Earlier this week, 3 New England Patriots players told the media they would not be visiting the White House. The three, Martellus Bennett, Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower, will all be skipping while James White is also said to be considering skipping the trip. Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount have also announced that they will not be attending the Team’s trip.  Hightower’s reasoning is simple enough; he’s done it before and he’s seen it all so why do it again? It seems simple and something most people will brush off, but then there’s Martellus Bennett.

https://twitter.com/RichEisenShow/status/829770205341454336

Since Bennett announced he’d be skipping, there have been a ton of supportive tweets accompanied with hateful tweets, criticizing Bennett’s decision, full of racist and rude remarks. The most poignant yet has to be this which has by far gained the most attention.

Just looking under the tweet, you’ll see tweets full of hate speech and others full of support. The tweet only goes to show the hypocrisy and white privilege shown by Tom Brady and his supporters. For those who don’t recall, Brady didn’t attend the White House visit in 2015 due to a “prior commitment.” A thin-veiled excuse for Brady to not have to meet President Obama, something people have pointed out time and time again especially on the post. Why is it not the same for Martellus Bennett?

Maybe Brady chose not to publicly announce that he was not going, but people knew and if you look at the picture, he isn’t there. No one tweeted him hateful things, made dumb RTs or even really cared. Now that Martellus Bennett and his three other teammates aren’t going, it’s suddenly something newsworthy. No, it doesn’t work like that unless there’s something else there.

It all started when Brady had a “Make America Great Again” hat hanging in his locker. He played it off like a joke, saying he and Trump were friends. It has only snowballed since with Trump bringing up Brady in his speeches and Brady skirting every question he gets from the media about Trump. You know, it’s pretty bad when Gisele had to step in and tell Tom to keep his mouth shut.

The most recent incident of this has to be when Brady was asked multiple times on his thoughts about Trump during his pre-Super Bowl media day interview. Instead of answering the question, he gave a throwaway answer, “What’s going on in the world? In what sense? I haven’t paid much attention to what’s going on…I’m just a positive person, and I just want the best for everybody. I’m just not talking politics at all.” Seems pretty sketchy for a guy who couldn’t stop talking about his “friend” months ago. Brady is privileged enough that he can ignore those questions and go on with his life without a care, but others aren’t so lucky.

Instead of being able to relax this offseason, Martellus Bennett has been tweeting up a storm and all in response to a simple action.  Referring to himself as “Katniss Everdeen”, Bennett truly is the girl, or boy in this case, on fire who is rebelling and gets treated like an outcast. Bennett even spoke about why he’s not “just sticking to sports” and using his platform to make a difference.

https://twitter.com/MartysaurusRex/status/829336695002787840

Bennett isn’t the only athlete to take a stand and use his platform for good. Colin Kaepernick started his “Know Your Rights Camp” and would kneel during the National Anthem, starting an ongoing conversation about race relations in this country. Doug Baldwin spoke about reforming the law on police killings while Bennett’s brother, Michael spoke out about NFL players, supporting social issues. Meanwhile, in the NBA, Lebron James, Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul all spoke openly about Black Lives Matter and their dislike of the current political situation in the US.

With all of these people stepping up, let me know when Brady decides to use his platform for something that doesn’t just benefit him.

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