Former NFL star Martellus Bennett hasn’t played football in about a year and has been busy writing books to inspire children of color.
He has published three books through his company, Imagination Agency. His books, Hey A.J It’s Bed Time and Hey A.J It’s Saturday were written after he welcomed his baby girl Austyn Jett Rose Bennett and realized that there were very few books with characters who looked like her.
His newest book is called Dear Black Boy which he says is like “Oh The Places You’ll Go but for black boys.” He calls the book a “a discussion” about “what sports means to our community and breaking outside of that.”
Bennett wants Black kids to define what success is for themselves. He explained, the “NFL is 75% black” so Black boys can look at that and know it’s something they can achieve. But the tech industry is only 7% Black so kids may see it as something they can’t do. He wants to emphasize through this book that “you don’t have to dribble a ball to be successful.”
