“People ask me why I’m able to play through anything; it’s because of my family.”After winning the AFC Championship game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett celebrated the victory with his family. Bennett was overjoyed at the thought of going to a Super Bowl, but before he could continue his celebration, he had to tie his daughter’s shoes in an adorable moment of fatherhood seen by the world.
@MartysaurusRex tying Jett's shoes post #playoffs WIN! @Barbie Your commercial was right. Real men 💗football but daughters ALWAYS come 1st! pic.twitter.com/RLyXANhUt3
— TheImaginationAgency (@ImaginationAgcy) January 23, 2017
According to Patriots Wire, Bennett said in an interview after the iconic moment, “I love my family more than anything else in the world, and she’s a big reason — to play this game, you’ve got to have a ‘why.’ People ask me why I’m able to play through anything; it’s because of my family. I play for myself, I play for my teammates.”
Bennett then went on to relate a conversation the two had after the victory.
“‘You go Super Bowl?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ She was like, ‘We go Super Bowl!’ And she’s like, ‘Oh look at the confetti.’ And we’re both kids, and were like, ‘Look at the confetti! It’s so awesome.’ So we both kind of do the same thing.”
Included in the original Tweet by The Imagination Agency (a multimedia production company created by Martellus Bennett that creates children’s content) was a reference to a Barbie commercial aired during the game, affirming that “Real men love football, but daughters ALWAYS come 1st.”
https://youtu.be/G_kF6MANL78?list=PL5BsRl9zFaeQ6r1pFPb0IpliD1mWTCMPP
Mattel recently launched an ad campaign aimed at encouraging fathers to play an active role in their daughter’s lives, citing that “time spent in her imaginary world is an investment in her real world.” The toy company joins many other businesses (Pantene, Dove, Cheerios, Ad Council) that started similar campaigns, all of them realizing how important an active father is in the life of a child.
Read more: Millennial Dads Are All In When It Comes to Parenting
What Martellus Bennett (and Barbie) show us is that a father can be a “man’s man” and interested in “manly” things like football, but that family must always take precedence – especially if your daughter needs her shoes tied.
