Michael Bennett Comments on Rumored Trade Request, Jimmy Graham and More

Michael Bennett has never been one to mince words. And the defensive end from the Seattle Seahawks certainly didn't do so on Thursday, addressing trade rumors, the move that brought Jimmy Graham to the Seahawks and much more on a radio interview with 710 ESPN Seattle.    

He first addressed rumors that he had demanded a trade, noting via Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times, "Man, like I said, they made rumors about Jesus, they’ll make rumors about anybody.”

The report in question came from Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a couple of weeks ago, when he tweeted the following: 

Bennett didn't take kindly to that rumor, noting, "I never asked for it. I didn’t come to them asking for a trade. I’m still trying to figure out how a guy from Dallas make up a story about me, I’m living in Seattle, I’m like how does that happen? I’m in Hawaii surfing, got the kids surfing in the ocean and they are talking about something else.”

He added that everything was good between him and the Seahawks. 

He was then asked about the trade for Graham, a player he called “one of the softest players in the NFL” and “overrated” after a playoff game in the 2014 playoffs, via Brady Henderson of mynorthwest.com:

"

I still feel the same way. Just because he’s on my team I don’t stop feeling that way. Obviously I’m going to be a better teammate to him because he’s on my team. I can’t do the things I was doing to him when we were playing him. But obviously when he comes to our team he’s a part of our team so we have a different philosophy than they had with the Saints so the things he was expected to do with the Saints are going to be different when he comes here.

"

It will be interesting to see how those remarks play in Seattle's locker room. 

Bennett is coming off a season that saw him accumulate 38 tackles, seven sacks and a forced fumble. In many locker rooms his forthcoming nature might be considered abrasive or honest to a fault, though in Seattle—a team with characters like Richard Sherman and Marshawn Lynch, among others—his personality will always be accepted so long as he produces on the field.

Perhaps Bennett was sending the same message to Graham. Perhaps he simply didn't want to backtrack from his previous comments. Either way, Bennett was always unlikely to keep his opinion of Graham, even when the tight end became his teammate, to himself.