A Pivot to the Kids

Martellus Bennett played 10 seasons at tight end in the NFL for six teams, winning a Super Bowl with New England in 2016 and making the Pro Bowl in 2014 with Chicago. If he has his way, his football career will be a footnote. 

Bennett is an imaginative soul who retired in 2018, at the age of 31 with tread remaining on his tires, to focus on creative pursuits. A writer and illustrator, he dreams up fantastical characters and adventures aimed at young black people. Bennett told Howard Bryant in a story published in The Atlantic, “A lot of my work is me subconsciously trying to validate my childhood, because the childhood I had as a black boy does not exist in the media today. I was more like ‘The Goonies’ than ‘Boyz n the Hood.’” 

 

Indeed, Bennett and older brother Michael Bennett, who also was an NFL player, grew up in Houston. Their father was an IT tech, their mother a middle-school teacher. He was an elite prospect in both football and basketball, as well as an honor student and school band member who built computers with his father as a hobby. 

Bennett decries what he sees as structural racism in the NFL and society in general. As a player, he spoke out about the need for police accountability, along with brother Michael and, famously, Colin Kaepernick. Following the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling at the hands of police officers, Martellus wrote a book called “Dear Black Boy,” aimed at young blacks who won’t have professional sports futures.

Using simple and encouraging language he implored them to cast a broader net and to aim higher. “The value we place on the athlete is greater than the value we place on the scholar,” Bennett said in The Atlantic piece. “Two kids walk into the barbershop, and one is a pretty good basketball player. People will be like, ‘You gotta watch him. He’s got a jumper. He’s got a shot at the NBA.’ And if a kid comes in and has won two science fairs in a row and got a grant? No one says, ‘That’s the next Mark Zuckerberg.’ Or ‘He’s going to be Bill Gates.’ They don’t celebrate him.” 

Among Bennett’s current efforts are children’s fantasy tales, the “Hey A.J.” series, with his young daughter as the basis for the central character. For example, in “Hey A.J., It’s Bedtime,” when her parents turn out the lights, her room comes alive with various toys and creatures who want to party. A.J. must choose between sleep and partying with her friends. Bennett signed a deal last June with Disney to develop an animated series based on the books. 

Children’s books have the added benefit of creating bonds between parents and kids, Bennett said in another interview. Kids aren’t simply given a book and left to read for themselves, he said. Parents, or other adults, sit and read to them and with them. “Black people are treated as second-class citizens in reality and fantasy,” Bennett said in The Atlantic. “I want to build worlds where kids and families of color can come and know that they own it, they belong there, and it’s a magical place.”