Seahawks Star Michael Bennett Suggests the NFL Only Markets White Players

Want an honest opinion on something? Ask Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett a question. While most NFL players—and professional athletes as a whole—are programmed to give the most cliché, PC answers possible during interviews (just look at Bennett’s teammate Russell Wilson), Bennett is liable to say just about anything when you talk to him.

Recently, Bennett sat down for an interview with Sports Illustrated, and he had a bunch of interesting takes on a range of different topics. Unfortunately, the entire Q&A isn’t online, but we’ve gone through the story and found some of his best quotes. Here are just a few of them:

We could seriously go on and on and on. There are so many great quotes in the Q&A. There’s also a portion of it where Bennett discusses the marketability of NFL players. He believes that the league markets quarterbacks and wide receivers over other positions (which, OK, they do…). But Bennett also suggests that the league makes an effort to promote white players over black ones. He doesn’t come right out and say that, but you can read between the lines during this exchange:

Bennett’s entire interview appears in the December 21 issue of SI (the one with Serena Williamson the cover) if you’re interested in checking it out. You can see some other excerpts from it—as well as some shots of Bennett dressed as a Jedi!—here.

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