"I do this to my face so I don't have to look Michael Bennett in the eye."

Hope doesn’t win a Super Bowl. Maybe the Oval Office. But not the big game.

The Bucs cut healthy, strong running back Michael Bennett today and activated Cadillac Williams, who hasn’t played in 14 months following a gruesome knee injury. Bruce Allen and Chucky are simply hoping that Cadillac can be healthy, effective and ready to carry the load at running back, should Earnest Graham or Warrick Dunn go down during the stretch run.

The move is just plain foolish.

Earlier Joe gave you seven reasons not to activate Cadillac. Bottom line: the guy is not ready to jump into action at Week 10 of the season. Bennett, however, could handle being a workhorse back down the stretch, if necessary.

This debacle is made even uglier considering Bennett seems to have been treated around One Buc Palace lately like most humans react to Jerramy Stevens. Joe warned you back in September.

On Monday, Bennett told the Tampa Tribune  the doghouse was a lonely place.

“There are times you walk past people and they [members of the Bucs organization] don’t speak to you. Little things like that, those are the only things that really kind of bother me. Other than that, I understand the business and I see how it happens. I can see how guys can get frustrated and lose their minds and lose their temper, but I’m going to stay at peace with mine.”   

Why can’t coach Gruden man up and communicate off the field like a professional with his players? Maybe he really liked that NFL players voted him one the top 5 coaches nobody wants to play for recently? You gotta be the best at something, right?

More likely, Chucky’s just cowardly when he feels uncomfortable, the mark of a guy you don’t want to work with in any business. The pattern repeats itself over and over and over. Alstott, Simms and many others come to mind.

So here we go. Here comes carries and reps for Caddy, our third best running back and fourth best receiver out of the backfield, when we need to establish a true effective running game with Dunn and Graham.

Hope ain’t going to ride the bench, my friends.