A true boss, Martellus Bennett has worked precisely one job where he was not the head honcho — and that gig is playing tight end in the National Football League. Furthermore, the 30-year-old born in San Diego and raised in Houston insists that his NFL days will be the only time in his life when he’ll take orders from someone else.
Not that being a pro athlete has been all bad. Bennett, who currently plays for the Green Bay Packers, has put sweat equity into a string of illustrious franchises, including the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Chicago Bears, and most recently the New England Patriots, with whom he won Super Bowl LI earlier this year in the greatest comeback the league has ever seen. Winner that he is, the 6’ 6” star set up the decisive overtime touchdown.
But Bennett, like his brother, Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, is sharp as a tack, outspoken, and has bigger things planned for his life than simply winning football games for billionaire owners. With money made in the NFL, he founded The Imagination Agency, a multimedia production company focused on creating awesome children’s content, including books and comics, interactive apps, and animated stories. He’s more than a mere financier, too. Bennett, whose head brims with creative ideas, wrote the company’s Hey A.J. book series for his daughter, Austyn Jett, so she would have a protagonist who looked like her. Total boss move.
Before reporting to preseason camp in Green Bay, Bennett dropped by the GGN studios to chop it up with the homie Snoop Dogg, rap about Cap’n Crunch, and talk about promoting animation and tech in the black community, being the “black Walt Disney,” playing for Bill Belichick and alongside Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, his Whole Foods come-up, having a poodle instead of a pitbull, and balancing the good life with the hood life as a parent.
