PFT: Whitlock takes aim at "Marty B"
Posted by Mike Florio on July 12, 2009 7:45 AM
Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett, a backup who caught 20 passes as a rookie last year, has now caught the attention of Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star.
Bennett, as many of us know, likes to draw attention to himself by doing and saying outrageous things. He's the class clown with no real comedic skills, so he opts for the obviously outlandish. (And, as a result, he's sometimes funny.)
We previously have commented on his blogging for the Dallas Morning News, a project with which he apparently has grown bored, given the lack of recent updates. (Among other things, he has pontificated on topics such as dealing with a date who wasn't as attractive as you remembered, and the age-old question of whether it's appropriate for a female to, um, play the human kazoo.)
Then there was the rap video featuring Bennett and, unfortunately for his wallet, a Cowboys helmet. The "song" (which included the name of his quarterback and one of the few words with which it rhymes) resulted in a hefty fine for the player.
More recently, "Marty B" has discovered Twitter, a microblogging platform that apparently is better suited to his attention span.
But it's his most recent "Look at me! Look at me!" effort that caused his name to land on the desk of Whitlock. Bennett and his brother filmed a YouTube video featuring the "Black Olympics" -- and Whitlock doesn't like it.
"I wasn't offended," Whitlock writes of the "competition" based on eating fried chicken and watermelon, and drinking Kool Aid. "I was sad. I grew even sadder throughout Friday and Saturday as it became apparent to me that Bennett's grab for controversy was being ignored."
Later in his column, Whitlock admits that he has become "irate".
His broader concern is that it's one thing for black comedians and rappers to promote negative stereotypes against their own race, but that it's quite another for a low-level black athlete to do so.
Whitlock also is concerned that we've grown numb to such behavior, even when it comes from people who have no real business behaving that way.
But since Whitlock makes his points far better than we ever could for him, we'll simply run a link to his column and let you read it yourself.
Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett, a backup who caught 20 passes as a rookie last year, has now caught the attention of Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star.
Bennett, as many of us know, likes to draw attention to himself by doing and saying outrageous things. He's the class clown with no real comedic skills, so he opts for the obviously outlandish. (And, as a result, he's sometimes funny.)
We previously have commented on his blogging for the Dallas Morning News, a project with which he apparently has grown bored, given the lack of recent updates. (Among other things, he has pontificated on topics such as dealing with a date who wasn't as attractive as you remembered, and the age-old question of whether it's appropriate for a female to, um, play the human kazoo.)
Then there was the rap video featuring Bennett and, unfortunately for his wallet, a Cowboys helmet. The "song" (which included the name of his quarterback and one of the few words with which it rhymes) resulted in a hefty fine for the player.
More recently, "Marty B" has discovered Twitter, a microblogging platform that apparently is better suited to his attention span.
But it's his most recent "Look at me! Look at me!" effort that caused his name to land on the desk of Whitlock. Bennett and his brother filmed a YouTube video featuring the "Black Olympics" -- and Whitlock doesn't like it.
"I wasn't offended," Whitlock writes of the "competition" based on eating fried chicken and watermelon, and drinking Kool Aid. "I was sad. I grew even sadder throughout Friday and Saturday as it became apparent to me that Bennett's grab for controversy was being ignored."
Later in his column, Whitlock admits that he has become "irate".
His broader concern is that it's one thing for black comedians and rappers to promote negative stereotypes against their own race, but that it's quite another for a low-level black athlete to do so.
Whitlock also is concerned that we've grown numb to such behavior, even when it comes from people who have no real business behaving that way.
But since Whitlock makes his points far better than we ever could for him, we'll simply run a link to his column and let you read it yourself.
posted by The Gryphon at 9:21 AM
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