Martellus Bennett Accuses Packers Of Lying About Injury: 'They Tried To [Expletive] Over Me'
BOSTON (CBS) -- When the Packers released tight end Martellus Bennett this week, they did so with a failure to disclose an injury designation. And when Packers head coach Mike McCarthy spoke Friday, he said that his most recent conversation about Bennett involved scheduling surgery on his injured shoulder.
But on Friday, via Instagram, Bennett told his side of the story. And he claims he is being painted unfairly by the Packers.
First, Bennett provided background.
"The Packers examined my shoulder on my visit March 10 and cleared it," he said. "They even gave me an X-ray as well. It got worse during the season, specifically against the Cowboys, so I asked to have it checked and we checked it. After a few days of contemplating to play with it or get surgery, I chose surgery. Now here we are..."
Next, he got right to the point, accusing the Packers and team doctor Patrick McKenzie of trying to cover up their missteps after Bennett discussed retirement several weeks ago.
"They tried to f--- over me. Dr. McKenzie trying to cover his own ass," Bennett said. "After trying to persuade me to play through a major injury and me choosing to get surgery. They have access to all my medical records. My shoulder wasn't where it is now at the beginning of the season. I f----d it up playing for the Packers."
Bennett shared his distrust of the Packers' team doctor.
"Dr. McKenzie didn't make [me] feel safe and was pushing to play which I thought was weird," Bennett said. "Not that he was trying to get me to play through it but the way he was saying things. I didn't trust him. So I got 3 other opinions from doctors who all said I need to get it fixed. So I decided to do that. And [the Packers] decided to waive me with some bulls--- excuse. Failure [to] disclose."
Bennett explained why there was no such failure to disclose.
"Every week we do a body evaluation sheet in the weight [room] and pretty much every week I circled my shoulder. I just kept playing but it got worse. During the bye week I got off anti-inflammatories to clean my system and could really feel the pain. So I asked to examine it first day back in. And that's when we found out it was really f---- up," he said. "They knew."
Bennett said that the Packers were motivated to remove him from their books with the failure to disclose designation when they got worried that he would end up going on IR and being on their books next season.
"They panicked ... when I mentioned that I would possibly retire," Bennett claimed. "So they tried to f--- me before they thought I would f--- them. This was all about money. All about money. I get it. But don't lie homie. You knew wtf was up."
Bennett said that when he posted his retirement thoughts, he was still planning on playing for the rest of the season. Then he discovered his shoulder was worse than initially believed.
"I had intentions of playing all 8 games as I mentioned in the post during the bye week, but found out it was worse than I felt after getting it checked out," he said. "Now I'm like f--- it."
Bennett was in uniform at Patriots practice on Friday, quickly getting back to work with his former team. While he'll presumably be playing for the Patriots for the rest of the year, it appears the drama between Bennett and his old team might take some time to get sorted out.
