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Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito is recognized by many as the poster child for bullying in professional locker rooms, but since teammate Jonathan Martin’s self-imposed removal from the team on Oct. 28, another side has emerged that perceives Incognito as the circumstance’s victim.
Since being drafted by Miami last season, Martin has started every game for the Dolphins after spending years at Stanford University protecting Andrew Luck’s blind side. Now, however, he is an alleged victim of vulgar comments, physical attack, verbal sexual threats against his sister and a questionable voice mail including racial slurs and a cited death threat.
In his own defense, Incognito explained that he viewed these acts as fairly normal locker room banter and nothing more.
“All of this stuff coming out, just, it speaks to the culture of our locker room, it speaks to the culture of our closeness, it speaks to the culture of our brotherhood,” Incognito said in an interview with Jay Glazer of Fox Sports. “And the racism, the bad words, you know, that’s what I regret most, but that’s a product of the environment, that’s something that we use all the time.”
Incognito’s claims that this is simply part of the NFL culture is another concerning issue, as ESPN columnist Jason Whitlock detailed on Olbermann last Friday.
“I think that what is going on in the Dolphins locker room, and quite possibly in other locker rooms, is a culture and an environment that has gotten out of hand,” Whitlock said. “Rookie hazing had been a part of all sports for a long time, but I just think that the culture has been corrupted. … Things in Miami, clearly, have just gone way too far.”
A recognized student of the game, Martin has been praised by his organization for his diligent study of game and practice video. However, while Martin certainly meets the physical standards of professional football, his emotional qualifications have been put into question.
Serving as just one of the many players around the league who have voiced their opinion on the situation, long-time New York Giants safety Antrel Rolle presented his thorough opinion.
“Is Incognito wrong?” Rolle told Jason Howerton of the Associated Press. “Absolutely. He’s 100 percent wrong. No individual should have to go through that, especially in their workplace. But at the same time, Jonathan Martin is a 6-4, 320-pound man. I mean, at some point and time your need to stand your ground as an individual. Am I saying to attack, go fight him? No. I think we all understand we can stand our ground without anything being physical.”
While Rolle calls for a change in Martin’s strategy, Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, who was a teammate of Martin’s at Stanford, defended Martin’s handling of a tough situation to Howerton.
“A lot of people might look at Jonathan Martin and think that he’s soft because he stepped away from the game, and say, ‘Why don’t you just fight him?’” Baldwin said. “Well, if you look at it with common sense and being logical, what options did Jonathan Martin have? He could fight Richie Incognito. He could go and tell on the players, which we know in the football locker room doesn’t go over too well. Or he could remove himself from the situation and let the proper channels take care of itself. And I think he made the intelligent, smart choice without putting himself or Richie Incognito’s physical abilities in danger.”
The interaction between Martin and Incognito since the story was released has been confusing to say the least. While many would expect that a certain degree of hard feelings would be brought about in the situation, a text message to Incognito from Martin after a Dolphins win would prove otherwise.
“Wassup man? The world’s gone crazy lol I’m good tho congrats on the win,” Martin wrote in the text message. “Yeah I’m good man. It’s insane bro but just know I don’t blame you guys at all it’s just the culture around football and the locker room got to me a little.”
As brow-raising as that text seems, Dolphins teammates appear even more flabbergasted, as summarized by Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
“If you had asked Jon Martin a week before who his best friend on the team was, he would have said Richie Incognito,” Tannehill told Howerton. “The first guy to stand up for Jonathan when anything went down on the field, any kind of tussle, Richie was the first guy there. When they wanted to hang out outside of football, who was together? Richie and Jonathan.”
Martin is still excused from the team, and Incognito was suspended by the Dolphins for conduct detrimental to the team shortly after the voicemail in question was released.
While the ongoing saga between Martin and Incognito takes new twists and turns with each new day, one constant is the inward examination among all organizations, not just the NFL, as this topic remains hot.
Oklahoma Christian University is no exception.
In an environment where even the resemblance of hazing is forbidden, the “initiation” of freshman, typically, was not unheard of in past years.
The baseball team – as a rite of passage for all freshmen in past years – would shave the heads of the youngest additions to the team, but as senior Caleb Price explains, never used it to be demoralizing.
“When we would shave the freshmen’s heads, it wasn’t so much to ridicule them as it was to initiate them,” Price said. “I loved all of the guys that I buzzed and I purposefully chose my favorites because to me it was not about humiliation as much as it was about initiation.”
Senior Chelsie Flagg described much of the same for women’s soccer regarding initiation over harmful hazing.
“We never did actual ‘initiation’ for the freshmen, but we always had the underlying ‘freshman do this,’” Flagg said. “For our practices and games the freshmen are the ones who get the water and get all the equipment needed and are the ones to put it away. As you get older the less you do, and on away trips freshmen are always doubled up in seats while seniors get their own. It’s just a rite of passage.”
As this most recent harassment case in the NFL proves, there is a fine line between initiation and locker room banter and detrimental harassment. While bullying is sometimes the harsh reality, Incognito claims that the root of the problem lies in communication, nothing more.
“This isn’t an issue about bullying,” Incognito told Glazer. “This is an issue of mine and Jon’s relationship where I’ve taken stuff too far and I didn’t know it was hurting him.”
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