For those who don’t know, Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett is a real treat for a sportswriter because if the sound bites he provides, and today in his press conference he was on form.
But let’s begin with what he ended the conference with, which was his response to Richard Sherman’s words Wednesday about the Black Lives Matter movement, as Bennett said he didn’t agree completely with Sherman’s stance. Their end goals of harmony among all people are the same. But specifically, Sherman talked about the need for the African American community to first address the issue of violence within its own community, whereas Bennett said he fully supports the Black Lives Matter movement:
“I think the Black Lives Matter thing is more about social injustice, not so much the injustice of people killing within communities. It’s about social injustice, that people are supposed to protect them, and building a community — not just black people, because you see a lot if people in the Black Lives Matter organization who are white, Spanish, they’re all dealing with the same type of hardships going on around the world. I think sometimes people don’t take the time to look at what’s going on in the world. When you say something when you’re in the position he’s in I think sometimes people take it and run with it. I think there’s a lot of murders in a lot of communities, but a lot of times it deals with the segregation within the communities around the world. You look around and there’s a white neighborhood, a black neighborhood, a Spanish neighborhood, instead of just calling them American neighborhoods or American communities.”
But now on to the fun stuff. First, he likened Seattle’s struggles on defense last weekend against St. Louis to a marriage:
“I think what we lacked last week was communication. Even in a marriage if you don’t communicate good things don’t happen. … We were like a bad marriage, we weren’t on the same page.”
Then there’s what he had to say about Green Bay running back Eddie Lacy:
“He’s slightly overweight, but he’s good at what he does.”
For the record, Bennett went on to say he thought Lacy was, outside of Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, the hardest back to bring down in the league.
Bennett, who has publicly expressed dissatisfaction with his contract, said he went to the final day before training camp before deciding not to hold out. The reason?
“I got three kids, I got a wife, my wife wouldn’t let me hold out so I had to come to work.”
And why a player can’t let himself be distracted by a contract situation:
“You got to go out there and play as hard as you can because the one time you’re thinking about something else out there you’ll be knocked out and have a concussion, and hopefully you can get some of Russell Wilson’s water so you can feel better.”
That response came as a result of questions regarding the holdout of strong safety Kam Chancellor. Here’s some of the things Bennett said about that situation:
“It’s like when you have a brother off at war, you want him to come back.”
“At the end of the day Kam sees it’s a short widow to make money and he wants to make it and I understand that, I respect that.”
“I think you can’t have hard feelings [in the locker room] because in the NFL they cut people every day. There’s some guy right now who thinks he’s going to play Sunday who’s going to be cut Friday because the organization feels like it needs to save money. Teams do it all the time, but when teams do it it’s called business, when a player does it he’s called ungrateful.”
Keep being you, Michael. It enriches all our lives.
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Finally, here’s the updated Seahawks injury list from Thursday’s practice:
Out: LB Mike Morgan (hamstring)
Did not practice: CB Tharold Simon (toe), DE Demarcus Dobbs (back), LB Bruce Irvin (rib).
Limited: T Garry Gilliam (rib).
Returned to full practice: RB Marshawn Lynch (non injury), FB Will Tukuafu (foot), LB Bobby Wagner (ankle), DE Michael Bennett (ankle).
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