Bears' Bennett brings awareness to the huddle

For someone who has yet to catch an NFL spiral when it counts, Earl Bennett holds some lofty goals.

"If it's (catching) 40 balls or 100 balls, it doesn't matter," Bennett said. "Anything I can do to help us get to the Super Bowl and win."

More intriguingly for someone who's in the NFL at all, Earl Bennett holds some lofty personal goals.

Put another way, he didn't attend Vanderbilt just to become the SEC's all-time leader in catches.

After turning pro a year early and becoming the Bears' third-round pick in 2008, Bennett needs approximately 20 hours to finish up his double major in sociology and educational studies. But that's just the start of the Birmingham, Ala., native's intellectual pursuits.

"I plan on being a professor, so I really want to get my Ph. D," Bennett said. "I know the NFL has a lot of different services to help me get my Ph. D., so I'm definitely going to get into those classes once I finish up at Vandy."

That might not be all.

An African-American athlete with an interest in Sociology and becoming a professor automatically brings up comparisons to Dr. Harry Edwards, the former athlete who's now Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Cal-Berkeley.

Edwards led the movement known as the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which most famously led to the black power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos during a medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics.

More recently, Edwards supplements his teaching with consulting work for the San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors.

"Any time you see someone that had great success like that," Bennett said, "you want to idolize them and put it all in and try to be like them - or be better, actually."

This is not to suggest Bennett will be launching protests or speaking out any time soon. It's just to note there's more in the 22-year-old's mind than counting the hours until his first NFL start in Sunday's opener at Green Bay.

"I'm excited about my degree and getting my Ph.D and I love football," Bennett said. "As long as I just keep going with football, afterward I hope I can do (the other things)."

What stokes this drive inside Bennett? For starters, his older brother, Grant, was a Div. II defensive back at Miles College who's currently pursuing his own Ph.D.

"What's funny about it is, my brother always wanted to go to Vandy," Bennett said. "Man, he's smart."

Once Earl Bennett landed at Vanderbilt after being a three-sport star at West End High School in Birmingham, he took a freshman course entitled "Race, Sport and American Culture" taught by Dr. Gilman Whiting.

Among other things, Whiting reaches out to athletes to become more than a stereotype. Jay Cutler, Bears offensive tackle Chris Williams and Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price are among the other recent pro athletes to take Whiting's classes.

"Earl at the time was hit with, 'Another black guy at Vanderbilt. He's just here for football,' " Whiting said. "He was an 18-year-old, wide-eyed, wanted to be tough, but not sure how.

"He sat in the classroom that fall, always twisting his hair. To be honest with you, I pulled my teeth out every day, 'What are you doing?' "

"I had some dreads," Bennett recalled with a laugh. "Yeah, I used to swish my hair all day in there. I think that used to irritate him."

But Whiting and Bennett got over it, especially as Bennett's eyes widened to the bigger picture.

"I pulled him and two other guys out of class and talked to them one-on-one, man-to-man, brother-to-brother, to see where their heads were," Whiting said. "Earl basically decided to listen. It woke him up. He started seeing the business part of (sports)."

Now Bennett refers to Whiting as his mentor. During his sophomore and junior years - as well as last spring when he returned to Vandy after the season to knock out 15 more credit hours - he visited Whiting's office on a consistent basis.

"Earl has somewhat of an advantage in this system (as an athlete)," Whiting said. "We jump the bar the higher it's set. We put the (darn) thing on the ground, why should you jump?"

Whiting, who's visiting Chicago on Sept. 18 to speak to the Associated Colleges of Illinois on "Preparing Teachers who are Culturally Competent: If not now, when?" envisions Bennett using his celebrity and cranial capacity to help others.

Only after he earns his Vanderbilt diploma, of course.

"He would be good in a community social service capacity," Whiting said. "He's not arrogant, he's humble. His demeanor is his friend.

"He could take the toughest group of kids and talk to them."