The School of Greatness - 964 NFL Star Michael Bennett: Activism, Racism in Sports, & Making a Difference

Episode Date: June 8, 2020

"It’s time for us to put our titles down and acknowledge that we’re all human beings."Lewis is joined by Super Bowl Champion Michael Bennett to discuss the NFL's response to the protests against racial injustice, Michael's opinions on the relationship between athletes and activism, and whether he had any fear of backlash when he began publicly supporting Colin Kaepernick. They also discuss Michael's journey from undrafted free agent to Pro Bowl defensive end, what he's learned from being a father to three daughters, and his new podcast, "Mouthpeace."-For more: lewishowes.com/964-Check out: Lewis' impactful interview with Reverend Michael Beckwith-Text: 614-350-3960 to start a conversation with Lewis

This is episode number 964 with Super Bowl champion and New York Times best-selling author, Michael Bennett. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro-athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. LeBron James said, I will definitely not shut up and dribble.

I mean too much to society. I mean too much to the youth. I mean too much to so many kids that feel like they don't have a way out and they need someone to help lead them out of the situation they're in. And author Sonia Parker said, don't spend all of your time trying to find yourself. Spend time creating yourself into a person you'll be proud of. Welcome to this episode. I'm very excited to share my interview today with NFL star Michael Bennett. The defensive lineman is a three-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks Legion of Boom.

All that despite being undrafted out of college. He's also one of the more outspoken players in the NFL and a true leader in his community. When Colin Kaepernick started kneeling in protest of racial injustice, Bennett immediately joined in support and he became a New York Times bestselling author of his book, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable. Now he's hosting a podcast with his wife, Pele, that's called Mouthpiece, which encourages difficult conversations on a wide range of topics. And in this interview, we discuss the evolving relationship between athletes and activism,

how Michael has dealt with criticism both on and off the field, the mental tools that helped him go from undrafted free agent to NFL superstar, what he's learned from being a father to three daughters, and if he wishes he had boys, and so much more. I hope you enjoy this episode and make sure to share it with a friend if you find this resource helpful. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Michael Bennett. All right, welcome everyone back to the School of greatness podcast we've got the inspiring michael bennett in the house and uh i want to start off by saying how much i appreciate your

career and all the things that you've overcome in your life to get to where you're at and i want to talk about that i want to talk about your your podcast with your wife which i heard some episodes which were interesting and also just what's going on in the world and America right now. And so thank you so much for being here. Thank you, man. I think it's a, I'm excited to be on here. I know you only have the greatest thinkers in American history on here. So it's an honor, man.

In the world, man, in the world. What's this week been like for you? It's been obviously a crazy week for a lot of people. What's this been like for you? I think it's a really crazy week because the emotions are overwhelming, right? You're dealing with this weight that's been bearing down on America for a long period of time. And the weight is starting to lift up and everybody's starting to see what's been underneath the souls of America, right? And so it's overwhelming to see people die

and what's happening. And then you look at the president and you look at all these things that are done, you seem like it's just overwhelming. You're like, what is the reality of what's happening? Where are we going? What is happening to our society? I mean, there's a lot of things in this society

that need to be challenged, that are being challenged. And how are people going to respond ultimately is the question that I have. You know, obviously, this has been happening for a long time. And do you feel like this is different now than four years ago, two years ago, eight years ago? Or do you feel like it's kind of all been the same feeling and energy? It may be different for white people, I think. I think white people are finally having to pay attention, right?

You have companies, you have all these people who are making statements. What were those statements four years ago when Michael Brown died and all these other people died? And why did it take so many people to die to wake people up, right? So I think we've been living and existing in this trauma of America. If you think about the historical place of African Americans in American history, the fabric of who we are and the essence of our contribution to America. And we've been definitely living with trauma for long periods of time. If you look back

at some of the pictures and things people experienced in the 40s, the 20s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, the 2010s. You can put those pictures side by side and there'll be a lot. The color will change, the cars could be different, the way that the picture is taken, but the race issue is still the underlying issue of American society. And so I think for me as an African-American man, it's just been the way and the trauma, the history of what an African-American parent tells his child and what a white person tells their child has been different for long periods of time. I think we're finally with a state where I feel like white people are having a conversation with their children about race and how do they fit into the world's issue, what's happening. You've got three kids, right? Three daughters?

Yeah. What are some of the conversations you've had with them in the past? I think I've had the conversation about over-policing and toxic masculinity. What does it look like to have a man with daughters and how proud you can be to have daughters? Because I think if you look at the world before Kobe died, being a girl dead was not cool. You know, people thought brought up. And it's like, I mean, it's unfortunate that waves in our society is,

I would say followers mostly, right? Most people in the world are followers at this point. And so we follow the trends and the waves of the world. But right before then, being a girl dead, and if you had daughters, people look at you, and the first thing they say is oh you need to protect them they don't see that they are people and that they have voices and that there can be something great right they just assume that they're going to protection so i've had conversations about that and about you know race and how and also them being a woman in society what are their gender ceilings and how

they have to break those ceilings and and what they need and how a father and a male plays a role in that so i've had so many different conversations you know about race and sex and gender yeah and what i'm hearing you say i don't have kids so i don't i don't understand uh from that perspective but what i'm hearing you say is most white parents don't have to teach their white kids how to protect themselves or be aware when they enter a room or if a cop is following them, they're not having those conversations. But the thing too is what you said. And I think that is the most important thing that I think everybody in America is missing right now. What you said to me is one of the most powerful things that needs to be elevated is that I can't understand, right? I don't have kids, so I wouldn't know from that perspective.

I think a lot of times people are trying to talk about their perspective instead of listening. And I think that's important because I think so many people are trying to make statements and say things, but they don't have the right words to say because they haven't had any experience to really have the education to really be putting out a statement. How does the Washington Redskins put out a statement about race it's impossible like how can the nfl say something about race when they've been dealing with racial tension within the league it's like we haven't acknowledged to even listen to ourselves and our fellow man to really make a true distinction of what they're really feeling right yeah what's your opinion on the uh what the Redskins put a black image to blackout Tuesday, right? What's your thoughts on that? I think it's funny because you have, here's Dan Snyder, and he's been a Trump follower. He's been donating to his campaign. He's refused to change the name of his organization. He refused to change the logo. He refused to do that. And that perpetuates a certain cycle of what indigenous people have felt in American history.

Right? He thinks it's a proud thing or something like that to call somebody, to acknowledge somebody by their skin. What if a team was called the White Skins? What? People would be in outrage. But indigenous people don't have that voice that really would change the idea of the Redskins. If he really wants to be a part of the change of racial injustice, he would just change the name of his team.

What should he change it for? There's just so many different names. We could name them the Washington Trumps. What's wrong with that? He loved Trump so much, why didn't he name him Washington Trumps? Right, right. Now, I love this podcast you did recently, 8 minutes, 46 seconds long. Same amount of time the officer had his knee on George Floyd's neck. What did you want to say in that special episode? I think it was just to really reclaim the humanity of George Floyd, right? Reclaim what it is that this man took from him.

He took his life. He took his family. He took his existence away. And where do we as human beings his existence away? And where do we as human beings stand on that moral line of righteousness, right? What is it we have to do to really reclaim the humanity of our fellow man, right? And that's really what that's about. It's not about me. It's not about me. It's about how we as individuals have really taken a dignity away. And specifically, the police department, they have really taken a dignity away for African-American people for such a long time. But I don't think people really understand to see a man lose his life, to ask for his mother, to ask for his children. That's just him reclaiming, trying to reclaim and remind him that this person is human. But for some reason, this man continues to put his

knee on his neck to this man no longer exists. That's truly an issue. And it's a true issue with the moral and spiritual side that we have really disconnected from as human beings and disconnected from American society. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was beautiful. I think everyone should go listen to that episode.

And you really ask a great question at the end for all of us to think about as well, which I thought was really inspiring. You know, we talked about you having three daughters and um you know now it's cool to be a girl dad do you think you'd be a different man if you had three sons yeah i think i would be a different man i think there's this ability to where you said and i'll go back to what you said right because i think like i said it's a it's a fundamental issue in america right if i was a man i could never have the experiences to see what a girl goes through. Right. So it's like when I have these girls and these daughters, I literally get to see their experiences.

And what does it do for me? It allows me to have a better understanding and understand their journey and what they're experiencing, what they're going through, what's happening to them. what they're experiencing, what they're going through, what's happening to them. And so I think it makes me a stronger person because it allows me to really dig into the other side of me and really put out a side of me that isn't allowed as a man in America, right? It's not allowed to be in the moment, right? So it's allowed me to really develop my full human being scale, right? So I think that's important.

Yeah, you seem like a gentle giant you're this uh big strong nfl guy but you got a gentle heart and i love that about you do you think you would be a i don't want to use the word better but i say a different type of football player if you had three sons same ages as your daughters and not having three daughters would you be different better worse what do you think you think? I think so. I think football, to me, I've always been able to, like, decipher and break up the boundaries between being an athlete in my real life. So the football field is what I've been doing since I was a young kid,

and that's just who I was as an individual and what I believed in and how I played the game. But being a father, it takes a lot more work. So I think I'd probably be the same player because it's just different. It's two different things. I think what kids do to you and whether there's male or female they allow you to realize that life is more than just about yourself right for me personally that's what's happened it made me realize that I kind of when I went out there I was planning for something a little bit bigger than myself I was planning for my trip so that's

kind of how I connect children to what really impacted my career. And your mom had you when she was young. I think she was 16 when she had you, and she had five kids by 20. Is that correct? Yeah, five. Yeah, by 21. Yeah. So it was very difficult, right?

I think when I look into myself, when I look back into that, right, I look as a parent, I'm like, man, I have everything to take care of kids, right? Momentarily and monetarily. And it's just like, okay, it's not about money when it comes to kids. It's really about, you never know the burden of what it takes to raise a child. And I can only imagine what my mother was feeling at 16. And within that journey of like seeking myself and seeking the reason for being, right? It's just one of those things to be able to forgive because such a young person having a young kid this can only be devastating to their career and what they really wanted to accomplish in life but because they have to sacrifice for kids it's just a different experience yeah did you i know your parents didn't end up working out

who would you say is the greater teacher for you growing up and who taught you what was the greatest lesson each one of them taught you that you use today as a parent i think all of them are equally uh been impacted my life i think i'm living with my father it allowed me to understand how to be a husband how to be uh how to be uh how to be a comforter how to be a protector how to be different things and different things that required of being a husband right and being a father and i think both my mothers just taught me about love and passion and the part and the and the importance of community right so this like it's true what they say it takes a village to raise a child and i truly believe it takes a

village to raise a child so i think every one of them have really impacted me in a certain way. Yeah. With Kopernik and everything that he's been taking an E for since four years ago, you chose to immediately support him in your own way. So I have been like talking about blackness in the NFL and blackness in the career my whole life, right? My mom was a teacher. She went to a historical black college. I grew up in a small town. So I've always had the historical context of what it means to be African American in this society and the people who have fought for freedom and what they stand for. So it was easy to be a part or help Colin's voice be amplified and myself because I truly believe in what he was doing, right? I truly believe in the freedom and the liberation of people who are being oppressed. So it's easy to connect to that.

And I think over the whole time, I was finding different ways to connect with different people, not just African-American people, too. We have our struggle connected with people in the indigenous community all over the world. So it's definitely an eye-opening experience. Four years ago, I think it was the first time on mainstream since the 60s that we really were elevating the racial tensions and the racial divide in America. It seems like it started to be amplified with the media and with athletes really getting on board in a bigger way. And I know you talked to John Carlos on your podcast, who famously raised

his fist during the 1968 Olympics. And you asked him if he felt afraid what would happen afterwards if he did that. And I wanted to ask you the same thing. Did you ever feel afraid that, hey, if I take a stand in my own way for this, what I believe in, did you feel like maybe I could get fired or maybe I'd get criticized or judged or bullied? Did you ever have that fear?

I think criticism is a part of my job. I've always been in a position where criticism was a part of my performance. I've always been in a position where criticism is a part of my performance. When we didn't perform good, the criticism was high. When I performed great, the criticism was low. So for me, it was more about the fear, like the fear of living, right? Because, you know, you say something like race is such a strong issue in America, right? It's been people have died because of race.

We can look back at the facts. These are facts. People have lost their life because they have brought up race in America. They've been killed by the government. They've been killed by left-wing organizations. So there was a fear of having this, of being ridiculed at a high level, right? You really are bringing attention to something that people don't want attention to. So I think there is a fear. And I think what John Collins was

referencing, his experience and what he's been through, I think it's important that we reference these things and when people take stances, what can come with stances, right? Because we look at the glory of Martin Luther King and the Malcolm X, but we don't look that they died, right? That's not something people really bring up all the time right they bring up like look at this quote but we like every time we bring up this quote it's a man who was executed we think about jesus and we say we bring up course of jesus but then we think about jesus jesus was killed by the government like so it's like it's like we have to know that that is possible and i think sometimes people don't know that i think even with protests right now a lot of people are getting hit and beat by the police they're like you got to know that that's a part of it right

and that's a part of you taking a stance that you're going against the grain of society so with that comes resistance and with resistance comes battles and you got to be able to withstand the battles individually spiritually mentally and physically so i love what you said that you know you're used to being critiqued on the football field, but this was a different type of, uh, of worry and concern for your health and your safety and your life standing up for this. Now I played, uh, I played college football. I was a receiver. I played in the arena league for a little bit as well. So I know all about the locker room and I don't know about, you know, I've played on where I was, um, one of the only white guys in

the team and Huntsville, Alabama, and mostly black teammates. I've been on teams where it's mostly white guys and a few black teammates in Ohio. I've seen kind of both sides. And personally, I never saw any type of racism, at least in my bubble of the locker room personally. Do you feel like there's racial divides in locker rooms in the NFL that you've seen? I think there's racial divides on issues, right? I don't think there's racial divides on where we are because when we come in a locker room, we all see each other as football players and we're kind of just like, oh man, you receive

the job done. The divide in the battle to have a position, right? But at the same time, the underlying issues of what they're happening within our communities, I think that's to have a position, right? But at the same time, to underline the issues of what they're happening within our communities, I think that's where the divide comes, right? Because that's when we finally see the divide, right? Before we don't really see it because we have a quarterback. We say quarterback receiver one, throwing the ball to receiver one.

But it's when stuff like taking a knee comes out that we really start to see the social divide between who and where people were raised. Because as football players, there's only one ideology ideology there's winning and winning at a high level but when it comes to race there's so many different ideologies and I think the racial disparities will come we start to see the racial inequality when we start talking about race and I experienced it personally when we talk about we talked about taking me as a team that We saw the divide. We saw the fear of African-American players of not having an opportunity and what that feels like. The Seahawks were more of the more consciously aware team in the NFL.

We were probably the most famous team outside of the Patriots as far as players' individual glory. I think the Patriots were more team glory and Tom Brady glory, right? But the Seahawks were the glory of all types of players were superstars. And most of the superstars came from African-American neighbors. And we kind of never forgot our blackness. So we forced the team to do what they did. We were the leaders of our team.

See, a lot of teams, they get led in direction by the ownership and tell them what to do. But us, we were one of a kind team, right? We were a different team. We were the outlaws of the NFL, you would think. Yeah. And Pete Carroll has been getting some, I guess, some backlash lately. But what was your experience of him and supporting the team?

I think Pete Carroll wants to do right. I think any coach wants to do right, right? They want to do right to do right by their players. But I think the thing that – because Pete Carroll was coming back with the thing that he doesn't realize too is that, okay, to do right but there's evidence of you doing wrong and so by you saying the words right the evidence is as the court would say the evidence against the uh the prosecution would say that there's evidence that says that you're not who you say you are right so that's what people are really trying to like argue saying you had opportunity to sign Kaepernick but

you didn't do it right but then it's well, you're saying one thing and you actually do another. That's what makes people mad. And I feel like people feel like you're being a hypocrite. But I don't think Coach Carroll has a bad heart. I actually think Coach Carroll is one of the most progressive coaches I've ever been a part of. And his philosophies were very – we talked about a world of things of any team I've ever been on. So I just think when he didn't sign or he didn't give Kopernik the opportunity, that's kind of left the door open for other people to scrutinize him

for his beliefs. Yeah. And what about your thoughts on Drew Brees? Did you experience connecting with him throughout your time in the league and your thoughts on his post and his response to it? I think Drew Brees is missing the whole gamut of what's happening, right? Here's a man who's trying to protect his privilege at every corner, right? But this requires you to drop your privilege. When you're talking about race, it requires you to drop your privilege.

If you're a man talking about what women are going through, it requires you to drop your privilege and to listen to what's happening to women. It's like when a woman's saying that she's been victimizing, something's happened to her and she's been a victim of rape or sexual assault. It's like a man saying, what did you wear? What did you do? It's like you're trying to victimize them and make them feel like you're trying to defend men instead of defending what's happening to this individual and how it has made them feel. And so when he's talking about his father and his grandfather, he's actually a defense mechanism to defend his privilege of why he should stand up instead of saying, you know what, I don't know what to say. So, you know what, I don't know what's the right thing to say. I know talking about my grandfather is not this moment.

I think talking about the trauma that African-American, my teammates have felt over the years that I haven't had the courage to stand up on, but I have the courage to donate and talk about different issues like COVID-19. Why can't I talk about COVID-19? Why? Because it's pertaining to everybody. So I don't be seen as I'm supporting just black people. But to stand up on this issue is that you're being an ally and you're acknowledging that you've had privilege. I don't think Drew Brees really wants to acknowledge that he's had privilege because in his mind, he's worked hard for everything he's got maybe in football that is true right maybe in football he's had he's worked hard but in life he's not had worked hard to get the white skin that he has he was born with that privilege and I don't think he's really wanted to acknowledge that being white is a privilege and that's okay with him if that's what he truly believes at least he's being honest

right at least he's being honest if we can say there's some place to work on him right but the fact that he has such a disconnect with his black team his black brother is really the issue because it's saying that he still hasn't gotten to his mind that other people have experienced a different america than he has what are your thoughts then on i guess people with a a platform or athletes talking about it if they if if they don't know what to say like you said right there like maybe he should have just said nothing should be should people be speaking up and saying something is are they should should they say nothing if they don't know what to say what's your thoughts i think i think they should say something if they feel the need to say something to acknowledge if they have a particular position like like Drew Brees he has a particular position he's an African-American driven league right he's obligated

to say something and his something should be in the manner of supporting his people who are 70% of the organization right so I think we people just need to make the most honest statement right the honest statement is not to try to like find it's just you coming at your heart and saying like I don't know I think that's and saying like, I don't know. I think that's a great statement saying, I don't know, but I want to know. Like that's the kind of stuff, statements people have to make, right? And people have to understand like, look, this isn't just about being black. This is about like the system, understanding the system that has oppressed people of color for generations and generations at the time.

One, we're all be talking about defending the police, but we're talking about defunding the police and policing, right? But we also got to think about the judicial system, which has plagued African-American people in American history, brown people in history. Look at the facts. There's more African-American and brown people in jail than any other race in history. We have more people in jail in America than any other country, right?

We talk about marijuana. We talk about the country, the American one. So many people are in jail for marijuana, and they're being imprisoned right now. But now marijuana is a business, and it's privileged, and it's ran by a white society. And there's a whole bunch of brown and black people who are in jail for smoking a J, right? And smoking a J, there's nothing wrong with smoking a J. You want to get your mind right, you put a fee but at the same time people are being persecuted for something right and so we have the whole system is seeing how the cycle of racism has been perpetuated over the time it really comes down to our consciousness i really believe that people have been unconscious so they really haven't

really had the opportunity to really look at the world through different eyes, right? Because they're so focused on one thing and then focusing on somebody else's pain. Yeah. What do you think is going to happen in the NFL next year when you guys start playing again? Do you think there's going to be changes? Do you think there's going to be more protesting with athletes doing their own thing?

What do you think is going to happen? I think more athletes are going to happen i think i think more athletes going to take a stance um is is i think we're gonna i think there's going to be a big change right i think there's going to be more people standing up right because now you really have your white teammates when we were taking a knee not a lot of white people wanted to be involved but now you got people like kurt cousins and all these people trying to make statements and they're trying to be a part of the movement so I think because there's going to be more players willing to move and talk about the issues I think the NFL is going to be forced and obligated and it's going

to be subjected to its players will and I think there's going to be a little opportunity but to do that but you know what to be honest I think COVID-19 was really the factor in a lot of this, right? Because I think COVID-19 and Floyd are together, right? Because on one side, we see the disparities of color for policing, right? Then on the other side, we see the racial disparity in health care, the central needs of America. And on one side, we seen an issue that's facing with african-american people but then on the other side it can't be we see that we are dealing with poor people all across the world who are dealing with poverty and they have a system so i think

two of those things connect and we're realizing that all of us connected together and i think we've seen that a lot of essential workers in the American workforce were African-American and brown people. You know, I love your story about how you've become just a successful athlete, let alone being a great man, a great father, a great husband, but a great athlete. You were undrafted, and yet you've been, you know, in the Pro Bowl. You've won a Super Bowl. You should have won two Super Bowls. How did that whole journey go for you from being undrafted to winning a Super Bowl? I think it's when you go, you're talking about school of greatness, right?

I think it's really mindset, right? Because you get into a situation and you have to be able to find this grit and this will and this perseverance to overcome. And I think for me, that was the biggest thing that kept me going was like, okay, here's this opportunity to have this child. I have all these things weighing on why I shouldn't succeed. But my mindset was on success and putting in more work. Right. I think loving the game of football and actually having loving the history of football and the knowledge of it and loving the actual X's and O's of it actually made me a stronger player.

Right. Because I love to study. I love to watch the games. I love to do different things. So I think it was definitely – it was a great time. And being on draft, it really propelled me to have the success that I've had. Do you think if you were drafted, you'd have the same success? Or did that give you that extra hunger to work harder and prepare more? It gave me that extra – I think it gave me that extra hunger, right? It gave me that extra hunger.

It's like i was already used to being an underdog and um and now having that um it was just another way to like continuously like i was like man if i would have been drafted would i've had the same hunger i don't know if i would have the same hunger i think being attracted allowed me to keep a chip on my shoulder was that chip kept on my whole career do you feel like, would you have changed anything? Do you wish you would have been drafted in the first round and got some big signing bonus? Or are you glad you've had to build it the way you have? I'm glad I had to build the way I had.

I think a lot of people, when you go through the way I did, you build the story. And I think a lot of people connect to that story because there's always people like, wait, you did that? And so it's like, it's just a great connection. What about your legacy legacy what do you want your legacy to be you want it to be more about being a great football player being a a great father being a great activist i think they're all the same i think it's just overall

just being a great man right being a great man within everything that i tried to everything i was a part of i was a father i was a great great father when I was this. I think the most hurtful thing is when you die and they only bring up your attributes or your stats in the NFL. Oh, he died. He had this many sacks and this promotion. That's the only thing they call it. I think it's more about what did you contribute to your community? What did you contribute to yourself?

And what did you contribute to life? I think that's the ultimate thing that I want to be is to leave a great legacy of being a great contributor to all facets of life. Yeah. And you have an amazing story about your relationship with your wife and how you guys met and how she's been a part of this journey with you. Was she always supportive of you for taking a stand as an activist and an athlete? And also what brought about you guys coming together uh co-hosting a mouthpiece and doing the podcast together my wife is as strong as me too because she believes in a lot of stuff and she stands up for herself and what she believes in so i think

it's just us coexisting and growing up in the same area right we came grew up in high school together and we dated in high school so we saw a lot of the same thing we saw a lot of the different tragedies we saw a lot of the great things in life and what it's felt like to be at the bottom i feel like to be at the top so we experienced a lot together so for us we both amplify each other's voice and what we experienced and i think with the podcast was an opportunity for husband and wife to come together and talk about real issues and talk about things that are happening in america and what are raising kids this is a perfect opportunity to use our platform in a positive way. We talk about all the great things. There's shortcomings of all of us. I think in a world where we have fallen in a lot of people,

we are seeing a lot of their great moments and we're challenging their great moments against our great moments. And unfortunately, if somebody with 60 million followers, their greater moments are going to seem more greater, right? And so it's good for us to be honest about our experience and be honest about what we need to work on as individuals and what we need to work on as a society. Do you and your wife ever have disagreements about approaching the world, about approaching parenting, about approaching what you should be saying or not saying? Every day. Every day. I think that's the evolution of us as people, right? We are constantly battling and struggling with what we think is right,

the compromise, where do we compromise at, what do we do. And I think we're doing it every day. We're constantly going up and challenging our thoughts. I think a great partner is somebody who can challenge you and continuously grow. I mean, there's things that we agreed on fundamentally, but our approaches may be different. So that's a normal thing too. How do you find peace in between your disagreements to not let it affect your kids or the relationship for too long? And how do you kind of resolve things? I think that's one of the hardest things that a lot of people do because you

get in a place where you become a part of the business and you become a part of the, you become a part of what you're doing. And I think for us, we just try to disconnect the two things. And I think, like I said, we've had a great opportunity to do that because we've been in NFL, we've been able to disconnect from the NFL and didn't do something else. So I think this is just a evolution of that, honestly. Yeah. I got a couple of final questions for you, and I appreciate you opening up and sharing all this, Michael. This question is called the three

truths. And I ask everyone at the end, the same question. So it's a hypothetical question. I love for you to imagine it's your last day on earth many, many years from now, and you've accomplished all your dreams. You've seen your kids grow up and achieve great things. And you've seen things move on in the world and you've done it all, but it's your last day and everything you've created in the world, you've got to take with you. So all of your podcasts and your book and, and all the posts you put out there, it's got to go with you to the next place. But you can leave behind three things you know to be true about life, about experiences. And these would be the three lessons that we would all have to remember you by. What would you say are the three things you'd want to share with the world,

three truths? I think the three truths that I would like to share with the world would be self-reflection. I think we all need to self-reflect on a daily basis and self-reflect into a way that we can manifest our self-reflection into something positive, I think is important. I think the second is to have a sense of, to understand about for every luxury, there's somebody else that's sacrificing for us right because every luxury luxury creates a certain suffering for somebody else whether it's our iphone when we get an iphone we don't realize that somebody that has an iphone they they they somebody they create the iphone worked in a non-factory so it's like when you get your tomato

there's been a hispanic person who's coming from mexico who's picked it that didn't have a fair trick fair trade system right so it's understanding that there's other people who are experiencing something and to understand that these luxuries that we have and people are suffering. So when the people are screaming that they need attention, we need to acknowledge their attention, right? And I think the third is being in the moment. I think a lot of times we're so, when I say unconscious, I feel like we have become so unconscious as a society that we get our realities mixed up with the other realities that are happening and the next thing you know we don't know which one is real which one is which one is fake so i would say um being

in the moment to when we were our children to like review what your children be in the moment i know it's the hardest thing too because our phone allows us to be everywhere at once but i would try to be in the moment, right? Be in the moment because those moments are so, we think they're so, we think they're so small and superficial, but those moments are really the most magnificent moments in your life. When your child is trying to show you a picture and you're like, Oh yeah. Okay. Okay.

But sometimes it's like, who knows what that does to that character when they know that their parents love them. So being in the moment is something i think is important yeah you've got a you've got your podcast mouthpiece with your wife that's super inspiring you guys share some great stuff there you've also got a book uh which i think is a great title it's called things that make white people uncomfortable why did you write a book with that title i think it's one of those things where i wanted to make people uncomfortable because the conversation that we're having now is not a comfortable conversation. That's why there's chaos. Because if it was comfortable, it's easy for us to judge the NBA.

LeBron just took that final shot. That's easy. That's a comforted thing because it brings life and it brings this. But having uncomfortable situations and conversations is where we truly grow, right? That's what I talk about when you have those teeth and when you have those limbs growing. It's uncomfortable when you're growing, but at the end of the day, you have growth, right? And I think we just needed to have an uncomfortable conversation. And there's a lot of things that it's important that we need to have those conversations because it's too late when we have a war and then we want to have peace. We need to have peace before we have the war, right? Because once we have the war, there's casualties, right? There's too many casualties.

And peace, when the war that comes with peace, it's just too many people have died. Millions of people have died. But we had the peace before the war. We don't have to have the war because we'll have peace, right? The war would be just about morals and morality. But this moment, we have to,

this book is about being uncomfortable and not to be reactive anymore because now we're reactive since society and what comes with reaction on unwanted action like you just you just react in a way that you don't even know right because it's like boom you just react so that's really where I wrote the book yeah and what would what would you respect about your your teammates both your white teammates and black teammates, moving in from now into next season? What would you respect about them the most if they did what?

I think I respect everybody. We just kind of just stood up on what we believe in, right? The purpose of our living, the purpose of our existence. I think what I respect most of us is that we can put our titles down, right? Titles are meant to divide us. Everybody has a title. A person could be a regular person right and we run into those people and we just pass them but if they have a title we acknowledge them right so it's time for us to put our titles down and acknowledge that we're just a human being we exist with these people we're a fellow man we bleed and eat and shit the same way just because we have money

doesn't make us exist we witnessed paul allen be one of the richest people in the world, but die at 50-something, right? Because it's that today, we are just human beings. Money is the thing that breaks our barriers, but at the same time, it also builds more barriers. Wow, that's powerful. I want to acknowledge you for a minute, Michael, for being a stand for what you believe in,

for being a stand for other people, for being a stand for your life and your family and change. You're doing some amazing work, man. I appreciate your voice. And well, hopefully I can come watch a game wherever you're playing this year. I'd love to come watch a game sometime and support you. So you get that 70th sack in the bag, man. Final question for you is what's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness is to be different. I think the greatness is to be different i think the greatness is such a it's like there's tears of being something right i think it's like average bad is good better than greatness is like the highest thing that you can be i think it's because

you're different i think the ability to be different is the most important thing right i think greatness is a difference because they people who are great do different they become outliers in everything they become conscious to their being and i think there's a very few people who actually reach greatness in enlightenment in life michael bennett man i appreciate your wisdom thanks for coming on and sharing it all man thank you man appreciate you appreciate it man have a good one and if i can help with anything just just let me know. All right. Thank you. Bless you, man. Thanks, man. You too, brother. Thank you so much for listening to this episode with Michael Bennett. If you haven't yet listened to my podcast last week with Reverend Michael Beckwith on racial justice and spiritual healing,

it was so profound. I highly recommend you check it out. And I'm going to put a link to that episode in the description of this episode of the podcast. Please connect with me on all social media. I'm at lewishouse everywhere, except for on TikTok now, at Lewis. And I want to have a dialogue with you. I want to hear from you.

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first time here as well and if this empowered you in any way and i want to leave you with this author william faulkner said never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. I love you all so very much. I want to remind you how much you matter today. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.