Bennett ignored

[Don Wassall]

Here it is, little more than 12 hours after Drew Bennett's amazing performance, coming on top of an amazing performance the week before, and it has already gone down the corporate media's Memory Hole. I just checked the websites of ESPN, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, and NFL.com, and not one has as much as a single article about Drew Bennett.

We can be sure that if Michael Vick had played two brilliant games in a row (or any black QB, WR or RB for that matter), it would have been similarly ignored. Yeah, right. The same media that goes into sickening overkill mode to celebrate black athletic achievement -- especially when it comes from a black playing a position in which blacks are rarely found or rarely successful -- refuses to acknowledge the kick-ass performance of a white wide receiver. Can't confirm for the fans what they saw with their own eyes now can we?

 

[JD074]

I watched ESPN and ESPNews this morning, and of
course they weren't talking about Bennett. They were
way too busy with Lebron James and Shaquille
O'Neal. The overkill with James is very annoying.
Yeah, he's good, and obviously there's an aesthetic
quality to his athleticism that can't be discounted.
There's nothing wrong with enjoying a high vertical
jump or a great physique (unless one values them
more than fundamentals and working well with
teammates and coaches). But much of what the
highlight guys ooh and aah over are not much more
than routine plays. They're so much more special
when James does it than when other players do it-
including most other black players. How high his
head is at the top of his jump gets more attention
from the highlight guys than good team basketball.
But it does have aesthetic value, and I guess that's
what people want these days. And O'Neal has a big
game and they're revving up the Hype Machine for
him. His start of the season with Miami was
over-hyped and completely anticlimactic. I guess it
left the media automatons wanting more.

I will give credit to Dan Patrick though. He didn't
really seem all that excited when doing the James
highlights. Maybe he just doesn't like doing
highlights.

 

[right winger]

ESPN's website currently has three articles about Tiger Woods. If Drew continues to score 3 TDs per game, he might be deemed worthy of an article at some point!

 

[white lightning]

I hate to say it but Drew will have to lead the NFL in receiving yards to even get a sentence. They are so brainwashed into whites are only possesion receivers and
blah,blah,blah. It's disgusting how white athletes are treated even after the best receiving performance of the whole year on national tv.Only one receiver has ever had a better game on Monday Night Ever. Bennett will have to go above and beyond to earn the respect.He will need around 1500 - 2000 yards every year for them to even say that he is on the radar.In time,slowly things will change or at least I hope so.

 

[JD074]

If he can brutalize some top notch defenses, that
may help a little bit. His last two dynamite games
were against Indianapolis and Kansas City. If he
could do it against respected defenses like
Baltimore and New England, that would be great. Of
course, I'm not implying that they wouldn't have
mentioned it more if it had been a black player
(especially a "star" like Terrell Owens). I'm sure they
would've. It is the caste system, after all.

Then again, they'd probably find some way to focus
on other things anyway. That's all they do. They're
so uncomfortable with white athletes' obvious
athleticism, that they can't bare to even mention it. I
wonder if they're too stupid or brainwashed not to
notice their athleticism, or they notice it, but don't
mention it. Many of these guys have spent decades
in football. Even the dumbest among them must
know enough to be able to see it. Maybe they loathe
the white athletes so much that they actually pretend
not to notice their speed and agility.

 

[Don Wassall]

At least a Nashville newspaper saw fit to do an article on Drew:

http://www.tennessean.com/sports/titans/archives/04/12/62921 816.shtml?Element_ID=62921816

BENNETT ON FAST TRACK TO STARDOM

By JIM WYATT
Staff Writer

Everybody wants a piece of Drew Bennett these days, from talk-radio hosts in Los Angeles to friends back home in northern California.

The folks in L.A. want to talk about Monday night, when the Titans wide receiver earned a spot on John Madden's horse trailer with a head-turning performance against the Chiefs.

Further north, his buddies want tickets for Sunday â€â€￾ they always do when he comes back home to play against the Raiders.

Bennett is still popular in Nashville, of course. But in California he's the local boy making waves in the NFL, where no teams saw fit to draft him. His hometown is Orinda and he went on to play quarterback at UCLA. When the Titans play the Raiders at Network Associates Coliseum, he'll be about 15 minutes from where he grew up.

''It's been such a wild ride, I would have never expected anything like this,'' Bennett said yesterday. ''In my rookie year, I was thinking, 'If I could just make the team and hang on for a year it would be great.' Then I made the team and I just said, 'If I could just get on the field and make a few plays it would be great.'


''Now here I am, coming out as a starting receiver for the Titans, and it's more than I could imagine and I'm loving every minute of it.''

Bennett has gotten a lot of extra attention this week after catching 12 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns on Monday Night Football. He's been all over ESPN.

He's no longer a fantasy football sleeper. Based on his production the last two weeks â€â€￾ 15 catches, 357 yards, six touchdowns â€â€￾ the secret is out.

''It is kind of bittersweet just because we are not winning,'' Bennett said. ''I feel confident in the way I am playing, but it would be nice ... for us to be winning some games.''

The past few weeks have been just part of a remarkable turnaround for Bennett, who has clearly caught a second wind in the second half of the season.

Bennett has 63 catches for 1,011 yards and eight touchdowns.

The yardage total is fourth-best in the NFL, and his performance on Monday was the best yardage game by any receiver this season.

The surge started not too long after Tennessee's other Monday night game this season, Oct. 11 at Green Bay. That night, Bennett stood at his locker and answered questions about why he couldn't catch.

''That is the professional, especially on the national stage,'' Bennett said. ''If you drop balls you are going to have to answer questions, if you play great you are going to have to answer questions.''

The Titans hit the bye week three games later and Bennett got away from football for several days. Since then he's had three of his four 100-yard games.

''The beginning of the season I didn't realize what being a sole No. 2 receiver entailed,'' Bennett said. ''I know that sounds silly because I played a lot last year, but there were other guys around. Justin (McCareins) was taking some reps, Tyrone (Calico) was taking some reps ... and we were doing well.

''The fact that we weren't winning games was much more on my shoulders, and I had a couple of plays that were real bad plays. It weighed a lot on me.''

Quarterback Billy Volek, playing in place of the injured Steve McNair, has helped Bennett get more chances. Volek and Bennett have developed a deep connection in more ways than one. Bennett has eight catches of 33 yards or more this season â€â€￾ all on Volek passes. Each of Bennett's 100-yard games have been with Volek at the helm.

''I have always had confidence in Drew,'' Volek said. ''Even when you guys (in the media) were ripping on him, pulling him down, tearing him down, I knew Drew could do it.

''Obviously he is a great wide receiver. It is nice when you can read each other, kind of like Steve and (former Titans tight end) Frank Wycheck. You kind of have that look, can look in each other's eyes. It is neat to have someone like that.''

Bennett may have surged into the NFL spotlight this week, but amid the interview requests, ticket requests and congratulations, he's still managed to maintain some sanity.

''Things haven't been as crazy as you might think,'' Bennett said with a smile. ''I have whittled down who has my cell phone number, so instead of getting a bunch of calls I get calls from my parents saying, 'So and so and so and so and so called and said you played great.' ''

Jim Wyatt covers the Titans for The Tennessean. Reach him at jwyatt@tennessean.com or 259-8015.

 

[JD074]

"All over ESPN"... I don't know if I would characterize it as that.
Like I've said before, they focussed more on the KC defense,
O'Neal, and James than Bennett, at least in my opinion. Same
goes for ESPNews. But it's good to hear that he and Volek
have a good relationship; it can't be a coincidence that the two
best white WR's this year are both buddies with their QB's.
Stokely is a free agent, and unless he's going to be the
number one WR on another team, I would expect him to be
back playing with Peyton where he has a shot at not being
forgotten.

 

[Don Wassall]

"All over ESPN"

One of the bigger media instant suburban legends there!

Here's another typical example of the sporting establishment's attitude toward Bennett. I subscribe to a service that provides timely updates on NFL injuries. This service, used by fantasy football hobbyists, has each week its "Player Rankings For the Rest of the Season," which almost always generously compliments the top-ranked players. But this was the short, double-negative comment about Bennett this week:

"Healthy for a change and finally putting it together."

"Healthy for a change" speaks for itself as a deep insult and is not accurate. Bennett tends to be somewhat fragile, but he has actually missed relatively few games the past three seasons. What has held him back just as much is that he was used as a backup much of his career before this year.

But I especially like the "finally putting it together" back-handed compliment -- as if this guy and any other white writer ever expected Drew to be even remotely as good as he's been since Billy Volek became Tennessee's starting quarterback!

 

[cxt7]

Espn did not have drew or volek up for sunday stud, and no mention of him on web site, I was watching espn and heard stuart scout say "drew bennett is sick" i guess this is a ebonics term for drew bennett has been playing well.

 

[white lightning]

Yes it is and it's funny that a black man was more willing to give the compliment than the white announcers
at Espn and around the country.Very few are saying much
because they are afraid of not being p.c. What is wrong
with acknolwedging that Bennett is tearing it up and has
taken the lead in the AFC in Receiving.All you are doing
is reporting the facts.That shouldn't offend anyone.Drew
deserves praise for his outstanding play.Just imagine if
Volek played the whole year,Bennett might have around
1500 yards or more by now.Go Titans.