Seahawks DE Michael Bennett talks BLM, social responsibility

Published 2:45 pm Saturday, July 30, 2016

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett addressed the media Saturday while wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt, and he went on at length about his reasons for wearing the t-shirt and the importance of social responsibility by today’s athletes:

What does the Black Lives Matter movement mean to Bennett?

“It means everything to me. It’s about social change and change economically. Everything that’s going on in society right now, you just want to be a good advocate for speaking up for things that are going on and making sure the youth have great influences. Being a professional athlete you want to be a great influencer. You don’t want to show bad character because so many people look up to you as role models, especially in the communities most of us grew up in. I just want to be a great role model and a great influence, from on the field to whatever I market to whatever I do for me and the community.”

What does he want people to learn from him as a role model?

“I always ask kids, when they say I’m their role model, I always ask them, ‘Why?’ Sometimes they say, ‘Because you play so great on the field.’ But I tell them that’s a terrible reason to have a role model. I think a role model is somebody you have to look into their true character and what they do off the field. There’s a lot of great players and a lot of great athletes who are so great at their sports, but this is about what they do off the field, how they are to their wives, how they are to their kids, what they do for the community, their philanthropy, the things they do. That’s what I consider a great role model and that’s what I want to exemplify. When young kids look up to me I want them to be like, ‘Man, this is a guy who’s pushing for everything, who doesn’t take dollars from McDonald’s or Pepsi or Coke or anything that promotes anything unhealthy for the kids.’ It’s all about greatness and helping people improve, and that’s all I want to be seen as.”

Does he talk about Black Lives Matter with his teammates?

“We talk about it all the time. But it’s just one of those things where eventually you have to get together as a whole sports community because at the end of the day athletes have a brand and we control what is sold in America. Whatever is sold, usually we’re the conduits to whatever it is. Whether it’s shoes, clothes, drinks, soda, food, athletes hold the key to what people want. As athletes we have to start controlling that influence and keep it positive and not always about the dollar.”

Bennett was complimentary of the stand WNBA players took with regards to the Black Lives Matter movement:

“That’s super on their part. I think the women are usually stronger when it comes to stuff like that, it takes men longer to step up. … [In the NFL] you don’t see a lot of great players talking about things socially, whether it’s Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers, they’re white, they don’t have to deal with the things we have to deal with as black players. In the NBA everybody’s standing up for it, the greatest players are on the forefront of the movement. Here in the NFL the greatest players aren’t on the forefront of the movement. Whether it’s the CBA, whether it’s things going on with trying to change things with concussions, the greatest players aren’t involved like LeBron James and Chris Paul and all these guys. Our great players are just sitting back and taking the dollars, whether it’s Cam Newton, all these guys they’re not really on the forefront of trying to change what’s going on. As a great player you have to remember there’s people who came before you, and a lot of people who came before us put a lot of work in, whether it was strikes, whether they stood up for whatever they stood up for, they had to do that. I think a lot of times we don’t know our history and we forget about those people. You forget to pay homage to all those guys.”