As a tight end for the Cowboys, Martellus Bennett never had a particularly close relationship with his quarterback. Bennett says he’s trying to change that now that he’s with the Giants.
Bennett told the New York Times that he and Tony Romo were distant enough that in their first three years as teammates, Bennett didn’t even have Romo’s phone number. With the Giants, Bennett is going out of his way to make sure he and Eli Manning are close.
“I want him to be able to read my mind and my body language,” Bennett said of Manning. “If he’s sitting down at lunch and there’s like four people sitting at the table, I just pull an extra chair and make extra room and sit next to him.”
Reading Bennett’s comments, it’s hard not to get the feeling that he had issues with Romo. Last year Bennett said he thought Romo and Jon Kitna should have competed for the starting job in Dallas, rather than Romo being handed the job. And Bennett has also suggested that Romo played favorites with his receivers, hinting that he agreed with former Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens’ beef about Romo targeting Jason Witten at the expense of other players in the offense.
Bennett would surely love nothing more than to have a good game against his old team on Wednesday night, demonstrating that he has the kind of connection with Manning that he never had with Romo.