When Michael Bennett is done with his playing career in the NFL, he might want to try out for a career in media criticism. Awful Announcing is always accepting freelance submissions.
Just this month we’ve seen Bennett call out Stephen A. Smith as well as the Seattle Times. The dispute with the Times actually ended with an apology from the paper after Bennett threatened not to speak with them for the rest of his career. That actually led to an apology from a columnist who criticized Bennett over a different incident with a reporter.
Now Bennett is turning his watchful eye back to ESPN and an article that dropped on Thursday from Seth Wickersham about quarterback Russell Wilson and a divide in the Seahawks locker room. You can read the entire story here but the gist of it is that Wilson is an unpopular figure with his many of his teammates who feel that he is over-protected by head coach Pete Carroll. Specifically, that Richard Sherman and the Seahawks defense are frustrated with the lack of production and responsibility taken from Wilson and Carroll for Seattle failing to build on its dynasty.
True to form, Bennett didn’t settle for being an anonymous source either way. He tweeted out the piece and his description that the article was, in his words, “trash.”
https://t.co/oyFZxuSLHx @espn @ESPNNFL this article is trash and should be on tmz it's all gossip I'm Surprised this came from you
— Michael Bennett (@mosesbread72) May 25, 2017
I love @DangeRussWilson great teammate n friend and even better human .I was at his house last week and he gave me BBQ ribs
— Michael Bennett (@mosesbread72) May 25, 2017
Sharing barbeque ribs will turn anyone into best friends, right? Wickersham responded on the radio that there were many in Seattle who backed up his story and he wasn’t backing down.
'@SethWickersham's response with us just now:
"I'd like him to see my phone and see all the people in the building who say I nailed it." https://t.co/cKRQrKCOpj
— Carlin vs. Joe (@CarlinvsJoe) May 25, 2017
It’s possible that both perspectives are valid here. Maybe Bennett has a great relationship with Wilson and maybe other teammates do as well. But there’s 53 guys in a locker room and not all of them are always going to get along famously with each other. And I doubt that Wickersham and ESPN are going to publish such an explosive story on a whim. With big personalities like Bennett and Richard Sherman and Carroll in the Seahawks locker room, maybe it should not come as a surprise to see reports of friction emerging somewhere in Seattle.
Whatever the case truly is, the Seahawks just got a lot more interesting to watch this season.
H/T FTW
