Quotes from Martellus Bennett

I'm always excited anytime I get a chance to be a better player and work with different people.

I've always been interested in clothing because it's an extension of how we feel.

I'm looking like Atlas, not Professor Klump.

The way we have been programmed and conditioned to think about the black kid being an athlete, it's like every young black boy people would see say 'what sport do you play?' instead of just asking 'what do you do?' 'What are you interested in?'

When my daughter was born, I was reading a lot of children's books, and there weren't any characters who looked like her. For all the content that's out there, there aren't many African-American protagonists. I looked at it like, if there isn't someone else creating it then I have to do it myself.

There aren't many children's books about black characters that are just going on adventures. My library has over 2,000 children's books in it, and most of the protagonists are either white or creatures.

I've always wanted to create. I didn't ever want to just be a football player, so I'm just bringing all these childhood dreams together to try to accomplish the things I want to do before I die.

First and foremost, I am a husband and a father, which is a full-time job.

A lot of people hate winners.

For some reason as a kid being a smart athlete didn't seem like the right thing, because you didn't fit in. You didn't want to be too smart because you'd be a nerd. But then you didn't want to be too dumb either because then you didn't get the grades you needed to play.

My mind is like a theme park, because it's fun and there's lots of cool stuff and you can take rides.

Why does everyone always assume the quarterback is the leader?

Nothing good happens after 11. If you can't get a date before 11 o'clock, you need to go home and you need to work on yourself.

I'm trying to build something that lasts forever. If it's tied to my legacy as an athlete, then when I'm gone, it will have no momentum or can't keep selling.

I don't want to inspire the next generation of tight ends or linebackers to play the game. If I could inspire the next generation of architects and technology leaders and writers and illustrators and film directors, then I feel like I have fulfilled my life purpose.

I was banned from IHOP. Not all IHOPs, just the one on Highway 6 by my house where I grew up.

I feel like there are not a lot of us, in terms of African American owners or creators. I'm trying to get kids and communities to think not just about playing for the team, but owning the team. You don't always have to be the worker bee.

There's a lot of guys who use their likeness - to do movies, and do other business stuff, but not too many guys are actually making product. I'm making product, it's a different thing. A lot of guys are holding up Coke cans and get paid a lot of money to do that, but no one's making a Coke can. I'm the guy that's trying to make the Coke can.

I'm not a guy who holds up a product and says, 'Drink this.'

If you play sports, use sports. So many of our kids get used by the game and then get nothing out of it. Use it as a tool to open up other doors that you want to open in life.

If I die and you remember me as an athlete, I failed at life.

I always say Coach Trestman reminds me of the first Willy Wonka. Not the Johnny Depp one.

With your imagination, you can go anywhere or do anything, anything is possible.

As young black boys in Alief, Texas, my friends and I often spent afternoons imagining ourselves scoring the game-winning touchdown at the end of the Super Bowl.