Martellus Bennett Black Olympics Video: It’s not worth it bro.

Let me start by saying this: I like fried chicken, I like Kool Aid, I like Watermelon.

Now, when I first heard about Martellus Bennett’s (aka Marty B) Black Olympics video on YouTube, I kind of brushed it aside.  As a fellow Texas A&M alum, I have followed Bennett since he shocked everyone by signing a letter of intent to play Tight End for the Aggies, so I knew he had an interesting sense of humor.

It wasn’t the first time Bennett has been in trouble for his YouTube exploits, and unfortunately, it probably won’t be the last.  So after listening to talk about the video on the radio, I pulled up Marty BTV to take a look at what all the fuss was about.

Chicken eating contest, not too bad.  Kool Aid drinking contest, still watching.  But it was something about watching two grown African-American men have a watermelon eating contest that was just a little too much to handle.

I checked out Jean Jacques Taylor’s column today in regards to Bennett, and I thought it was a little heavy.  Martellus was born March 10, 1985, which was already 30 years removed from the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  To expect him to think of the Civil Rights struggle while making a video on his Mac Notebook is a bit much

What I thought was funny when I was 22 is a lot different than what I think is funny today.  And thank God we didn’t have video cameras to catch all of the ridiculous things we used to do back in the day.  At 22, I was still in College Station kicking it with my frat brothers, being young and dumb.

It looks a little funny though seeing a guy  with a million dollars having a chicken eating contest in the kitchen with his brother.  But poor decisions is a hallmark of youth regardless of how much money you have.

Martellus Bennett likes to have fun, he likes to laugh.  It gets him in trouble with the Cowboys on the field and it’s getting him in trouble off the field.  When you are 22 years old, one of the hardest lessons to learn is the impact that your actions (positive and negative) can have on others.  It’s even harder learning how to pull back when you feel like you are right.

Bennett is having a good time, but he is also hurting his career.  Catching 15 touchdowns next year will help his career more than this YouTube could ever hurt him, but sometimes in sports players need the benefit of the doubt.  That’s what I hope Marty B’s people are telling him.  That if and when he truly makes a mistake, there may not be enough goodwill left with coaches, teammates and fans to get him through it.

For the critics, the line here is very, very thin.  If you come out strong against this video then I hope you don’t own Season 1 & 2 of the Chappell Show.  The standards for what’s racist and what’s funny are often levied arbitrarily.

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Who can say what when?  Lisa Lampenelli say she can’t believe 82 black guys have a job but Don Imus can’t say….well naw, Don Imus can’t say what he said.  But you get where I’m going.

It’s a slippery slope, and what it comes down to in the end is what’s funny and what’s not.  Borat was funny, Bruno is not.  Because Bruno was not funny then the racist/bigoted humor comes off as…well…racist and bigoted.

I would suspect that Bennett is going to keep doing his thing.  If you take the time to watch a few more of the videos on Marty BTV you see it’s just a few guys literally riffing, tripping, and being corny.  I’m not going to give him a history lesson, but from one Aggie to another I’d say think about whether it’s worth all the trouble before you shoot your next production.

If you want to fly under the radar, change your jersey number in support of Darfur like Tracy McGrady did.  The media could care less about that.