The Martellus Bennett era is Green Bay was, in a word, disappointing. The Green Bay Packers declined to bring back Jared Cook after the 2016 season. Bennett was supposed to be the next weapon for Aaron Rodgers in the passing game. Unfortunately, that was not the way it worked out. Bennett only played in seven games. He caught 24 passes for 233 yards, and did not score. Additionally, Bennett drew criticism from fans for his protests during the National Anthem. Some believe he quit on the team, feigning injury. Upon his release from the Packers, Bennett played two games for the New England Patriots, but has not appeared in the NFL since.
Why Packers Fans Were Talking About Martellus Bennett
Recently, Martellus Bennett started trending on social media because of remarks that he made about San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo. While appearing on a podcast, Bennett questioned whether or not Garoppolo was really hurt, or if he was just quitting on the 49ers.
Martellus Bennett takes shots at Jimmy Garoppolo for the timing of his decision to not play due to injury in 2016. https://t.co/BeLuvIoiHQ
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 22, 2021
For many Packers fans, these comments seemed incredibly hypocritical. Bennett started to trend on Twitter as many Packers faithful quote tweeted the above tweet with their thoughts on his short stint with Green Bay.
Remember when Martellus Bennett literally quit on the @packers 2017 team? Then blamed the doctors for some reason? https://t.co/3FgEy9AzH1
— Alex (@WIsportsfan625) October 23, 2021
The same guy who quit on his team when Rodgers got hurt…. https://t.co/mhTxRTbqej
— 🎄🎅 Brooke (11-3) #CyBurnes (@_Brooke22) October 23, 2021
“HELLO AGAIN I NEED TO BE RELEVANT!!!!” https://t.co/dQEc2cuWkG
— 11-3 (@SmashAmos) October 22, 2021
Martellus Bennett Clapped Back
In response to the hundreds of remarks about how he quit on the Packers, Martellus Bennett unleashed a tirade of accusatory tweets aimed at the Packers organization and their fans.
Packers fans were sending hate mail and leaving death threats and other hateful messages on the team voicemail because I was protesting. It got so bad that Doug Collins the head of team security was worried something might happen to me in Wisconsin.
— Martellus Bennett (@MartysaurusRex) October 23, 2021
For a detailed look into all of his accusations, be sure to click the tweet above. However, included in that are accusations towards Packers’ players Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson, who Bennett believed did not want to protest in the right way. Additionally, Bennett accused Packers’ fans of being racist due to the messages he and the team supposedly received.
Conclusion
The really difficult thing about Bennett’s accusations is that Green Bay does not have the best history when it comes to fans and racist messages. Just last season, wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling was the target of dozens of hateful messages on social media, which included death threats. On the other hand, many of Bennett’s former Packers’ teammates believed he quit on the team.
Did Martellus Bennett really receive racist messages from Packers fans? Unfortunately, most likely. Did the situation between him and the Packers go down exactly the way he claims it did? That is a little bit more questionable.
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1 Comment
Just because fans were angry you disrespected the country by kneeling when the national anthem was played does not make them racist. They may have said or written dumb things, but so has Martellus in response.
Instead of being able to label all fans as racist, he should release the comments along with who said them and let people judge for themselves.