Martellus Bennett must be wrong right? The NFL is a happy and cheerful place right? Bennett’s tweets, however, may shed a different light on the league.
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Bennett played in the NFL from 2008 to 2017, and he was a productive tight end. His best season came in 2014 when he made the Pro Bowl with the Chicago Bears, hauling in 916 receiving yards. However, why does Bennett believe the league is not as bright as everyone thinks it? Read more to find out:
Martellus Bennett Calls Out The “Goodness” of the NFL
Bennett said that players have to a really weird mindset if they want to play the game of football. Oftentimes, if you’re a backup and the starter goes down, you’ll feel that slight thrill and jubilation that you’ll finally get your chance to play, but at the same time a man just got injured.
Dealing with those conflicting views is part of Bennett’s thought process here. He argues that the NFL messes with a player’s mental stability as they constantly have to question their beliefs and thoughts in such scenarios.
“It takes years and years of brainwashing to go along with a lot of the s—. It starts at peewee. That’s why you gotta watch who is coaching your kids and what they’re teaching them beyond the game.”
Bennett also says the ego and the popularity you achieve as an NFL player is something that messes with people. He says that the fallout after playing can be horrible because after going from basically a celebrity, you fall down and become somewhat of a “normal” person again. That transition can be difficult to achieve for many people.
While most people imagine that a post-NFL career must be a doozy because of all the money you’ve made, Bennett says this is simply not the case:
“Another thing that be happening is most guys don’t know how to make money. Making money is hard as f—. Once your body breaks down, that money machine is gone. And unfortunately the spare parts in the mind that don’t break are so rusty you get discouraged when trying to use em.”
Does Bennett Regret Playing Football?
Finally, Bennett arrives at the crux of his dilemma: was it all worth it? For him, it wasn’t. At the end of the day, when he struggles to do activities with his kids, experiences serious mood swings due to his volatile mental health, and starts to run out of money, Bennett realizes that football never gave him as much as it took away.
Bennet’s whole point of this isn’t to be trashing football as he says, but, instead, it’s to offer a different perspective on how the life of an athlete can be. As an athlete, you have tremendous pressure on you to perform and maintain a high standard of athletic ability.
Additionally, you start handling amounts of money you may have never dreamed of having, and all of that can be extremely overwhelming, no matter how old or experienced you may get. You might be wondering if this was the case, why didn’t Bennett leave the game much earlier?
Well, because it’s difficult. An athlete does have ego as Bennett pointed out, and that ego can get to you, especially if you’re playing a starting level. Walking away from the game and admitting that it wasn’t the best decision of your life can be humiliating. However, there’s definitely more to it than just ego.
There’s also the stress of having to say goodbye to the thing you worked yourself up to be. Athletes train for majority of their lives just to have a chance to make it pro. And once you do, it’s the best feeling in the world. You don’t want to give all that way simply because your mind can’t handle it right? Mental health is still a touchy topic, and having to step down because of it isn’t something any athlete would want to do.
“Athletes experience a lot of physical and mental abuse. It’s a traumatic experience. I believe guys must find a way to deal with the physical and mental trauma after they leave the game.”
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