Martellus Bennett Telling the McCourty Twins That Jimmy G was a 'Bitch' Certainly Explains a Lot

Just to provide a little context, what Martellus Bennett is talking about here on the McCourty twins podcast is September of 2016. With Tom Brady serving his four-game Deflategate suspension, Jimmy Garoppolo got his first opportunity to start. And lasted all of a game and a half. A game and a half of great quarterbacking, to be sure. But he came out after getting hit with 4:02 to go in the 1st half of Game 2 and never came back. A rookie Jacoby Brissett came off the bench as the Pats got outscored 21-7 in the 2nd half but hung on for the win. 

Brissett started Week 3 and led the Pats to an impressive 27-0 win over Houston that included a 27-yard touchdown run from him right around JJ Watt's side of the Texans line. But he injured his throwing hand and only had 103 passing yards. So by Week 4 against Buffalo, everyone was anxious to get Jimmy G back.  As I recall he got to Gillette at some ridiculously early time like 7:00 a.m. and everything was looking good. Until it wasn't. Shortly before game time, Garoppolo said he couldn't go. Brissett was pressed into emergency duty. And lost to Rex Ryan's Bills 16-0. And as soon as it was over, Brissett was taken to have surgery on his thumb. Despite that, he still managed to throw for 205 yards and not turn the ball over. And in doing so, earned universal respect from everyone for the way he fell on the grenade for the entire outfit. 

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Garoppolo? Not so much, I guess. I mean, yes, people in the media and fans were questioning his toughness. And there were rumors people in the organization were pissed off. Suggestions that he made a business decision when his team needed him most. But this is the first we've ever heard anyone go on record like this. 

Damn, Martellus. Bennett has long had a well-deserved reputation for being a guy who has no filter. I've had reporters tell me he'd be at his locker just giving speeches like a street philosopher standing on a box in the town square in ancient Rome, even if no one was listening. And maybe you could argue he's just on a roll here and exaggerating to get a laugh. Except by the third time he calls Jimmy G "a bitch" you know he's not kidding. And the way Devin McCourty reacts, you just know he agrees. That's two guys who were on that 2016 roster with Garoppolo. It's not hard to imagine there's a lot of agreement among the other 50. 

Which begs the question of whether 49ers Garopplo was the "motherfucker" he was referring to when he talked about getting passed over by another team in 2020. And whether the questions in the locker room about Garoppolo's toughness factored into the decision to trade him in 2017.

I stand by what I've been saying ever since they shipped him to San Francisco at the trading deadline: They had no other choice but to trade him. The only thing that foiled the plan to have him succeed Brady was Brady succeeding. He carried them to the next two Super Bowls and won one. And I truly believe Bill Belichick would've taken him back this year, were it not for the fact that he got the quarterback he wanted in the draft. But in doing so, he would've had to deal with lingering resentment among his players who were there in 2016 and remember how Brissett had to answer the bell because Jimmy didn't. And the fact Garoppolo has already missed his last start in San Fran (they had the bye last week) is probably regarded as proving Bennett's point. He certainly didn't get an argument from either McCourty brother.

Somebody get this man in front of a microphone more often.