Green Bay Packers tight end Martellus Bennett knows where his bread will be buttered in 2017. It will be done by quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Thus, Bennett is doing his best to get close to Rodgers — a smart move. He’s doing it in a rather unconventional way, however.
Bennett says he sends Rodgers regular text messages in order to get to know him better. While that’s not out of the ordinary, the types of messages could be seen as a little odd.
“I send a lot of emojis and GIFs and stuff like that to him. Other than that, it’s just conversations,” Bennett explained. “That’s pretty much it. I tell him things like, ‘I like chocolate chip cookies. What kind of cookie do you like?’ I just tell him little things. Like, ‘Hey, look my daughter did this today. She’s jumping, or she learned to use the potty.’ Stuff like that.
“It’s just conversation, making friends.”
That isn’t all, of course. We’re all well aware of the “trust” factor when it comes to Rodgers.
He simply won’t throw you the ball if he doesn’t trust you. We know that to mean knowing the playbook and being where Rodgers expects you to be.
Bennett gets that as well.
“I’m always talking to him on the field, too, trying to see what he wants,” Bennett said. “(I’ll say), ‘Hey, how did that look?’ or he’ll give me the thumbs up. Or if I’m in another group, I always look back at him, ‘Hey, is that what you want? Is there something different you want on this?’ Always trying to figure out, just trying to have those conversations on and off the field, trying to get know each other as players, and as people.”
We’re not so sure about the emoji texts, but the latter approach should get Bennett a lot of balls in 2017.