Benching=Big Day?

September 21: Braylon Edwards arrested for DWI.
September 26: Edwards misses first quarter against Dolphins, scores 67-yard touchdown to put the Jets ahead for good in third quarter.

Final week in September: Arian Foster misses team meeting, late for another.
October 3: Foster misses almost entire first half, still amasses 189 total yards and 2 touchdowns.

October 22: Kenny Britt gets involved in a brawl at a Nashville night club.
October 24: Britt misses first quarter-and-a-half against Eagles, but still catches 7 passes for 225 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Additional note: All three teams WON THE GAME.

These examples seem to serve as a note to NFL players: Get in trouble in the week leading up to a game, get yourself benched for at least a quarter, come out with a chip on your shoulder and have a big game to lead your team to victory.

Obviously Foster's situation is much different from Edwards' and Britt's, who faced trouble with the law rather than their team, but these breakout games have to be just a coincidence, right?

All NFL players go into every game they play, starting or not, motivated to have a huge day and carry their team to victory, right?

Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But Britt's historic performance yesterday proves that there is no such thing as a distraction to an NFL player, unless you're Brett Favre flashing pictures of yourself through text.

If anything, these players had extra motivation to come out and prove their worth to their respective teams after "letting them down" during the week. It could also help that their opponents likely didn't gameplan much for these guys considering they knew they were missing time and that all three have the top-tier talent to beat any team that doesn't properly prepare for their abilities.

These examples are a terrible lesson to players, though. Go out during the week, get hammered, try to drive home, get into a fight or just plain blow off mandatory team activities. Then come out, play the game you love at a high level for just over half the game, and everything is forgotten.

The football field has long been viewed as a place where players can get away from their troubles in life: for 60 minutes, they can forget about any family or legal issues and just let the adrenaline flow.

After what Edwards, Foster and Britt have done this season, no one seems to be refuting that theory. Don't bench anybody in fantasy football after they've been in trouble; instead, expect big things. And expect a win for your favorite team. It's nothing but basic psychology.