 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. Today's special guest won the Super Bowl a few years ago with the Seattle Seahawks and currently plays with the Philadelphia Eagles. He is one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL and he also makes a huge positive impact off the field with his amazing foundation. He is Michael Bennett and today we are going beyond football. Hey Michael, great having you on the show today. Thank you, thank you. It was fun watching this last Super Bowl with you, but I know that it was killing you not to be in that game. It was killing me and my body didn't have to feel any aches at the same time, but at the same time, I just like I said, I really love the game of football as far as like understanding the nuances of it, how it's played, the amount of work people put into it, the amount of sacrifice and the amount of dedication that each individual player puts into it and then what a team puts in and brings it together and how we have a mantra of what we believe in together and we go out there and accomplish something together. And I think football just breaks a lot of different barriers when it comes to that. It's the kind of place where we play a sport regardless of our religion, regardless of our political beliefs on that Sunday, our gender, our color. We believe that we have the same goal. And I think if life was like that, it would be a lot better, you know, but at the same time football is one of those things where you always go back to that you love that person next to you because you know the type of person he is and the character and also the thing about being in those games and you learn so much from somebody else. You learn a little bit more and watching Tom Brady and the rest of those guys play, you get a little jealous because you know what it feels like to be out there on that Sunday when it's Super Bowl time. That's because you were there. You want it. You want, you're a Super Bowl champion, what it feels like. Yeah. Now you grew up in, you were born in New Orleans. No, amen. It's a small, small town. Oh, wow. 10,000. In Louisiana. In Louisiana, yeah. And then you grew up in Texas. I grew up in Texas, yeah. And when did you start playing football? I don't know. Maybe I had a football in my cradle. The times I remember mostly is like, you know, the times where the sport felt so pure. It was when I was in my grandfather's house and he was a farmer and we had a big line. I used to play football and I used to try to mimic the guys we loved. And for me, the guys I love growing up was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which I didn't know that I would be playing for them in the future, you know, one day. And I love Warren Sapp. I love Greg Spires. I love Booger McFarland. I love Ronde Barber, you know, Derek Brooks. Legends. Legends, you know, all these guys. And to have an opportunity to eventually play for the organization, but just playing the sport and having just those people that I looked up to. And I was like, oh, Warren Sapp right here? Yeah. You know, I'm coming off the edge like that. And Simi Rice, and that's when I just loved that playing football early in my grandpa's yard and playing tackle football before he knew about concussions. Yeah, yeah. Before that. Now, your mom and dad, Michael Sr. and Penny, what did you learn from them through these years? I think I learned from my mom's, obviously. She was a teacher. So my dad was who worked in technology. So I think I learned a lot from them as far as, actually, they're holding the wrong ball in there now that I looked at them. Only I would touch that. It says Buckingham versus the Saints. But maybe, you know, but I learned from my parents about dedication. And I was inspired by the amount of time my mom put into her job. I think watching my mom as a kid and seeing her, you know, most teachers, I would say, most teachers, when it's done, the day's done, they live on their life. But my mom always cared about the students beyond just her job. And I think for me, seeing that type of dedication to your craft or dedication to the people around you, it really helped me grow as an individual. And seeing my dad, my dad was always known as the neighborhood dad who cared. He was always did a lot of things. And so looking at him and learning how to be a father and learning how to be parents is something that I was really grateful for, to know that my parents were really outstanding parents. Yeah. Oh, that makes sense. And you're an outstanding father. You have a beautiful family. Your wife, Pelle, and you have three girls. What values are you trying to instill in your three girls? I think I'm familiar. I just want to teach them the empathy and compassion for other people. I think a lot of times in this generation where things are all about self-graphication and Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and things are happening around them, how can I teach them about empathy and understanding other people and understanding other people's beliefs and understanding who they are and how can they contribute to society in the most awesome way possible. Because they love awesome when I say awesome to them. They're awesome kids. But those are things I really want to instill in them and having some beliefs in themselves and understanding their women and on top of their minority because they're a woman. And then on top of that, they're black women. And they have a certain amount of things that they have to bear, that they have to break through. And they have that power because they have a father who believes in them not because they're just kids, but because of the type of people that they are growing up to be every single day. And I try to instill that into them. Have empathy for people, have compassion. And I think when they do that, it just makes them more well-rounded. And by traveling and doing those different things, they learn so much through other people's culture. I think Hawaii is a great place for that. It's a great melting pot for so many different cultures. And I'd love that about this place. Totally. I love hearing all of that. And Michael, I heard that you worked as a lifeguard before. Yeah. Yeah, I beat the steel type that black people can't swim. People always say, well, I was like that. And a lot of people in my neighborhood can swim. I love being a lifeguard. It was one of my summer jobs. And I love doing it because it was a time I got to be in the pool. I worked at a water park. I got to be in the water park for free. The only thing I didn't like was having to be a babysitter for my brother's and sister's because my parents were dropping off at my job. I was like, I was trying to get away from the guy. But that didn't happen. So it was an opportunity to have a good job. And I love swimming or something I like doing. And it was a great, it was fun. And then you went on a full scholarship to Texas A&M for football. And after graduating A&M, what happened in the NFL draft? Man, I didn't get drafted. And to me, that was a defining moment in my career because it's one of those things where something you put a lot of work in and it doesn't happen the way you think it should happen. And you have two choices. You can fall down and just quit or you can stand up to the adversity of what was happening. For me, my dad and my wife and my daughter, I had too many people that had too much support to just fold over. I had to stand up and face the adversity. And I knew that not being drafted would be a long road because it was one of the hardest things to do is to go and draft in the NFL because you don't have the same opportunity because they had less invested in you. But when you invest in yourself, doesn't matter how much other people are investing in you because when you invest in yourself, that's when you get the most dividends. And for me, I invested in myself and it paid tremendous dividends because I dedicated myself to my craft. I put the work in and I knew that I wouldn't be denied not only because the work that I put in but because of the hunger. I knew that if I went in and I didn't... I respected everybody around me but I didn't respect them at the same time. I respected them as people but I knew that I was the better player. And at the same time, it just made me a hungrier football player and it gave me a chip on my shoulder that I never really let go the whole time I was in the NFL. No matter how much success I had, I always wanted more and I always felt like there was not enough and they always doubted me and they helped me. And I always say, when I didn't feel like I didn't have that chip anymore, it'd be time for me to retire. Oh yeah, I know that definitely keeps you motivated. I mean, you want to prove to everybody how great you can be. So I got to say, Michael, you have to be the greatest non-drafted free agent the NFL has ever seen. Yeah. No, one of them man, John Randall, some other guys, but I'm definitely up there. Yeah. Turn it around more on all those guys. Yeah. Priest Holmes and there's a lot of great guys but I think those guys all have the same mindset when it came to accomplishing their goals. How could I be here but my vision is there. Oh yeah. And so, and the only way to do that is to always have a clear, you know, hyper focus as Coach Kerry would say, to be hyper focused on your agenda, what you think is your future and how you see yourself playing and into that role. And for me, I saw myself in those roles and I always saw myself, you know, being a great player and I knew if I would put in the work, I could be that player. And so for me, being a draft, it was another, you know, another. Wow. Wow, but at the same time we just jump over. Now Michael, so at the Super Bowl, with the Seattle Seahawks, why did you guys win? Why did you guys win that Super Bowl? It's because we respected, we respected Peyt Menon, we respected the organization but at the same time, we didn't respect them because we respected their work that they put in but we knew, we didn't, we didn't respect anything else about it. We knew Tom, you know, Tom Brady, whoever it is, but Peyt Menon, we just knew that he put a lot of work in but we were better. And I think that everybody around me, every single game, we had that collective thought that no matter what, we respect those people, but we wouldn't respect them. I know it sounds crazy, so I have to know that. But at the same time, when you get out there, we didn't care about the staffs that they had before, the Pro Bowers, none of that. All we cared about, how were you going to compete with us today? And would you go farther than we would go? Would you play through injury? Would you do more for your teammate? And we knew that every single Sunday, there would be a team that wouldn't do that because not only because of the team we were, but because of the bond that we had the amount of time that we spent with each other, outside, and I think a great team is a team who can understand each other outside of what they do regardless of if it's a sport or the job. It's when you spend time with your teammates outside of the workplace that you can grow as a team. And I think for us, we understood that we experienced marriage together, we experienced death together, we experienced birth together. For us, they helped us soar as a team. And I think we had these kinds of bonds that took us long beyond just the football field but friends forever. Yeah, very deep and very loyal and very respectful, very trusting. So what was you guys team culture like? It was always about competing. I think Coach Carroll's number one thing is compete. Compete at a higher level, never complain. It's always somebody that got the worst in you. And for we competed every single day and I think that drove us to something that was great. I think we competed at a level on our team but we had respect because sometimes coaches say compete but they forget. We're athletes, you gotta turn the compete off when they're on the same team sometime. You gotta make them realize they're on the same team and some coaches can't do that because Carroll's great at saying compete. We'll also remember that we're on the same team. We don't need to go farther than where we need to go than just making that play. We don't need to kick each other on the ground. We need to throw each other on the ground. We don't need to hit the quarterback. We need to compete at a high level but understand to have respect for your teammates. And I think that's what was made us great because we competed every single day and we love each other. So why else was Pete Carroll such a great coach and still is a great coach? I think Coach Kira always took the Google effect. I think a lot of coaches don't take the Google effect. They try to find the way not to... They try to find not the way let a person be a human being. They say things like, so you say things like take away your humanity. And I think Coach Kira always put your humanity first. Even though it was a business he seemed to put your humanity first. And I think by doing that he allowed people to be themselves. People would have a certain trust that they wouldn't have for other coaches. And I think Coach Kira about taking that Google effect and making it seem like you were in a safe place. Making it seem that you were around family and being able to bring your family to work and all these different things. Things that you would have to worry about when you were on other teams that you couldn't know what was going on. But when you had your family and the coaches and the wives all hanging together it was nice. And I think that's what made us such a great team because he understood the mindset and the philosophy around the organization was family first, compete. And I think that's what made us great. Makes sense. Now I have a question for you, Michael. As a defensive player, have you ever scored a touchdown? Yeah, scored against the New Orleans Saints. Really? Really. I'm pleased to remember that. My best friend Cliff tipped the ball. I caught it, ran it to the end zone. I was moving like that wave behind me but a little bit faster. And like the tray ones were behind me. I was gone and I jumped into the end zone and I started dancing. The crowd was crazy. Monday night football, you know how it is. That must have felt awesome. It felt awesome because this is, Drew Brees is such a great quarterback. And also just like, it was a lot of, all my teammates rocked for me and that's very, very rare to everybody does their job and one player in the interception. Yeah. So speaking of another great quarterback, Tom Brady, what are your thoughts about Tom Brady? Why is he so great? I think Tom Brady, if you read his book or his things that he does, I think it's his dedication to his craft. I think you respect Tom Brady because you see the amount of work that he puts in. It's very rare that a person trends up in their later years. Most people start to trend down with their health. And I'm not just talking about sports and just general, rather there's relationships. You do a younger relationship, the better, the best it is. You get older and it starts to go down. And he's finding a way to peak in the moments where everybody else seems to be declining. And I think that's what makes Tom Brady is great. He finds new ways to recreate himself. And everybody's not willing to recreate themselves. They're not willing to break their own habits. They're not willing to try something different. They just used to do this this way. And I think when you can be able to recreate yourself but also let yourself evolve in a positive manner like Tom Brady's done, I think you can have that growth that he's had on the football field. Yeah, no, that sounds good. And Michael, we're gonna take a quick break. And when we come back, we're gonna continue going beyond football. Yes, yes. You're watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Super Bowl Champion, Michael Bennett. We will be back in a quick minute. Hey, loha, my name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii, airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii, live from the studios. I'll bring you guests. I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe, your coworkers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We wanna teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me because security matters, loha. Hey, Stan Energyman here on Think Tech Hawaii. And they won't let me do political commentary. So I'm stuck doing energy stuff, but I really like energy stuff. So I'm gonna keep on doing it. So join me every Friday on Stan Energyman at lunchtime, at noon, on my lunch hour. We're gonna talk about everything energy, especially if it begins with the word hydrogen. We're gonna definitely be talking about it. We'll talk about how we can make Hawaii cleaner, how we can make the world a better place. Just basically save the planet. Even Miss America can't even talk about stuff like that anymore. We got it nailed down here. So we'll see you on Friday at noon with Stan Energyman, loha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is one of the best players in the NFL who definitely makes an impact on the field. And he also makes a huge positive impact off the field. He is Super Bowl champion Michael Bennett. And today we are going beyond football. Michael, you're now with the Philadelphia Eagles. How is their team culture like right now? This is, you know, they're very similar. I think for me, moving teams is always hard because you wonder, can you commit yourself? Can you do these different things? Can you, you know, be the same player? Can you love your teammates? All these different things. And coming into that locker room was really cool because there's a lot of great guys like Malcolm Jenkins, Fletcher Cox and guys that became really good teammates to me. And Chris Long, guys at Brandon Graham. So it was cool. And there was an organization about competing and I love that. So it was a great organization. Carson Woods was a great guy too. Yeah, no, it seems like you guys have so many great players and a lot of pieces that is necessary to get to the Super Bowl again. Yeah, we do. We have a lot of great guys I think, you know, Carson was injured last week coming back, you know, getting Jay Drive back and guys like that. And I think it'll really prepare our chances to, you know, really reach that, you know, reach the chance to win it again. I don't know what Super Bowl is this year, was it? I don't know. I was gonna ask you. I don't know. Might be Miami. It might be. I don't know what I said, but we have a chance to get in there with the guys that we have and the defense line that we have and the linebacker court and get some corners back. We lost a lot of corners last year. We played with a lot of young guys. I think they're hindered us a little bit at the beginning of the season. Now, Michael, Coach Doug Peterson. What do you like about him as a coach and a leader? I think I like that Doug played. I think when you have coaches who play, they understand the workload, you know, they understand the time he's spent away from your family. They understand all these different, you know, variables that happen to players that a lot of coaches don't understand because coaches haven't been players. And I think Doug has a great job of, you know, tying in it to him being a coach and him used to be a player. And I think he does a great job of always believing. He has a great heart, I think. I respect him as a man because he always, you know, he believes in his team, he believes in his players and not a lot of coaches believe in it. Every time that he goes out and he believes in the guys around him and I think his leadership is second to none. I think he was one of the best, second best guys or one of the top guys. I think Coach Kale was my favorite coach and then Doug was second. Wow, that's high praise because I know how high your standards are. Now, Michael, you read my book Beyond the Lines about a year ago. How did you like the book? I love the book. I think the mindset of competing and keep winning and your thought process of all these different things I think is super important because it's not only these things that apply to sports and people always take this idea that sport doesn't apply to real life. Maybe real life doesn't apply to sport but sport applies to real life because you do all these different things. You build these teams. You build these mantras or these ideas and this fellowship and how do you do this in life? And I think the way that you talk about it, the way that you put your feelings and the things that you achieve as a coach and as a human, I think is really influential to my life with a lot of other people. And I think that's why people are willing to come up here and talk to you because they understand that you're not just talking to talk, you walk to walk and I think that's super powerful. And I think Hawaii's lucky to have you because I have a lot of people out here that are willing to share that type of information to make people better, not just as players but try to be making better as humans, especially young kids because there's not a lot of influence out here to have that positive influence for our children and our youth. And I think you definitely have that positive influence and that reach for our children. Well, Michael, talking about kids, I mean, your Bennett Foundation is absolutely amazing. And I wanna, I mean, that's inspiring to me. I wanna be like you. Can you tell our viewers what you guys are doing with the Bennett Foundation? I think for me, like growing up and seeing athletes like Muhammad Ali and John Carlos and Dr. Harry Everett and all these different great influences as far as like, what do you do as an athlete? Are you just, do you take yourself from humanity and just consider yourself just in this bubble of life where things are safe and you aren't willing to push yourself beyond your comfort zones to make yourself uncomfortable to things that are happening? And I think those people taught me that, when you're an athlete, you have an obligation to your community, you have an obligation to society to use your platform in a positive way. And for me and my foundation, that's the most important thing is that is the true definition of me, the true definition of athlete to what we're supposed to do when we have this platform when we have this reach, our obligation is not to just sell products to people, not to just sell jerseys, not to just move and score touchdowns, it's to move people's emotions, just to move society's needle, it's to change our communities in positive manners. And for me, the Bennett Foundation is all about that. How do we put ourselves in position to share? How do we push ourselves in position to inspire? How do we push, put ourselves in position to be the leaders and teaching these young people behind us to be better leaders than we were and the people that we had to look up to? And for me and my foundation is about food, it's about the issues that are happening in America right now. And I think right now, the things that we're doing in Hawaii, as far as like we're in our schools, our farm to table programs, we're into 30 schools teaching teachers, how to teach kids how to eat and families, how to farm and all these different things and nutrition and this healthy education. And the next thing that we're doing right now, we're just doing a new curriculum around breaking barriers, or breaking barriers to social equity to different people around, whether it's Pacific Islanders, Asian history, Native American history, women's equality, athletes and impact, black and white, racial issues, the women's issues, and showing that how do we create a curriculum in schools for schools to have, so our kids could be better equipped to understand other cultures, because when we don't understand people, we build up these walls, literally, building the wall. We build these walls because we don't wanna be uncomfortable in things that we don't understand. So our job as human beings are at abilities, on comfort levels for other people to understand their culture, respect their culture. Maybe we don't disagree with it, but we must respect them so we can have a better society. I think that's what my foundation is about, pushing into these barriers, because there's a difference between philanthropy and activism. Philanthropy, to me, is things that happen to all of us because we're human beings. Cancer happens to a lot of us because we're human beings. Death happens to us because we're human beings. But activism and humanitarian work, it's things that happen to us because of the color of our skin, because of the gender that we are, and because of our choices as a male or a female. Those things are things that we must be able to be at the forefront of as athletes and forefront as community leaders. I think for me, that's what my foundation is about. So we do a lot of work in youth prisons and things like that and working with underprivileged people and kids and we do a lot of summits for young women work around sexual assault. How do they become powerful women? Because as a father of daughters, how do I show my daughters that I am committed to their plight as young women? How I'm committed to showing them that I support things that are happening around them, not just by talking and talking, but also by walking and walking. So how do I create programs around things that are happening to them and things that are happening around society? And that's my main focus is being, leaving the world a better place than I got it. And you definitely are, Michael. I mean, it's so inspiring. I mean, you inspire me. I wanna do stuff like that too to really help impact society and the world. Now, a lot of people don't know that you are a New York Times bestselling author and your book, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable. I absolutely love that title. I have the book. I'm about halfway through the book right now. Your brother, Martellus wrote the foreword. It's amazing. Can you tell everyone what it's about, what compelled you to write it? Well, the book is just a play on words but it's also about making, not just making white people uncomfortable but making us all uncomfortable. I think some things that we like to say that we're uncomfortable with, but we've been comfortable with, whether it's sexual assault, things that are happening around us, police brutality, different things that we say we're uncomfortable with but they haven't changed because we're comfortable with them. So my book is about breaking down those barriers of our comfort level and making us uncomfortable to making changes in our society, whether it's the women's issues and the women's march, police brutality. Like I said, the issues that have happened in NCAA, the things that have happened with the PTSD and concussions, those things are things that I talk about in the book and talk about my own life and how to move forward and how do we make an impact in our society through athletics and not just as individual but as collectively. And I think that's what the book is really about is just breaking down these different barriers and figuring out my thought process on them and the things that I believe in. And I've done a lot of work. I've been to Indian reservations. I've been to all kinds of places around the world, Haiti, all these different things, Africa, all these different things that I see from the water issues to, just things that are happening in humanity and you wonder, how can I have a voice and use my voice and prepare their voice and let them roar and work with the things that are happening and speak to the people who are listening and let them know that we have a voice. Our children have voices. Our children have voices. Our wives have voices. We have our voices as people. We have voices as a community and we have to continuously push the issues that are happening around us because if we don't, they'll continuously happen. It's not to individuals come together and they say, this is not gonna happen anymore. It's not to those things happen that we move forward in society. And I think me, that's what I really focus on in the book is talking about these things and showing that things are happening around us and we have to be able to pay attention to them. We have to get out of a bubble and see the world for things that are happening. Michael, I am so happy that you wrote that book. And I mean, as I'm reading it, you're reminding me of like a Martin Luther King actually. I mean, it's like that. I mean, the insights that you have, it's actually, I mean, it's so amazing. Yeah, it's just like, you know, Martin Luther King and all these guys and all these different people who came to earth and you wonder like, why do they come to earth and why are they here to, why are they so brave? You know, why are they so brave to really put themselves out there to really want to see things change? And I'm not Martin Luther King, but at the same time, I love his contribution to society. And I love all the contributions to people that are making things right now. You know, Barack Obama, all these different people that are doing things and who are really powerful in the way that they see community and the way that they see things changing. There's so many people who are here in Hawaii who are trying to make changes with food, education, all these different things that we should have as human beings. We should have equal education. We should have accreditation in our schools, you know what I'm saying? So these are things that we should have as human beings. And I think people around us that are keep fighting for those, you just look up to them and you just say bravo because a lot of people aren't willing to, you know, go beyond themselves. They're really selfish and you wonder how these people become so selfless. And there's a lot of people out there who are like that. I gotta say bravo to you. I mean, Michael, you definitely go beyond the lines. And I wanna thank you for being on the show today and really sharing all those insights. I mean, it's amazing. No, thank you for having me. You're an extraordinary person. You're very inspiring, but thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much, man. Appreciate you guys. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor Ilani Incorporated. For more information, please visit my website, RustyKamori.com and my book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all Costco stores in Hawaii. I hope that Michael and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.