Martellus Bennett on brother joining Cowboys and ‘rich, white men playing chess’
Former Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett, the brother of defensive lineman Michael Bennett, expects his brother to excel playing alongside DeMarcus Lawrence.
“I think it’s going to be good because of the way they can use him and DeMarcus Lawrence and put them on the same side,” Bennett told Bob and Dan on KTCK/1310 The Ticket. “I think he’s going to be able to rush and be used the way he likes to be used.”
Both Bennett brothers attended Texas A&M. He discussed the business aspect of the trade from the Patriots to the Cowboys more than football.
“Most of our talk was about numbers and contracts. We talked business,” he said. “What’s the best business move?”
But he also let his brother know what he was getting into with the Cowboys organization.
“You’re going to have the most beautiful things, the most beautiful stadium, the locker room is going to be beautiful,” he told him.
Martellus Bennett played with the Cowboys from 2008 to 2011 before signing with the Chicago Bears as a free agent in 2012. He retired in 2018 after playing with five NFL teams over 10 seasons.
His four years with the Cowboys were sometimes contentious.
“I wouldn’t say I have any regrets but there are some things that if I changed my perspective then my time there would have been better,” he said. “But at the same time, if I had changed my perspective then they would have changed my trajectory. Like the fact that I never wanted to be a backup. I never felt like I was a backup guy. So that was a struggle there.”
Martellus Bennett said the biggest issue he had with the Cowboys coaching staff was they tried to change who he was as a person.
“The one main thing I’m very proud of myself is not allowing a team change who I was as a person,” he said. “That was the biggest battle that we had. It was more about who I was as an individual than who I was as a player. I will always fight to be myself.”
Bennett, 32, authored a children’s book called “Dear Black Boy,” which was released this year. The book is “a letter of encouragement to young black boys who feel as if sports is all they have.”
As for the lack of control NFL players have over their careers?
“There’s nothing you can do about it. There’s a chess match going on and it’s a bunch of rich, white men playing with the chess pieces and we’re just the chess pieces on the board,” he said. “We never get to decide where we want to go. Most of us are pawns. Some of us are rooks and Bishops, but most of us are pawns.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 3:52 PM.
