Unfortunately, police brutality is a real issue and the most sobering fact is, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a celebrity or not. Ol' Kanye said it best in “All Falls Down” with, “Even if you in a Benz, you still a n*gga in a coupe/coop.”

Michael Bennett of the Seattle Seahawks recently experienced this harsh lesson firsthand while in Las Vegas to watch the Floyd Mayweather/Conor McGregor fight, according to an open letter the footballer posted to Twitter.

In the letter, Bennett claims that after the fight, he and several others heard gunshots.

Although there were other people around, Bennett says that Las Vegas police officers approached him with guns drawn. The defensive end says one officer placed a gun near his head and proceeded to threaten to “blow my f*cking head off."

As this was happening, another officer allegedly struck him in the back, knocking the wind out of him, before putting handcuffs on him, tightened to cut off the circulation to his hands.

“All I could think of was, ‘I’m going to die for no other reason than I am black and my skin color is somehow a threat,'” Bennett wrote. “My life flashed before my eyes as I thought of my girls. Would I ever play with them again? Or watch them have kids? Or be able to kiss my wife again and tell her I love her?”

Bravely, Bennett spoke up, "I kept asking the officers, 'What did I do?' and reminding them that I had rights."

The Hawk says that the officers told him to "shut up" in response.

Bennett also alleges that the police officers let him go once they realized he was a professional football player without giving him any reason as to why they used the excessive force against him.

TMZ has posted a video of the encounter, in which Bennett can be heard yelling, “I wasn’t doing nothing, man! I was here with my friends! They told us to get out. Everybody ran.” 

“I have always held a strong conviction that protesting or standing up for justice is just simply, the right thing to do,” Bennett wrote in the letter. 

In hopes that he can keep this from happening to someone else, Bennett is considering taking legal action against the officers, and has hired Oakland civil rights attorney, John Burris.

The Washington Post requested a comment from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department; they later tweeted that the "case is under investigation." 

Overall, Bennett appeared to be shaken up by the experience and reiterated that things like this are why he chooses to join Colin Kaepernick in not saluting the national anthem during games.

“This fact is unequivocally, without question why before every game, I sit during the national anthem…no matter how much money you make, what job title you have or how much you give, when you are seen a ‘n*gger,’ you will be treated that way.”

las vegasMayweather vs McGregorMichael BennettPolice brutalitySeattle-Seahawks