Ex-NFL TE Martellus Bennett Slams Drew Brees, White QBs, Media in Twitter Thread

Former NFL tight end Martellus Bennett blasted Drew Brees, white quarterbacks and racism in the NFL in a Twitter thread Wednesday night (warning: following tweets contain profanity).

"Let's not being ignorant. You have a HOF QB in Drew talking about protesting the military when taking a knee," Bennett tweeted. "It's been forever long how the f--k do you still not know what your black 'brothers' are fighting for?

"You get in front of millions on your platform and give a ignorant statement f--king up the message dudes have lost their jobs fighting for. You and your friends need to take your knees off of the necks of your black teammates and stand for something," he continued.

"Because spreading the false narrative of protesting the military and s--t is exactly what you are doing," Bennett added. "Get informed. Read a f--king book."

Brees came under fire Wednesday after he doubled down on previous comments about disagreeing with players who kneel during the national anthem.

"I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country," Brees told Daniel Roberts of Yahoo Finance. "... Is everything right with our country right now? No, it's not. We still have a long way to go.

"But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better and that we are all part of the solution."

The comments drew an overwhelmingly negative reaction, including from current and former teammates.

"He don't know no better," Saints wideout Michael Thomas tweeted. "We don't care if you don't agree and whoever else how about that," he added.

Several other white quarterbacks have posted statements regarding the killing of George Floyd and to express support for protests during the anthem. However, few were out at the forefront making strong statements early last week during the beginning of the nationwide protests.

"Tell me one white QB that truly stands for something other than their captain America images," Bennett wrote. "Not one of them spoke up when it wasn't easy to speak up. Now they writing statements. And y'all wanna applaud them for these statements, when y'all crucified every athlete that said something by protesting in the beginning. Locking arms was always stupid. There was no risk in locking arms. It was no diff from these corporate BLM statement.

"Look in happy they're saying something.. but when they had a chance to make a big play for their black teammates and colleagues most of em remained silent, showed ignorance or didn't say anything of importance when it was really needed. Funny thing is that if the white guys I showered with, slept next to, s--tted next to, counted on etc etc would never speak up for me how could I ever expect the white folks I never spent any time with at all to do so."

Bennett contrasted the media treatment of black quarterbacks versus white quarterbacks, specifically citing Baker Mayfield.

"Black QB have to do every f--king thing right, baker mayfield and his white privilege allows him to do whatever he wants. 'This kid has so much swagger' no the f--k he doesn't," Bennett tweeted. "If a black QB did any of that and lost the narrative wouldn't be swagger it be unfocused, not serious.

"... The forever jobs in the league are dominated by white people starting with the QB position. Because of racism just look at how they talked about Lamar."

Some high-level NFL decision-makers wanted Lamar Jackson to switch positions coming out of Louisville, despite him winning a Heisman. Hall of Famer Bill Polian said Jackson was short (he's 6'2") and would be better off switching to wide receiver in 2018. Jackson won the NFL MVP award in his second NFL season at quarterback.

Bennett also said the NFL's power structure is racist after Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio said he did not believe racism was a problem in football. Fangio has since apologized.

"All these coaches with white daddy syndrome in the league and football period talking down to black players in a way they would never do to a white player know it's wrong then want to turn around and tell em im hard on because I love you like you're my own son as an excuse.

"The nfl is racist. The main reason they don't have black coaches is because of racism not because they aren't 'qualified.' You already know how the white owners who hire coaches feel about black players. It's the same way they feel about black coaches."

The NFL currently has only four minority head coaches and two minority general managers. Recognizing its lacking efforts in diversity, the NFL announced several measures to expand the Rooney Rule and launched a fellowship coaching program for women and minorities.