Michael Bennett: 'A critic is somebody that can’t do something'

SEATTLE -- Michael Bennett's daughter doesn't necessarily want the Seattle Seahawks to beat the Atlanta Falcons on Saturday.

He thinks they will anyway.

In an exclusive one-on-one interview with Q13 News' Aaron Levine, the Seahawks' defensive end talked about why he's done with his sack chance, what his daughters think will happen this weekend, and why Bennett spends very little time caring what critics think.

Saturday's game kicks off at 1:35 p.m., but coverage begins at 6 a.m. on the home of the Seahawks, Q13 FOX and JOEtv.

If you sack Matt Ryan, will you say anything to him?

I don’t think so. Don’t say anything until the game’s over. I’m more worried about the win. I think in the playoffs, it’s not even about stats at this point, it’s just about the win. You do whatever it takes for the team to win, and that’s how we look at it.

Any sack dance, or are you done with that?

No, no sack dance because you don’t want to find a way for you to get flagged or some type of way – that could be a defining moment of the game, and you just want to find a way to win.

The fines are not fun, obviously, but with the contract extensions do you bring the sack dances back eventually?

No, I got three daughters, they got weddings and all kinds of stuff, so I’m all about saving my money and investing these days.

You’re a vocal leader. What’s the message to this team going to be on Saturday?

I think the message to this team is recommitment. I think there’s times in your life where you gotta recommit. I think as a husband and a father, you always find that time daily, try to recommit to make sure you’re a better husband and father than you were the day before. Right now, it’s a recommitment to being a better teammate than the week before. Because that’s what doesn’t matter – it’s about, how can we recommit be a better teammate? How can I block better? How can I do what is needed to help Bobby (Wagner) make a better tackle? And when you recommit every game, in and out, you tend to have a better connection as a team. And connection is what makes the game the best that it is. When there’s 11 guys out there and they’re not connected, you can see the holes and the glares. When everybody’s connected as equals, you get games like the one we had last week.

Does this team feel doubted right now?

I don’t know … maybe. The media’s what creates doubt, and what creates the mindset of what a team should have. Ultimately, we are who we are. We believe in the philosophy that has been expressed to us since we’ve been here. We’ve got great coaches, we’ve got great everything. We’ve been here before, we know how we are, and we’re poised for greatness, and that’s just how we feel.

What would you say to a critic that says that quote-unquote championship window is closing?

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. You don’t know what you BEEP talking about. Can I say that?

Absolutely.

Yeah. BEEP that, you know what I mean? They don’t know what they’re talking about. A critic is a critic. The thing about a critic is they’re somebody that can’t do something. So, they become  historian about it. Or, they can’t do it, so they find out what it takes to do it. But they can’t judge what it really takes to do it, because what it really takes is heart. And you can’t judge heart, and you can’t judge what people will take to do wha they need to do. And how they share the brotherhood, and how they have the love for their teammates. You can’t see that with an open eye. You have to be connected to have that connection with a team, and I think nobody see that about us. We never doubted each other. We believe, and when you have belief, it’s a lot easier to create success with the people around you.

What do you want your ultimate legacy to be.

For me, like I always said, my legacy is not in sports. Sports is something that is meant to be broken, records are meant to be broken. The seed that you plant in a community, the seed that you plant around the people that see you all the time when you express your feelings for them and you express your feelings for the community … the legacy is the seed you plant in the community. You always want to go and do things with the community and plant a seed and be able to change the trajectory of a kid’s philosophy – the way that he moves, and the things that he’s thinking now. If I can do that, I take a kid from what he thought he was gonna be to be  something greater, I think that’s the perfect legacy. And also, being a father. A father for me is the most important legacy. I think, I want my daughter to be like, ‘I want to marry a man exactly like my father.’ And I think if she does that, she’ll be happy of course, but that’s what I really want.

You have three chances there.

Three chances, hopefully I’ll get one of them right.

Last year around this time, you said your daughter’s advice to you was not to jump offsides. What’s your daughter’s advice to you right now?

She doesn’t want me to cut my hair. Nah, she doesn’t want me to get hurt. She told me this yesterday (and it doesn’t make any sense), she was like ‘Daddy, I want you to win, but I kinda don’t want you to win cause I want to come home.’ So I said, you gonna be waiting for me for a minute, we gotta go to Houston. But she loved that.