Kelvin Benjamin went scorched earth on his former team in an interview this week, and his current coach would have preferred to avoid that situation.
Benjamin, now with the Buffalo Bills, ripped the Carolina Panthers and quarterback Cam Newton in an interview on Friday. Bills coach Sean McDermott said he has spoken to Benjamin about his comments and made clear that he felt it was inappropriate.
“There’s a time and a place — I’m not saying specific to what comments were made — there’s a time and place for things like that,” McDermott said, via Mike Rodak of ESPN. “This was not one of them. We have a lot of respect for our opponents, No. 1, and everyone in the league. I’ve spoken with Kelvin and that’s not how I want us to handle things like that. So we’ll move forward as a team, and I’m hoping we’ve already done that.”
McDermott, who coincidentally was the Panthers’ defensive coordinator while Benjamin was with the team, added that things like this distract from where the players’ focus needs to be.
“That’s a part of it, but the bigger part of it is our focus needs to be on what we’re doing,” McDermott added. “Like I said, we respect what they do, every opponent — everyone in the league for that matter — but the bigger part is our focus needs to be on us and our approach to training camp.”
Newton has more or less shrugged off Benjamin’s remarks, which seem to have created more of a distraction for Buffalo than for Carolina. It’s an annoyance that McDermott definitely didn’t need with Thursday’s preseason game around the corner — coincidentally against the Panthers.
