Sorting through the aftermath of the Bears trade of Martellus Bennett to the New England Patriots: Some thoughts would be ... it brings some curiosity to the New England culture.
Bennett spoke with Patriots media via conference call on Thursday and was philosophical about the need to be adaptable in life, certainly in NFL life: "You just be prepared to make sure you flow where the wind goes. Try to be a dandelion."
A dandelion. Really? Try to be like that weed that infects lawns every spring by producing those puffballs of white seedlings that blow like snow on the wind? Not to make too much out of a casual simile, but dandelions are things that make a mess out of an otherwise nice lawn. I made my front yard into wildflowers and natural stuff, and dandelions manage to make a mess out of even that. You get rid of ‘em or they mess with the rest of the year, too. And they really don’t make very good wine, either.
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Back in 2013 Bennett arguably gave a foreshadowing of his undoing in Chicago. Talking with ESPN’s Calvin Watkins, who was covering the Dallas Cowboys when Bennett arrived there as a second-round draft choice, Bennett admitted to why he had struggled in Dallas.
“It was more attitude,” Bennett told Watkins. “I think I never accepted my role in Dallas and I always was fighting with what my role was instead of just accepting it.”
Sound familiar?
NFL
A final straw in Bennett’s Bears tenure involved his unhappiness over a lessened role in the offense going into a Week 12 Thanksgiving matchup against the Green Bay Packers last season. Bennett was an attitude problem that week, the Bears put him on the inactive list and went to Green Bay and beat the Packers.
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Bennett said all the requisite things about Rob Gronkowski, the linchpin of the Patriots passing offense and the consensus best at his position in the NFL.
"I think Gronk has always been an awesome tight end and I look forward to learning more about him," Bennett said. "There are some things that he does that I don’t do, and I’m pretty sure there are a lot of things that I do that he doesn’t do, so it’ll be a good challenge to push each other and continue to help us grow as individual players as well as a tandem to do what we can to help the team."
If there are a “lot of things” Bennett does that Gronkowski doesn’t, this may be news to a lot of NFL linebackers, defensive backs and coordinators.