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson pleaded no contest for an assault charge for his involvement in a bar fight at Annie’s West in Austin, Texas from 2010. As a result, Benson was sentenced to 20 days in prison and planned on turning himself in on October 17 when the team started their bye week–but it appears his sentence is already underway.

According to Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Benson’s attorney says his client began serving his sentence Tuesday night. The Bengals are scheduled to play the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night–but head coach Marvin Lewis already indicated he didn’t plan on using Benson in the preseason finale.

Benson isn't waiting until the bye week to serve his jail time. Per his attorney, he began serving his sentence Tuesday night. #bengals
August 31, 2011 12:21 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@joereedy
Joe Reedy

When news first broke about his sentence taking place during the bye week, Benson was scheduled to return in time before the team’s first game back against the Seattle Seahawks–missing only one or two key practices. Now that Benson’s sentence has already started–it should be interesting to see what type of impact this has on the start of his season and if he’ll be as effective against the Cleveland Browns on September 11. Reedy claims that Benson will be back by September 7 (assuming he receives credit for good behavior) and he’ll only miss one practice on top of the preseason finale that he already wasn’t going to be playing in–so it sounds like everything could work out well for Benson and the Bengals.

Dan Parzych is the Lead NFL Content Editor for www.RantSports.com/NFL,  where he writes and edits NFL content for www.RantSports.com.

Be sure to follow Dan on Twitter @DanParzych

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