One thing hasn’t changed for former Texas A&M and Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett, now with the New York Giants: The man gives good interview.  

Sam Borden’s New York Times profile of the quirky Katy native, who’s something like a (presumably) drug-free Ricky Williams or a harmless Dennis Rodman, introduces readers of the Times to Bennett’s infamous “Cap N Crunch Rap” YouTube video and includes such memorable subheads as “He somehow turns a story about a childhood fight into a moment of silence for Bill Nye the Science Guy’s TV show” and “He once started a gang whose main purpose was to steal dessert.”

The Cowboys’ 2008 second-round pick, Bennett was considered something of a bust, and couldn’t even trash-talk at his former team that sharply. But he and his wife, Siggi, definitely like New York more than his home state. As Borden wrote:

Texas will always be meaningful to them. They met there. They have family there. Bennett’s career began there. But it was not the place for them…

In Dallas, Bennett says, he never was truly at ease.

People would say to him, “ ‘You’re a metrosexual’ because I dress nicely or because my favorite thing to take pictures of is our outfits,” Bennett says. “I like art, photography, film — all that creativity.”

He hesitates before saying, “I don’t think people here are as judgmental as back in Texas.”

He laughs because he knows he is not alone here. New York is filled with people who wear fedoras, filled with people who crave color and culture and something more than 8 yards on third-and-7. In New York, there are visionary architects everywhere.

Bennett reaches the car. “It’s one of the first places I’ve been in my life,” he says, hand on the door handle, “where I really, honestly, feel like I belong.”

We are confused, however, at the notion that Dallas is an unwelcoming place for metrosexuals. Even if N9NE has closed. And how did this guy go to school in College Station over Austin?

“MartyB” also talks about his time playing basketball at A&M for the now-troubled Billy Gillispie, going with his father to work at the Dreyer’s ice cream plant, and proposing to his wife, whom he met at the Dallas House of Blues in 2008 (it is a great proposal story). 

Since joining the Giants, Bennett has been playing well (if not well enough to beat the Cowboy in the season opener). That has ESPN.com’s Tim McMahon wondering who’s to blame for Bennet’s underwhelming time wearing the star. Wrote McMahon:

Tight end/goofball Martellus Bennett, who didn’t score his last three seasons in Dallas, has become the first player in Giants history with a touchdown in his first three games for the franchise. He already has more receiving yards this season (185 on 15 catches) than he did all of last season. Eli Manning has already thrown Bennett as many touchdown passes as Tony Romo did. 

The chicken-and-egg debate about Bennett’s days in Dallas: Did he not get many opportunities because he failed to capitalize on the ones he did get, or did he not capitalize because he didn’t get enough opportunities? 

They let a phenomenal talent go to waste…. And now it’s the worst-case scenario for the Cowboys: Their bust is booming for their biggest rival.