Bizarre Reasons NFL Teams Benched or Suspended Their Own Starter

by Jeremy Block - 10/29/2026

Bizarre reasons NFL teams benched or suspended a starter Russell Wilson

Most of the time, an NFL starter loses his spot for a pretty normal reason, like a bad week of practice, a nagging hamstring or a younger player who simply earned the snaps. Fans complain for a few days, the new starter takes over, and nobody remembers it by the next season.

Once in a while, though, a team sits one of their best players for a reason that sounds completely made up. Hotel bathrooms, midfield logos, team photos and contract fine print have all cost stars playing time. Here are six times an NFL team benched or suspended their own starter for reasons that had nothing to do with football.

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Stanley Wilson (1989)

Super Bowl week comes with enough distractions already, and the Cincinnati Bengals got hit with the worst one possible the night before Super Bowl XXIII. Fullback Stanley Wilson skipped a team meeting, and running backs coach Jim Anderson found him in the bathroom of his hotel room using cocaine. Wilson had already been suspended twice under the league’s drug policy.

Losing him hurt more than most probably remember. Wilson was a key part of a Cincinnati offense that led the NFL in rushing, adding 398 yards during the season before scoring twice in a playoff win over Seattle. Head coach Sam Wyche pulled him on the spot, and Cincinnati still carried a 13-6 lead into the fourth quarter before the 49ers’ Joe Montana hit John Taylor for the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left.

The Bengals lost 20-16, and the league banned Wilson for life after his third violation. He never played another down in the NFL, and fans still wonder how that final quarter would have looked with their fullback on the field.

Eric Dickerson (1990)

What’s the point of ending a holdout if you’re not going to play? The Colts paid a fortune to land Eric Dickerson from the Rams in a three-team trade back in 1987, and he paid them back with a rushing title the very next season.

By 1990, the relationship had gone completely sideways. Dickerson spent the offseason ripping the organization and pushing for a trade, and when he finally reported to camp, a physical showed that he had a weak hamstring. He refused to take any more tests, and the front office had heard enough.

General manager Jim Irsay put Dickerson on the non-football injury list to keep him out at least six games, then tacked on a four-week suspension and a fine for conduct detrimental to the team. The commissioner upheld it, and one of the best running backs in football lost about $600,000 of his $1.45 million salary for refusing a checkup.

Terrell Owens (2000)

Most teams take their midfield logo personally, and the Cowboys are no different with the star at Texas Stadium. Terrell Owens either didn’t know or didn’t care when the 49ers rolled into Dallas in 2000. After his first touchdown, he ran to midfield and posed on the star. He did it again after his second score, and Cowboys safety George Teague answered with a dirty, late hit that got him ejected.

Back in San Francisco, the reaction was even worse. Head coach Steve Mariucci suspended Owens for the next game against Arizona and docked him $24,294, saying the stunt compromised the integrity of the game. Owens told reporters he’d do it again, and nobody who followed the rest of his career was even surprised at that point.

A week on the sideline didn’t slow him down much, though. Owens finished the season with 97 catches for 1,451 yards and 13 touchdowns, and he caught 20 passes against Chicago late that year to set what was then a single-game NFL record. Mariucci got his point across for exactly one week before Owens was back to his old antics.

Albert Haynesworth (2010)

Nose tackle is one of the least glamorous jobs in football, and a $100 million contract did not make Albert Haynesworth any more interested in it. Washington signed the two-time All-Pro defensive tackle to a seven-year deal with $41 million guaranteed in 2009 after his run in Tennessee. A year later, new head coach Mike Shanahan switched to a 3-4 defense and asked Haynesworth to move from defensive tackle to nose tackle.

Instead of getting on board, Haynesworth skipped the offseason program and mandatory minicamp, even after landing a $21 million bonus that spring. Shanahan made him pass a conditioning test of two 300-yard shuttle runs before he could practice, and Haynesworth was the only player on the roster required to take it. It took him 10 days of training camp to finally get through it.

Patience finally ran out with four games left in the season, when Washington suspended him without pay for the rest of the year. Shanahan said Haynesworth had repeatedly refused to cooperate with the coaching staff, and the biggest free agent of 2009 finished his Washington career watching from home.

Leonard Fournette (2017)

Most players show up for team photo day without a second thought, and the Jaguars expected the same from their rookie running back in 2017. Leonard Fournette had been worth every bit of the fourth overall pick, recording 596 rushing yards through the first half of the season, but he decided he was too good for picture day and skipped it.

The photo wasn’t the only thing he blew off. Word got out that Fournette had also skipped a workout and a treatment session for his sprained ankle, and head coach Tom Coughlin, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, wasn’t about to let that slide. Jacksonville ruled him inactive 90 minutes before kickoff against Cincinnati for violating team rules.

Old-school discipline didn’t cost them much on the field. The Jaguars beat Cincinnati 23-7 without their leading rusher, and Fournette was back the following week. He finished his rookie year with 1,040 rushing yards and helped carry Jacksonville to the AFC Championship Game, team photo or not.

Russell Wilson (2023)

Most teams that trade for a franchise quarterback plan on starting him for the foreseeable future. The Broncos sent two first-round picks, two second-rounders, a fifth and three players to Seattle for Russell Wilson in 2022, then handed him a five-year, $245 million extension before he even took a single snap in Denver.

Year one was a mess, with Wilson throwing 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while Denver went 5-12. He bounced back with 26 touchdowns and eight picks in 2023, but the front office was already starting to see they may have spent a little too much. During the bye week, the Broncos asked him to push back the date that $37 million of his 2025 salary would become guaranteed, and they told him he could lose his starting job if he said no. Wilson still chose the money over reps.

The benching was all about protecting the team’s wallet. An injury in either of the last two games would have left Denver stuck paying the $37 million, so head coach Sean Payton started Jarrett Stidham instead, even with the Broncos at 7-8 and still in the playoff race. Denver released Wilson that spring, and the roughly $85 million in dead money was the biggest cap hit any NFL team had ever taken.

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Start:	October 29, 2026 @ 10:00 PM
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Bizarre Reasons NFL Teams Benched or Suspended Their Own Starter

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