Super Bowl Champion, Martellus Bennet’s new children’s show has officially debuted.
The retired football player, who’s played on the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, and Green Bay Packers, is now focused on expanding kids grow their creative world
On January 13, Hey A.J.! premiered on Disney+. The show is all about the adventures of a young girl and her family as they turn everyday activities into special moments.
The book was largely inspired by the Hey A.J.! book series written by Bennett. The books draw from his experiences with his daughter, and the series aims to do the same.
“You start buying children’s books, or you start looking at these shows, there’s not a lot of representation,” he explained in an interview with Parents. “All of my work is truly just a reflection. It’s just a reflection of my Black experience through the world.” Bennet wanted to build stories that centered imagination, not limits.
“Since there was a lack of what I wanted my daughter to see as possible, which was just the power of imagination,” he says, “I wanted to write books that brought this imaginative side of childhood to the bookstore, to the screen, where it really was just about play.”
In the interview, Bennett added that it’s important for parents to nurture their children’s creative interests.
“Being a parent of a creative child is really tough, especially in your early ages, because creativity is always a mess,” Bennett says. “Managing a creative child can also be tough if you don’t spend a lot of time with creatives, nurturing that creativity, but also teaching them how to clean up after themselves.”
Bennett was a member of the New England Patriots team that won Super Bowl LI. He considers the creation of this animated TV series to be equal to winning a Super Bowl.
“It is my creative Super Bowl. So, it is like I’m almost a two-time champion,” Bennett says. “The only difference is that this is something I could do for the rest of my life.
Martellus sees Hey A.J! as an invitation for families to recognize the power of imagination in everyday life. “The shenanigans between dad and daughter, that’s very much our reality,” he says