Miami Dolphins Players Harassment Case

[RockOn]

I'm with Snowy. Unfortunately, it won't happen. Boys will be boys. Dicks rule.

The American public (only my opinion) is a little too overly-hyped about their football. "Hit him, get him ... rah rah ..." If support became watered down, I don't think these pricks would get away with breaking the law like they do now. (Not all are pricks.)

I had to attend a meeting at our main building a few weeks ago - me and a bunch of guys. After sitting there for 10 minutes listening to the previous weekend's game play by play, I excused myself and did not return for half an hour. Now, when I enter the room for a meeting with the same group, they shut that shit down and we get our business agenda underway.

If you are reading this, you probably think I hate football. Not true. But frankly, I would rather play it with friends than watch it. I have a pretty decent arm- strong and accurate.

I just get tired of listening to men at work and am so glad when the season is over - only for that one reason. It is too much for me.

[Kobi]

It is bugging me when I hear Martin's teammates take issue with the way he handled the situation. More than one has said things like....he should have kept it in the family and he should have dealt with it like a man. Very much blaming the victim kind of responses.

Also makes me wonder what type of socialization and experiences males are subjected to in the quest to "turn them into a man". I'm thinking there is more going on than I as a female would ever know.

And, more stuff is surfacing about the bizarre brotherhood bonding and rookie hazing in the NFL that is disturbing:


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Richie Incognito stands accused of bullying Jonathan Martin and, as you might expect, is almost universally condemned. But, as you might not expect, some NFL players criticize Martin, too.

Denver Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton thinks Martin broke the code of the locker room by leaving it.

"Everybody in the NFL knows that when you're a young guy and when you're with the O-line you've got it the hardest," Knighton says. "I mean, that's been going on for a while. ... I don't know where they crossed the line at; maybe (Incognito) said something personal.

"I feel like, as players, when it is player-to-player, it can be handled as players. It can be addressed. I don't think (Martin) should have gone outside the team and expressed how things are going in the locker room."

That's not only a player perspective. Duke professor of sports psychology and sports ethics Greg Dale thinks it is a male perspective.

"I was teaching my class at Duke to a group of undergrads, and we were talking about this very thing in class," Dale says. "And the comments from several of the young men were, 'Well, he really needed to man up. He's a man, and you've got to handle that on your own. He shouldn't have walked away.' And that's the core of the problem right there."

Hank Nuwer, associate professor of journalism at Franklin College in Indiana, has written multiple books on hazing, including Wrongs of Passage. He says it is common in athletic hazing cases to blame the victim.

"Either he doesn't measure up or he's a sissy for reporting it," Nuwer says. "Or he doesn't understand that Incognito was just trying to toughen him up. It's always put that way."

Minnesota Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway thinks what some style as bullying is really more like bonding.

"The reality is, as a guy coming in, you have to understand the environment you're in and take it with a grain of salt, be able to dish it out as well as take it and just become part of that group," he says. "I don't know the situation (in Miami), what went on. But it happens. It happens all over the place.

"I think 'bullying' is strongly overused at every age in this country, starting at my 6-year-old. People are just rude. People are mean. I wouldn't call it bullying. I think it's just being ridiculous. But as a grown man, it's more of a brotherhood, ball-busting mentality than I think we're directly coming at somebody."

Traditional hazing in the NFL can range from having rookies carry shoulder pads to the practice field to having them sing college fight songs in the lunchroom to taping them to the goal posts after practice. New Orleans Saints rookies were asked to put pillowcases over their heads during training camp in 1998 and run through dorm hallways while 20 to 30 veterans hit them, some with a bag of coins.

Rich Gannon, a former league MVP, says rookies are often asked to foot the bill for restaurant meals while veterans order bottles of rare champagne and ring up cumulative tabs of $30,000 to $40,000, a high-priced version of the playground bully who steals your lunch money.

"You hear about (bullying) on the school yard, and now you're talking about grown men," former all-pro safety Brian Dawkins says. "A football team is like a family. You spend so much time together. You don't want your teammate to feel like an outcast."

Nuwer says Florida has the nation's toughest law against hazing by students but a flaw in the law is it doesn't mention adults.

But we are talking the workplace" in this case, Nuwer says. "As glamorous a job as an NFL player is, it's still the workplace. And this goes beyond hazing to a kind of harassment that technically could be violating certain labor laws if it holds true. (Or) it could fall under a hate crimes category for use of the N-word."

Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher, who is in his 16th NFL season, says Incognito's apparent use of that word is beyond the pale.

"Obviously, it shows racism, bigotry, to leave a voice mail like that," Fletcher says. "He probably said that to the guy's face. He was very bold. … That wasn't hazing. That was flat bullying. … That right there was beyond the scope of anything I've seen that guys have done to rookies."

Gannon says he saw bullying in locker rooms in high school and less so in college and at his first pro stop in Minnesota.

Then I went to Kansas City where I didn't see any of it," he says. "Marty Schottenheimer created a great situation where older guys mentored younger guys. Then I went out to Oakland, and I almost got sick to my stomach at how bad it was."

He describes a time when a group of defensive players grabbed then-Raiders tight end Doug Jolley, taped him to the ground and covered him with Icy Hot and baby powder while punching him.

"I walked in, in front of this, and I flipped out," Gannon says. "Guys were cheering and laughing."

Gannon says he stood up and put a stop to it: "There wasn't anybody else who had enough passion and character who was simply going to say, 'You know what? This is wrong. And it has to stop.'"

The trouble is that some players see some forms of hazing as little more than good clean fun.

"I've never had a situation where it got to the point where you needed to step in," Fletcher says. "Sometimes rookies kind of take things the wrong way. You might throw their clothes in the cold tub. They may get offended about that, so you have to calm the situation down. This was something beyond that."

The best way to stop locker room bullying, Gannon says, is having strong team leaders. The Dolphins had a six-member leadership council — and Incognito was a member.

"When (Broncos quarterback) Peyton Manning stands in front of the room, it's like E.F. Hutton, everybody listens," Gannon says. "There's not enough guys who have the balls to stand in front of a group of 60 other men to say, 'You know what? You guys are wrong. This has to stop.'

"But when you go up to that podium, the minute you do that, you're going to have half the guys in the room go, 'What he said is dead-on right, and I'm going to support him.' And the other half of the guys are going to go, 'Who's this guy? What's he talking about? What gives him the right to say that?' That's the problem."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...gnito/3449621/

[Martina]

Originally Posted by Brock

Boys will be boys. Dicks rule.

If that were the case, this never would have been made public. And even if this affects Jonathan Martin's football career (maybe he's better out of it), and even if more people defend Incognito than Martin overall, it happened. People will be more careful.

The fact is that it's a job, not a clubhouse. And even if it is a team sport and there needs to be team spirit, it's still a job. There are NFL and team policies in place to protect employees. My guess is that there will be more adherence to these polices after this.

You don't have to be a flaming dick to play football. Yeah, you have to be aggressive on the field. But you can leave it there. Most people do.

[Martina]

This was just little over a year ago. This guy clearly thinks he can get away with anything, and people are defending him.

Incognito, partcipating in the "Fins Weekend Golf Tournament" on May 18, 2012 at the Turnberry Resort and Hotel in Aventura, Fla., allegedly had been drinking and "used his golf club to touch her by rubbing it up against her vagina, then up her stomach then to her chest," according to the report. "He then used the club to knock a pair of sunglasses off the top of her head. After that, he proceeded to lean up against her buttocks with his private parts as if dancing, saying 'Let it rain, Let it Rain!' He finally finished his inappropriate behavior by emptying bottled water in her face."

The volunteer said several people including an event sponsor witnessed it but did nothing, so she told her supervisor, who told team security, who said they would handle it. But she told police all she got was an apology from former Dolphin Nat Moore, so she called them because she wanted one from Incognito.

"She felt like he didn't care and thought the whole incident was in fun and games," the report says. "Other people apologized for him, but not him."

The volunteer told Local10 she couldn't discuss the report because she signed a confidentiality agreement. The Dolphins refused to comment.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/r...s%3Aansfoxrel2

[Martina]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200...ATL_newsdriver

Should evidence exist that Incognito was acting at the behest of one or both of his superiors, we'd be getting into "A Few Good Men" territory. Essentially, we might be looking at a situation in which authority figures in the organization ordered a player with a history of anger issues and mental instability to carry out a Code Red on a player struggling with issues of emotional stress, and the player in question complied in his own, untidy way.

[Laidbackgrly]

damn grow up already be a man . people get tired bullies isnt that suppose to change after high school really how old is this man he isnt even in school this is pro football team be a professional and set a standard for the kids who look up to them great role model! roles eyes

[Cin]

AlterNet Comics: Keith Knight on Richie Incognito

The big guy is just misunderstood.

[Medusa]

I've been out of the loop with the news for a few weeks but am kinda fascinated with this story. I think I also saw something the other day about Incognito being investigated in a child abuse case? I might be remembering that wrong but needless to say, it's bizarre.

I read an op-ed referencing Incognito being "shocked" that his "best friend" would be offended by this.

Here's the thing, I've also read that Incognito is not considered (or maybe those were his own words, I can't remember) a "meathead" and was at least semi-intelligent. It's mind-boggling that anyone with an ounce of intelligence would either not get how those words and actions could be offensive to someone or that an intelligent person would believe that he didn't have at least some insight into his own behavior.

Oh, and just for the sake of comment, I think it's ok to feel a lot of disgust for a person's actions being racist or sexist, but I don't think it's necessary to wrap their obese body into those negative feelings.

[Rockinonahigh]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

AlterNet Comics: Keith Knight on Richie Incognito

The big guy is just misunderstood.

This guy definatly needs help from a profssional for a long time,anyone who would talk that way to anyone, friend or not,is really missing quite a fue bricks' shy of a full lode.Shurely pro sports can police the player who act in this disspicable way.