With a lot being said about the ongoing bullying case in the NFL involving the Miami Dolphins, and specifically, Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin, I figured it’s about time I weighed in.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Richie Incognito is being blamed of bullying Jonathan Martin to a point that led Martin to leave the Miami Dolphins and seek mental health help at a hospital nearby. There has been a lot of new information coming out, almost on a daily basis, changing the story significantly. One hotly debated piece of information that came out after the original news broke was a text Incognito sent to Martin including a racial slur. There has been a lot of side-taking by other players, former players, and players not even not he team. Most all of them (including the African-American players) are siding with Incognito. According to many of these player reports, what Incognito did is “part of the NFL locker room culture.”
There is A LOT of information out there regarding this story, and as I previously mentioned, the information keeps pouring out all the time. However, with what I have seen, and what I have formulated in my head as my opinion is such…
Both sides are wrong and both sides are right.
Richie Incognito, a player who reportedly was bullied all through his life pre-NFL, who has now become the bully himself, needed to, and did, apologize for his actions. That being said, he, and the rest of the NFL, need to realize that they are role models (no matter how debated that subject is) and need to realize that the actions they take are going to be mimicked by younger generations of football fans, creating a virus of bullying and racism.
At the same time, the NFL is an alpha male machismo culture. These are grown men who have grown up in the game and in this environment. I honestly could not picture football where everyone is nice to each other and polite all the time. There have been numerous players who have come out saying “much worse things have been said”, “getting in people’s heads is part of the game”, and “amping players up takes place in the locker room, huddle, on the line, or even via text”. It’s fully understandable that this is not new to the NFL. Even just watching on sunday there are times where you can hear microphones that weren’t well covered picking up the vulgar slurs and yells at one another. As one player said “These players are grown men. Bullying is not what it is in the NFL anymore. If the players can’t handle it as grown men, then they shouldn’t be in the sport.” Although I do agree with what this player is trying to say, I understand how offended a player could become.
That brings us to Martin’s side. Although not much has been said in support of Martin inside the NFL, there has been a lot of support from fans. The Miami Dolphins organization has sent out a notice that they are looking into the matter and feel bad for Martin, but that is the extent of it. Martin has a case, because there is no need for players to continue to harass a player if they have made it known that they are offended by the verbal attacks. There is clearly also no room for racism in a sport that is made up of many different races. Outside of fines and suspensions, and rarely firings, there isn’t much a team can or will do to squelch this behavior. A good example of this would be Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper’s racial slurs off the field caught on video earlier in the year. His apologies seemed legitimate and he went to counseling for his misbehavior while he was suspended and even got support after coming back from his african american teammates, but it clearly shows that things like this will continue to happen.
I think the best course of action is currently being taken by the NFL in investigating the entire situation. The fact that Martin has texted and stated that he doesn’t blame Incognito personally makes me think that this will blow over in the end. But with new information coming out all the time and stories changing every day I can’t be sure.
The main take-away is that players need to respect each other and speak up when they feel they are being abused beyond their limit. Communication should be stressed inside the locker room and to couches and staff that could help avoid these situations before they become the mess that this one has.
Related articles
- Richie Incognito Interview: FOX’s Jay Glazer Lands First Sit-Down Interview With Alleged Bully (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Brett Favre on Incognito-Martin: That’s just an NFL locker room (profootballtalk.nbcsports.com)
- Bullying Scandal Continues To Embroil Miami Dolphins (npr.org)
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