Hour 1: Bills Trade for DJ Moore, Patriots Need a New #1 WR, plus Former Pro Bowl TE Martellus Bennett

21:07Rich Eisen:That is correct, TJ. Great way to put it. so um what was your favorite gig in between nfl seasons that you that you did that really that who'd you meet you had a good story based on yeah yeah i did a lot of stuff um there was this guy

21:24Martellus Bennett:named keith dawkins it was i met him at nickelodeon sports um uh he's one who slimes people nah he was in charge of doing like nick sports when they was trying to bring all the sports and And also in charge of when they was trying to bring back Nicktoons, like Rugrats, the late night television thing they were trying to do. But I met him and asked him if I could job shadow him. And he was like, yeah, you could job shadow me. So I followed him for like four or five days and through L.A. going to all these different meetings and things with him. And I was learning a lot. But I was sitting in this meeting and in this meeting was like the greats, like the Ren and Stippy guys, the, you know, the guys who did Ah, Real Monster.

22:04Martellus Bennett:all these things and they're talking about these shows and they're talking about how how they could bring about new ideas to these things but i realized that they ain't own their property so they wasn't very happy about it coming coming out again because they wasn't going to get any

22:20Rich Eisen:money they weren't going to get any money yeah you know so it's like you know do you do you own hey aj i still own rights to my books and my apps yeah you do so um and then but with aj i

22:33Martellus Bennett:got it to a point where I couldn't afford to make it what I wanted to be. Like I needed somebody else. I built something that was out of my league. So I needed to find the right partner. And Disney was the first yes. Everybody else told me no. Even when I published the books, nobody wanted to publish the books. So I had to start my own publishing company to put my own books out in the world and sell my books. So no one saw the potential in the book. No one saw the potential in the apps. No one saw the potential when I did animation for it myself. And you know, you go all You take all these meetings and knock on all these doors and you get in these rooms and it's no, no, no, no, no, no.

23:08Martellus Bennett:But I was built for no because of football, right? Like I learned how to fail or not like, you know, one bad block doesn't mean that you had a bad game, right? You get back up and you make the next play. You keep going. So that's kind of what I did. And Disney was my first yes. It was the first people that was like, oh, we love this. The meeting was, it was the shortest meeting too. It's like as soon as I walked in, it was like, yes. I was like, oh, okay, cool. You think you were being punked? And for a second, I was like, I ain't really get into my, you know, I got to do the Marty thing. You know, I get in there.

23:36Martellus Bennett:I got it. You know, yeah. But I didn't get to do the Marty thing. And it was just like, we love it. It sounds great. Like, let's let's do the work. And so they've been great partners to me. So, I mean, you're at Disney now.

23:46Rich Eisen:So look, we got the we got the we're we're just two Disney plus guys.

23:51Martellus Bennett:From the NFL to Disney.

23:54Rich Eisen:We're the same boat.

23:55Martellus Bennett:You know, we're on the same wrath. Now let's leave the family behind.

23:58Rich Eisen:Yes, and many times Belichick told me no. Oh, yeah, Belichick.

24:03Martellus Bennett:Belichick was the person I learned the most business from. How so? The first one you went to the Patriots, it was the first one that felt like a job. Like, they gave you, you had to sign in to the employee thing. I have no business experience being an employee, but you have to sign in with the rest of the employees. So they let you know that you're there as an employee the moment you get there. Of the New England Patriots. Of the New England Patriots. But my favorite thing about Bill Belichick was that he treated everybody the same. We were, I tell you a football story. Please. Like, this is how I knew Bill Belichick was a, I liked him as a coach.

24:36Martellus Bennett:Because usually when you have a quarterback, no one says anything to the quarterback. The quarterback gets away with all kinds of stuff. And no one calls him out. You know, they whisper. I've seen, I play with a lot of quarterbacks. I played with Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Tony Romo. My favorite was John Kitna, and my second favorite is Tom Brady, though. So we go out to practice during install, during training camp, and we're disastrous. Like, we suck. Like, Tom's missing passes. Everybody's having an off day. It's really, really bad. Like, it's almost embarrassing. But I'm just used to being bad because I played on a lot of bad teams.

25:16Martellus Bennett:So it was just like, all right, we'll get it next time. But so we get into the meeting, and I'm like, man, Tom did not have a great day today. But as soon as we get into the meeting, Bill Belichick, like, what is this? We have an all-world quarterback who can't hit the targets, can't throw the ball. You're Mr. Quarterback this. Julian Edelman, how long have you been short? All his career. Why are we throwing the ball seven feet tall to a three-foot guy? You know, that kind of thing in the middle of the meeting. And, like, I'm sitting here, I'm laughing. I thought Bill Belichick was funny, like in a Larry David way.

25:47Martellus Bennett:so I'm sitting there and Devin McCourty always like don't laugh don't laugh I'm like it's funny though like he said some funny stuff all the time like Julian has been short his whole career like it's a great thing he actually said another he had another metaphor analogy that he used to talk about his height that I don't think is safe for Disney Plus but so but what happened after that so I come out of there it's like oh we got chewed out but I'm used to getting chewed out you know I play for the Bears just letting you know I played for the Bears, you know, so there's a whole lot that came along with that.

26:19Martellus Bennett:Jay Cutler is your quarterback. Yeah. As I get older, I appreciate Jay Cutler a little bit more, though. So then we go into, I walk into the, I'm getting ready to get my lift in, and I hear, doom, doom, doom, like Air Bud when the coach was throwing the ball at the kid or whatever. I'm like, dang, is Bill Belichick on some Air Bud stuff, too? So then I come in, and it's Tom. Tom is throwing the ball against the wall, just dropping back. target practice. He walks out, he brushed past me. I'm kind of, you know, it's like, it's time. I let him rub his shoulder against mine, but usually I would have to, I would have to check him on such a thing like that.

26:54Martellus Bennett:But today I'm going to let you slide. So, but the next morning I'll come in, I'm eating my pancakes. They had good pancakes. But New York Giants had the best food out of every single team I ever played on. Their cafeteria was lit. And I used to go there on off days just to eat. Never did such a thing on another organization ever. Just suffer the Giants. But so the next morning, Tom comes in and he goes to each person individually like, hey, stretch, do whatever you got to do. We're going to kick some butt today. So he's just like, he came in, eyebrows already, scolded. I'm like, you know, I didn't know if it was Botox though.

27:35Martellus Bennett:It could have easily been Botox, you know, but I think it was just his point of view or whatever. So So anyway, we go out there and he's getting everybody ready. We go outside and we go 35 for 35 at practice.

27:48Rich Eisen:Uh-huh. Wow. Mission accomplished.

27:51Martellus Bennett:Mission. Bill Belichick is over there smiling and we're all cussing Bill out, you know, like, now what? Because, you know, whatever. He's just swinging his whistle. Swinging his whistle. Yeah. Just swinging his whistle. Kind of like got this mischievous Grinchy grin on his face, you know, that he's over there. Like he's some mastermind, like the supervillain. And then – Austin Powers? Nah, and expect their gadget.

28:16Rich Eisen:We're probably coming from two different pop culture ends right there.

28:19Martellus Bennett:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but, you know, but it showed a lot about Tom. Like Tom was a guy that – like he – what I thought made Tom really great was that he changed his game for his teammates while other quarterbacks expected you. He's like, I'm good enough to do whatever I need to do in order to make you better. and I think that pliability, his word pliability, but in his personality as well, not just in his business plan at TP12 or whatever it's called, but in real life, he has a very pliable personality to play with. So I like Tom a lot. Great story, man. I mean, I don't know. I know, like Suze, you're not.

28:54Rich Eisen:There's so much to unpack in that soliloquy. Number one, you should be a comedian. Number two, you should maybe start at the comedy store. Number three, we got a food review. That's true. A slight dig at Jay Cutler. I'm here for all of it. He's the one who did it, DJ Cutler. No, he was named his quarterback. There was a wink and a nod. He did listen. No, the thing that I also picked up from it is, you know, that Belichick treats everybody the same, right? Even a janitor. Meaning what? I mean, one day we had a bad practice,

29:23Martellus Bennett:and one day we did something to practice, and he made us run. But then he made the coaches run, too. What? The coaches was running sprint gassers. What else? And he's just like, everybody's running. Because he was like, y 'all responsible for the players. If they're having a bad day, it's because of what you're doing, too. We're all interconnected. So I thought he was one of my favorite coaches. The Patriots is actually my favorite place to play.

29:50Rich Eisen:Well, I mean, you won a Super Bowl there, did you not? I did, I did. I am a Super Bowl champion. Minus the cafeteria. So he made the janitors run that day, too? No, the janitors didn't run that day. Oh, okay. I just was wondering. They was inside. Okay. Just as an aside about how Bill always treats everybody the same, is he told a story for the NFL 100 show that I was so honored to anchor on NFL Network a couple years ago where he was the analyst. He did television. He was phenomenal.

30:23Martellus Bennett:Oh, yeah, I remember him doing that. He was great at it. His side quest got a little way side, I don't know why, but he had some good side quests. He did.

30:32Rich Eisen:So he at one point told a story with Lawrence Taylor sitting there about how LT was always late for meetings. And Bill began to get, you know, a little upset about it. So he turned to Parcells, who was the head coach, and said to Parcells, what do I do about it? And Parcells said, what are you starting the meeting for without him? Because Bill was ready to treat everybody the same. and didn't compute to just, well, LTs on a different level, which Tom was on a different level in many different ways, obviously, right? But he's just ripping him a new one over a bad practice session. It's just everything you need to know.

31:14Rich Eisen:And that Tom responded, right? That's the thing. And then the team responded one day later, you know?

31:22Martellus Bennett:If you don't, if a lot of times, like, what happened with teams are is coaches try to pick a leader, right? They think the quarterback is always the leader or this person is the leader or whatever. But leaders can't be handpicked. They have to emerge from the crop of men. And oftentimes the person that the coach thinks is the leader or the organization wants to brand as the leader is not who the players know as a leader in the locker room or the person that is built to lead. So sometimes you mess somebody up because you want them to lead, but that's not the position or their disposition as a human being, which I realized as I got older, that's what happened a little bit with Jay Cutler.

31:58Martellus Bennett:Like he was just like, I just want to play football. I'm not a rah-rah guy. I'm not trying to do this. Just let somebody else do the job. Stop picking me. I'm not a pick me. Like I just want to go play football. And sometimes it's better if you just let the quarterback be who they are versus thinking they're the face of the franchise, so they have to be the leader as well. And, you know, there's a great book called Leaders Eat Last. Really good book. and the idea of it talks about the wolf pack. And when the wolves are traveling across, you know, the terrain, the treacherous terrain, just to do a little alliteration in that, but like the treacherous terrain, like, you know, you think about the alpha male in this wolf pack.

32:40Martellus Bennett:They don't travel at the front of the pack. They travel at the back because the weakest wolf is who you would first likely attack, the wolf in the back. Nobody attacks the wolf in the front. But the leader knows that. So he has to become a follower and has to have somebody else who can lead. So a lot of times when we, like right now with kids, what we're not doing with kids is we're developing them. We're not developing character. We're developing athletes and players with no character, which is detrimental to the team in the future because it becomes an individualized thing. Instead of realizing you're a small, micro, micro you're just micro in the grand scheme of the world like us as people we really start thinking about the world like we're so tiny there's trees that have been around for hundreds of years like there's not that many people that I mean there's this one island Japan that everybody else past 100 I mean I need to move there but you know as a black man you know I was happy to make it past 21 but you know it's a whole other story but like you know you think about how small you are in the grand scheme of all things, but we all want to be so big and we want to be seen with, we want to be larger than life.

33:49Martellus Bennett:We want 1 million followers. We want 10 million followers. Jesus didn't even have that many followers. He had to go find fishermen. Hey man, I can make you a fisher of men. He had to get a bunch of people. Hey, you building like all his people just like, you know, he found them along the way. He had a couple of followers, you know, but he had a big message. And then sometimes like It takes a small group of people to change the world. But we got to realize how small we are.

34:15Rich Eisen:I love when you get a comeback once every now and then as opposed to once every eight years or whatever here on the show. I just love chopping things up with you. Speaking of being big and small, TJ, you found the photograph? Yeah, the guy's got it. Okay, the photograph of the last time you were here. Scott Hamilton was a fellow guest. I think we have that. There it is. we had the two of you pose next to each other. I remember that photo, too. We were trying to recreate the twins. Oh, that's... Good one. I like it.

34:47Martellus Bennett:You know what movie I want to remake, though? What's that? I want to remake Kazam and be like Shaq's son. Shazam. Okay. Yeah, and kind of go in there and be a genie. I think it'll be a really cool thing for me to grant wishes.

35:00Rich Eisen:I think this is next on Disney+. We can try and make... Let's make this happen let's do it you should be in the show too i would be where we're let's be producer producing partners look at done deal all right uh you want to you want to play um uh residual rich i would love to let's do this what we do is i open a check on the air and everybody guesses uh like price is right rules closest without going over what it is okay okay here we go hit it hit it please.

35:30Martellus Bennett:Pay that man his money.

35:32Rich Eisen:Okay, here we go. I've got four envelopes. Choose which one? One, two, three, or four? Three. Three, okay. You got the Price is Right music for me, please, Jay Felling? Here we go. No, the Price is Right music. My goodness gracious. Give me the Price is Right music. Oh, this is perfect. I was in a movie called Leatherheads. Do you remember this movie? George Clooney's old football movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I was in a movie called Leatherheads. I did voiceover for it. Okay. And then I think they decided that my voice was too contemporary. I never even made the movie, but I'm still getting residual checks.

36:07Rich Eisen:Oh, wow. That's the best. No-show jobs are great. Me and Kawhi Leonard. It's great. Wow. What? Wow. Those are very well done. Here we go. Well, you were in a Raptors hat here, so I had to mix in the little NBA.

36:18Martellus Bennett:Well, I just like the shape of this hat. I'm not a sports fan at all.

36:22Rich Eisen:All right. So here we go. So, Suze, you want to guess your first up, the closest without going over, of how much this check is from Leatherheads? First of all, do I get half? You always do, Suze. Even with us still having our relationship. $8. Some people in this town have to get half by leaving each other. $8. Okay,$8. Jay Feli, what do you got? I'm going to go$1.50. $1.50. TJ Jefferson, what do you have over there? I'm going to go$0.75. $0.75.

36:53Martellus Bennett:and this is a it doesn't also has to do with how often a movie is watched exactly so it hasn't been you have to see George Clooney leather hair it's not that many people watching that I'm going to go with $6.28

37:07Rich Eisen:$6.28 she gets special dispensations because she can take it all also so competitive now I don't want to lose it$3.50 okay didn't matter either the actual retail check is $1.45. There it is. That's not even a parking. That is not. $0.75. Go to Hollywood.

37:33Martellus Bennett:Be in show biz, they tell you. Go to Hollywood. You're going to do great. You're going to make money like Brad Pitt. No, you're not. No, you're not. Do not do it. Do not do it. Get a desk job. Work for yourself, which is not a great idea either. The entrepreneurship is one of the worst things you could possibly do to yourself and your family. But look at you now, though. Yeah, yeah. Look at you now, though. I used to have hair. Another bald guy on the program. I used to have hair. Well, you look fantastic. Well, thank you. My black's not cracking any time.

38:10Rich Eisen:Is that going to be another episode of Hey, AJ? Oh, definitely.

38:14Martellus Bennett:I like to put black dad jokes in the show for sure. Yeah, yeah. The show is black as AF. But on an animated version. So, yeah, it's cool, you know. So that's the cool thing about it. Like, sometimes we'd be talking on a show and I'd be like, yeah. When I get the script sometimes, like, a black father wouldn't say that. You know what I'm saying? So I had to change the stuff when I started doing the Samuel L. Jackson thing. You know, Samuel L. Jackson is my favorite actor.

38:40Rich Eisen:Okay.

38:40Martellus Bennett:And he's who I wanted to play my dad on the show first. So anytime I write a movie script or anything, I always have a voice or a place for Samuel L. Jackson.

38:49Rich Eisen:You've left a seat. have you ever met him?

38:53Martellus Bennett:Never met him in my life.

38:54Rich Eisen:We gotta make this happen.

38:55Martellus Bennett:Yeah man, you know, old white women always tell me I look like him but then I kind of take that with a grain of salt.

39:03Martellus Bennett:You look like an old, young Samuel L. Jackson. I was like, I don't know if that's racist or a compliment, you know. Could be both. It could be both.

39:16Rich Eisen:Back in the day when our kids were really young and that you you um there was that book go the f to sleep yeah he read it yeah he we we got that um that book on tape just to hear what it sounded like he's so fun i saw him on

39:32Martellus Bennett:broadway what a brilliant idea that way yeah have him do that i saw him on broadway too um and uh in the piano the piano play and it was like amazing to see him on stage so right i love Samuel L. Jackson. He's my favorite actor.

39:46Rich Eisen:What's not to like? He's amazing. Great to see you here. Let's do this more often. I'm down. Certainly since you're just over the hill twice over. I'm in Houston now. You're in Houston now? Yeah, I'm back home in the south. Oh, okay.

39:59Martellus Bennett:So you're just here just hanging out? Well, today we're doing an NFL career day at Disney, so players who want to do animation or get into animation, they're going on a tour through Disney television, and we're showing them all the ropes of how we create shows, how things are made. So it's like 30 guys coming through, former and current players. I mean, I don't really follow football as much as I used to, so I don't know some of the guys that's on the list. But it's like 30 people coming in, so it's an exciting day.

40:27Rich Eisen:I saw your brother at the Super Bowl. He came on NFL Network crowing about the Seahawks before they went actually and did what he said they were going to do.

40:34Martellus Bennett:Oh, man, what a treacherous game for Patriots fans, right? Like, you can't complete a pass, can't get anything done. I mean, that left tackle, he was just getting destroyed. You either get better or you – I don't know. You come back for – that's one of those things, you know. Like it could haunt you to greatness. Right. Or it could haunt you into despair. Wow.

40:52Rich Eisen:It was a long afternoon. Yeah. We were there. Our 15-year-old's a diehard Patriot fan. Oh, wow. Yeah. He was bummed.

41:00Martellus Bennett:But it was nice to see him back in the game, though, you know. Like those two – you know, sorry to keep this going, but I don't get to get on TV that often, so I'm going to make the most of my time. But NFL is interesting because it's always the same teams. who have a chance, right? Like that cycle of greatness is coming through because it comes from the top down. Organizations are ran from the top. So some organizations know how to win and some organizations know how to lose. Like the leadership, they got losers in leadership or ownership. You could be a loser and be a billionaire. I mean, most billionaires do end up being losers.

41:34Rich Eisen:Do you mean personally is what you're saying? Yes. Emotionally. Yeah, just structurally. I hear you. The posture. I'd love to give that a try and see if I can break that. Do different?

41:45Martellus Bennett:Me too. I would definitely. I would do good.

41:47Rich Eisen:Well, with our idea together. You said you don't get on TV too often. You wouldn't stick around for one more segment? I would love to. Can we do that? I don't know if we can. Does he got to get to, does he, somebody has to know about, does he have to get to Burbank? The extra 50, we good? We're good. That's a thumbs up, man. Yeah. Let's hang out a little. Let's do it, man. Let's finish the hour with more. Yeah, we can talk about, what, what,

42:09Martellus Bennett:it's your show. the marty and rich show today i feel like we should switch seats

42:17Rich Eisen:we'll be right back with more marty sorus rex right here on the i love chris long too good stuff i love his whole family you too yeah get into the hyundai getaway sales event and get away with a deal so right it almost feels wrong because right now you can get great deals on our most popular models including our adventure ready suvs like the hyundai santa fe or santa and the Tucson or Tucson Hybrid. Plus, there's our bold and stylish Elantra loaded with the latest tech or go all electric with the Ioniq 5 or Ioniq 9. So get down to your local Hyundai dealer and get away with a deal you'll love during the Hyundai Getaway Sales Event.

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43:26Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

43:32Rich Eisen:Yeah, that's not cool. When my sports center's on, Stuart's laughing. I'm like, you're the one who's washing your hands for 30 seconds like you're some neat freak, you know?

43:42Martellus Bennett:Yeah. I just want to take a second and reflect on when you and Stuart Scott were doing television and how beautiful, like, those moments were and the way that the game was talked about and the patience that you had and the pacing and the grace that was given to athletes at that period of time. As we move forward, everything is so much faster. And it's not so much as the depth of the language and the love and the care for the game and the athletes. It was a really beautiful time to be a fan of the game.

44:18Rich Eisen:That's so nice of you to say that. Yeah. Yeah, I miss Stu. He's gone 11 years now. Yeah, it's crazy. Susie knew Stuart because Susie and I met in the ESPN newsroom in 1997.

44:29Martellus Bennett:Y 'all was fraternizing in the workplace? No.

44:34Rich Eisen:Rich was crying. Susie wasn't having it. Everybody thinks the Michigan man who won the Heisman in 1997 was Charles Woodson, but it was me. I see what you did there. I was attempting. Yeah. She wasn't buying it. Unsuccessfully.

44:53Martellus Bennett:You know, part of the, when you have, see, like, when you have charm, it usually doesn't, you know, land in the beginning. Like, you got to keep showing up. and you keep showing up and you keep showing up. Know what I'm saying? Like they get like, oh, this guy's actually kind of nice. He's a good person. And then after you keep showing up, they get used to having your presence around and they realize how you make them feel when you're in a room with them. And then you disappear. And then they be like, dang, where is he at? Then they be like, oh, I really like that guy. Is that accurate? No, not really.

45:25Martellus Bennett:Kind of remember how he disappeared. Could you tell me what happened? He never disappeared? No, not disappeared, but like take a day off of being charming.

45:33Rich Eisen:I don't actually think you'd take many days off of being charming. He's just really nice and he's a really good listener. And that's what turned her off. Pretty much. For the first three years, TJ. For the first three years, you're not wrong, TJ. This is not why I asked this man to stick around.

45:53Martellus Bennett:How long have y 'all been married? 23 years. Well, it'll be 15 years for me this year.

45:58Rich Eisen:Oh, congratulations.

45:58Martellus Bennett:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

45:59Rich Eisen:I just love what a good dad you are. I love your passion for your child. And I just want to say thank you on behalf of all of us out here who have girls. It just means so much to me that you are such a role model to her. And if all dads can listen to this show right now and do the same for their girls, we'll grow up a whole generation of smart, strong girls who feel good about themselves. It's all about that relationship with your girls and the dad.

46:24Martellus Bennett:I 100 % agree. I think that, you know, when, like as a man, there's a lot of things you're not privy to until you get married about women's rights or women's movements or things that's happening. And then when you become a father, it's like, wow, like I got to change the world because she has to grow up in this environment. And like, what is that? What is that environment going to be like for her 10 years from now? When we think about legacy, we have to think about place and how our daughters can, you know, enter these places and be fully themselves. And, you know, and raising a young black girl, I have to teach her like all these different lessons along the way.

47:00Martellus Bennett:But my biggest thing as a dad is like.

47:03Rich Eisen:Thanks for listening to the Rich Eisen Show podcast. You can watch and listen to the Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from noon to three Eastern on ESPN Radio, Disney Plus and on the ESPN app. The Rich Eisen Show, the podcast.

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