Patriots Tight End: NFL Stands For 'N****s For Lease'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New England Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett did not mince words when talking about non-guaranteed football contracts.
In an interview with ESPN The Magazine, the Patriots tight end talked about football contracts paling in comparison to the contracts NBA players get. NBA contracts are guaranteed, while NFL contracts are not.
"Do you know what the NFL stands for?" Bennett said. "N****s For Lease."
Bennett, who played for the New York Giants in 2012, added that the NFL Players Association is never on the offensive.
"That's my problem with the NFLPA," he told ESPN The Magazine. "I feel like they're always playing defense and not offense. They're never making progressive moves."
His brother, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, stated that the NFLPA should be hiring people who used to work at Google and Apple.
"We can't be athletes thinking the way athletes think. We need people who are like: I used to work at Nike. Let's go to China and create our own shoes," Michael Bennett, a backup player representative for the Seahawks, told ESPN The Magazine.
Michael Bennett said that there's no superstars standing up for players in the league during labor negotiations like there are in the NBA.
"In the NBA, LeBron James, Chris Paul … they're at the forefront," he explained to ESPN The Magazine. "There's no Peyton Manning standing up for the rest of the players. He's a great player, but what has he done for the league?"
The brothers also commented on the lack of African-American owners in the NFL.
"Growing up, black people never owned anything," Martellus Bennett said. "I want to build. I want to make."
He then asked Michael Bennett, "How many black owners have there been in the history of the NFL?"
"Zero," Michael Bennett responded. "We're check getters, not check writers."
