Okay, let me set this up by stating the obvious: I've never been a professional athlete. Hell, other than intramurals at CMSU, I haven't participated in any sort of organized sports since I was a Sophomore in high school....all those years ago.
That being said, I'm going to weigh in on the recent "hot topic" issue of bullying in professional sports that came to light because of the issues with Jonathan Martin and Ritchie Incognito of the Miami Dolphins. I intentionally waited to write something about it until now because I knew when this broke and still believe now that we do NOT know everything that happened in this situation, and I still think something's going to come to light that will shift the direction of the entire story.
For those who don't know, Jonathan Martin, a second year offensive lineman for the Dolphins, walked out of the team facility and left the team about a month ago after an incident in the lunch room. He later claimed that he'd been bullied relentlessly for a year and a half by the offensive linemen on the team, and provided texts and a voicemail from Ritchie Incognito that support his case. The evidence, by the way, reads as very racist, bullying language on the part of Incognito, and he's been punished by the team by being suspended indefinitely without pay.
The responses from the Dolphins have been as interesting as they are confusing, while the rest of organized sports have responded pretty much in the way I would have expected them to, which was to say that while hazing is in and of itself okay, they would have NEVER let it get to the level the Dolphins apparently did. The Dolphins players, on the other hand, seem to be supporting Incognito, and have made it known, albeit in a veiled way, that Martin will not be welcomed back to the team after this incident.
What the hell happened here? These are grown men who get paid lots of money to play a game. I'll grant you that it's a violent game with a short career expectancy, but it's still a game these dudes play for money. How did it get to this point?
Let me start with the beginning of the issue, then work my way out.
Hazing is a long practiced expectation of the professional locker room. Hell, if you've ever watched a season of the long-running program Inside Training Camp that follows an NFL team through it's preseason, you've seen rookies get taped to goal posts, taped up and thrown into ice baths, and expected to pay for and deliver food to the veterans. These incidents are presented in a very matter-of-fact way, and the rookies in question, for the most part, don't protest the treatment. They understand that there's a certain expectation made of rookies, and they understand that they're expected to take what comes, roll with it, and move on to being a valued member of the team.
Now, if you think it only happens in locker rooms, let me hip you to something: Hazing Happens Everywhere.
I'm serious.
You think I'm kidding? Think back to when you were the new guy on your job. Did you wind up getting the bulk of the "shit jobs"? Did your co-workers tell you it was because you were the "new guy", and they reminded you they'd had to do them when THEY were new?
Guess what? You've been hazed.
Now, I'll grant you that typing reports for the senior members of your staff or being the designated errand runner isn't quite the same as having yourself taped to a goal post and having sports drink dumped over your body, but it has the same effect: you're put through the fire to test how you react, and those who can roll with it are the ones who eventually succeed and earn the respect of the veterans.
I've heard stories of members of our military who've hazed and been hazed, as well as those in the trades. Hell, I remember when I was a Boy Scout, we'd have the new kids go Snipe hunting on our first campout. The guys who'd try to call us out on it would be the ones who got the most abuse, while the ones who actually went looking for a Snipe would just get laughed at.
It's the same thing, gang. It's just a different environment.
And let me tell you something else: Hazing is okay.
It is, when it's doesn't go too far. Hazing, when it's done in fun, can be a team building exercise all its own. The strength of character and bonding that occurs from it happens faster than almost any other team building exercises I've ever studied or been involved in, and I've been through a lot of them.
So, where the hell did this one go wrong? And, more to the point, who's to blame?
While we don't know the whole story yet, the first question can be answered pretty simply:
Jonathan Martin, in his mind, believed someone was going too far for too long, and decided to blow the whistle on everything.
The second question, while easier to answer, is a bit more complicated.
Everybody's to blame on this one. Even Jonathan Martin.
"How can that be?", you ask. "He's the one who got abused. How can he be at fault?"
Simple. According to everything we know about the situation, he NEVER told any of the coaches or members of management about what was going on or about his feelings towards it. Nothing that has been revealed to this point indicates that he even tried to.
To me, that's what puts him at fault in this situation. I'm not saying he had to be a tattle-tale, running to the coaches for every perceived slight, but if he truly felt like he was being pushed to the breaking point, he owed it to himself and his teammates to go to SOMEONE on the team in a position of authority and report what the issue was.
Now, it may very well be that he didn't do it because he didn't believe he could trust any of them, and if that's the case, heads should be rolling throughout the organization. That's where I think the coaching staff and management of the Dolphins is to blame.
According to several published reports, the Dolphins coaching staff instructed Incognito to "toughen up" Martin. Okay, let's break that down a little bit, shall we? We're talking about a six-foot plus, three hundred pound plus, professional offensive lineman here. It's pretty obvious to me they didn't mean for Incognito to toughen him up physically, so it tells me they believed he was "soft" mentally.
Now, exactly what the hell does THAT mean? My guess is that they (the coaches) didn't believe he had enough of the "killer instinct" needed to, in their eyes, succeed in the NFL. That's about the only thing I believe Incognito would be capable of even attempting to help Martin with, since I'm surprised the guy's smart enough to tie his own shoes. (Incognito, not Martin. Martin's a pretty damned smart cookie.)
If that's the case, it speaks to the savage mentality still present in the professional game. It's been believed for a very long time that if you don't have the killer instinct, you're dead meat. Now, like I said, I never played in college or the pros, so I don't have a clue as to whether or not that's the case. What I DO know is that if you don't love your sport and place it above everything else in your life, there's no way in Hell you'll make it to that higher level. That, besides an obvious lack of any sort of athletic talent, is why I was a football manager my junior and senior years of high school instead of a player. While I LOVED the game, I didn't love it with the intensity needed to make it the primary focus of my life. And, honestly, I have no regrets about that. My knees and back are bad enough as it is. I can't imaging how jacked up they'd be if I'd kept playing any longer than I did.
On top of the "toughening up" order to Incognito, the fact that Martin didn't go to management with his concerns opens up another possibility: he didn't believe they would help him. That's another problem. If you've got players on your team who don't believe they can come to you with their problems, you're in danger of possibly losing your team. Think about it like this: who were the best bosses you've ever had? Weren't they the ones who cared about YOU, the individual, instead of YOU, the number? Of course they were. Same principle in the locker room. You have to believe that there's SOMEONE there you can trust. If you don't have that, the situation's screwed, and there's no coming back from it.
Like I said at the top: we're nowhere NEAR the end of this story yet. In my gut, I know something's coming that will finally, hopefully, shed a little more light on just what the hell went wrong.
Until then, I blame everybody, because everybody's to blame.
The Fat Guy
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