It’s the Packers turn to opine on Martellus Bennett’s public rollercoaster through injury, retirement wishes, a Packers release and, ultimately, a Patriots reunion.
Seeing Bennett back on the field Sunday with the Patriots, the team he won a Super Bowl with last season, has made people wonder how much truth there was to the tight end’s shoulder injury story. Two days after Green Bay released Bennett over failure to disclose his medical condition, Bennett laid the blame on Packers team doctor Patrick McKenzie for pushing him to play through it.
A handful of Packers players who commented on the situation Thursday painted a different picture of Bennett’s downfall. Whether they said it outright or alluded to it, they saw the Pro Bowl tight end as someone who gave up on the team once quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down with a broken collarbone last month.
“At the end of the day you have to think of it as a business. Me, personally? I thought he quit on us,” Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix told the Wisconsin State Journal. “I don’t fault him, but I did think he quit on us. He let us down — as a teammate. For a guy that came in, of his caliber, his leadership quote-unquote, I expected more from him. I held him to a higher standard, me personally. But he handled it the way he wanted to handle it.”
From Bennett’s perspective, he was about ready to move on from football entirely — get the surgery he needed, then maybe take up a desk job — when Bill Belichick called. The conversation with his old coach, followed by a moment of reflection, convinced him to forego surgery and dive right back into the season with the Patriots.
“It was one of those things I felt I should get fixed and then after deciding to get it fixed and getting waived, you’ve got that vengeance in your heart and you’re just like ‘All right, are you going to do it?’ OK, let’s go ball,” Bennett said earlier this week, after catching three passes for 38 yards in the Patriots’ 41-16 win over the Broncos.
The 30-year-old had previously lashed out at McKenzie in an Instagram post for not making him feel “safe” with the way he handled the injury. Bennett, in the same breath, accused McKenzie and the Packers of covering up their mistake with the reason they used for his release, which Bennett called a “bulls–t excuse.”
As much as the Packers might be bitter over how it ended with Bennett — who signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the Packers in March — they expressed equal relief over becoming a closer-knit group without the negativity stemming from Bennett’s situation. Players pointed to their win over the Bears Sunday, the team’s first since Oct. 8 — their last full game with Rodgers, a 35-31 win over the Cowboys — as a sign of them finding their way again.
“I think it definitely has the power to galvanize a locker room,” star linebacker Clay Mathews said of a player quitting on the team. “Because it shows you — especially going through difficult times — it shows you who’s in and who isn’t. …
“Like when a guy’s injured, you know when guys are out there and they’re hurting and they’re not 100 percent but they’re giving it up for the guy next to them, they feel a certain sense of accountability. You love to see guys who really want to battle and fight and see it through.”
With AP
