Martellus Bennett has a perfectly reasonable take on marijuana use in the NFL. In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Bennett said marijuana is less harmful than prescription painkillers. He estimated that 89 percent of NFL players use the drug for pain relief, even though it's outlawed by the league.
That is neither surprising nor controversial. Even Jerry Jones is in favor of the NFL legalizing weed.
But according to Stephen A. Smith, Bennett touched the third rail with his pro-marijuana stance. The "First Take" co-host said Thursday Bennett erred in speaking out, because of the league's declining ratings and his brother's legal issues.
And yes, you're not crazy: there is absolutely zero connection between those things. But that didn't stop Smith from bloviating.
"I'm not calling his comments dumb, I'm saying it was a dumb time for him to do that, it was ill-advised, this is not the time for him to be saying that with the residue of the protests and all that it caused, it involved the president last year, it affected ratings to some degree, that's undeniable in a lot of people's eyes, plus his brother has legal issues that are pending as we speak, so it's just not a wise thing for him to say," Smith exclaimed, via Awful Announcing.
Smith also introduced race into the conversation, saying the recently retired tight end should keep quiet about drug use, because he's African-American.
"These are the things that African-Americans throughout this country have lamented for decades, if not centuries," Smith yelled to Max Kellerman. "It's our reality. So when I sit up here on national television and I'm getting on somebody about pulling their pants up, or not having gold teeth in their mouth, or not having tattoos on their face and their neck and their head, and all of this other stuff, or not smoking weed or anything like that, sure, you and others can tell them, 'Go ahead and do that, you should have the right to do that,' and theoretically speaking, you're right. But from a literal perspective, what kind of damage is it going to cause people?"
Bennett, for his part, had the perfect response. "F— you @stephenasmith," he tweeted.
