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FOXBORO, Mass. — A throng of reporters and cameras typically surrounds Martellus Bennett’s locker each Thursday, and the eccentric New England Patriots tight end rarely disappoints.
Bennett’s latest Thursday media session included lengthy odes to two things that have nothing to do with football: gold and bacon.
“I like gold,” Bennett said. “I tried to get paid in gold one year, but they told me, ‘No.’ I’ll take a check, too, though. As long as it cashes. I don’t want no checks that bounce. All money’s good money.”
That response came after Bennett said he tries to “strike gold” whenever he’s out on the field. And if he doesn’t find it?
“I just take my metal detector, look somewhere else and dig again,” he replied. “Hopefully, I find gold there. If I don’t find gold there, I find another spot and I start digging. That’s life. I just keep digging. I never really get frustrated about finding gold. You don’t hit gold every time you dig, otherwise everybody would have stayed west when they went for the Gold Rush. A lot of people went back.”
By this point, Patriots wide receiver Michael Floyd could be heard giggling uncontrollably from his locker a few feet away.
Informed that some of the original Gold Rush prospectors eventually wound up in Canada, Bennett launched into his bacon sermon.
“No one likes Canadian bacon,” he said. “It’s like a different form of ham. I prefer crispy bacon. American bacon. Good, good American bacon. The grease. The kind that crunches when you chew it. You don’t even chew it, you just bite it. Crunchy bacon. Bacon’s delicious. I haven’t met too many who don’t (like bacon). My wife don’t even like pork, and she eats bacon. Bacon doesn’t even count. It’s like in its own food category. Bacon is bacon. There’s everything else, and then bacon’s over here. I like bacon.”
Martellus Bennett, everyone.
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images