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Michael Bennett speaks to ‘The Breakfast Club’
Seahawks defensive lineman covers a wide range of topics on sports and politics
You know Michael Bennett. He’s the Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman who wears dashikis on TV, has pulled out of NFL events because of his personal beliefs and generally speaks up about what he feels is right and wrong in America. He’s a smart dude and also knows when not to take himself too seriously. Overall, a good dude.
You also know The Breakfast Club, the radio show based in New York City featuring Charlamagne Tha God, who recently penned a book called Black Privilege. Well-known for stirring up controversy, the sit-down with Bennett was guaranteed to be solid. It was.
It was a wide-ranging conversation in which Bennett touched on all sorts of topics, from Colin Kaepernick to 21 Savage.
“Of course I think Kaepernick’s being blackballed,” Bennett said when asked about the former 49ers quarterback. “Obviously, all the stuff to do with the issues, nobody likes race and politics in sports. I think that’s one of the things that nobody really wants to talk about. For him to bring [it] up, I think it struck a lot of people in the wrong way. I mean, the people that really watch football, it’s middle America. … And for him to bring that into that crowd was one thing that people felt like shouldn’t have been there.”
Overall, he’s just a guy doing all this because it feels right and he wants to set a good example for the people who matter most to him: his family.
“I don’t want my daughters to look back and be like, ‘Where were you when they were talking about Black Lives Matter?’ ” Bennett said. ” ‘Where were you when they were talking about women’s equality?’ I want my daughter to be like, ‘Daddy, thank you for being a man that stood up at the time when it was time to stand up.’
“You can’t really care about the Nikes, the brands that are behind you. Because those brands, they’re going to outlive you. That’s just how it is. Your legacy in your community is what’s going to live on, and that’s important for you to always think about.”
Oh, and he’s writing a book called Things That Make White People Uncomfortable. Welp.