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Jonathan Martin, offensive tackle of the Miami Dolphins, caused a stir this past week by alleging he was abused and bullied by teammate Richie Incognito
Bullying is an issue more readily associated with teenage girls than huge 300lb grown men. However, this last week or so the NFL has become a platform for anti-bullying campaigners after an incident involving two members of the Miami Dolphins offensive line.
The story broke on Monday 4th November, when second year offensive tackle Jonathan Martin stormed out of the cafeteria at the team’s training facility and didn’t return. Martin allegedly went to sit on a table with some of his teammates to eat lunch, and as he did so his teammates got up and left him to sit alone. Martin’s response was to slam his tray of food onto the floor and leave the Dolphins facility. The offensive lineman checked himself into a treatment facility the same day, and has not returned to the team since.
While it was initially believed that this was an isolated incident, details have since emerged to suggest otherwise. Martin informed the Dolphins organisation on Sunday 10th of alleged player misconduct involving fellow offensive lineman Richie Incognito.
Martin reportedly alleged that Incognito got Martin to contribute $15,000 to help finance a trip to Las Vegas by some teammates last summer, even though Martin preferred not to travel with the group. Rather than go, Martin simply gave Incognito the $15,000 fearing the consequences if he did not hand over the money.
Martin also sent the Dolphins voice mail recordings on Sunday night of messages Incognito sent to Martin which included offensive, racist and threatening language. ESPN Insider Adam Schefter reported that Incognito is heard on the recordings saying things such as ‘“(I’m going to) slap your (expletive) mouth. (I’m going to) slap your real mother across the face (laughter). (Expletive) you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”
It shouldn’t really be surprising that these two guys are involved. Martin is supposedly a kind-hearted man, the type of person that “bullies usually go after” according to his High School football coach. Incognito, on the other hand, has grown a reputation over the years as being one of the dirtiest, more aggressive men in the NFL. The ninth year player has the résumé to back that up too.
Richie Incognito has long been seen as one of the bad boys of the NFL, but these latest accusations by teammate Jonathan Martin are by far the most serious of his career (Copyright: Sun-Sentinel.com)
The issue has transcended sport, landing on the front pages of US newspapers as well as the back. The allegations coming from Martin have created a nationwide conversation on the nature of adult bullying and leadership in the NFL.
With the lens of every sports show in the country pointed in the direction of the Miami Dolphins during the saga, credit must be given to head coach Joe Philbin and the Dolphins for their response.
As soon as Jonathan Martin informed the team on Sunday of all that had allegedly transpired between himself and Richie Incognito, the Dolphins wasted no time. They suspended Incognito indefinitely that night for ‘conduct detrimental to the team’, and dismissed him from the team facility. Philbin followed that up with a strongly worded press conference, comparing the situation to sending his two children to school nearby.
“When they walk in those doors, I have a certain expectations,” the coach said. “That the administration, the teachers, the staff are going to create a safe atmosphere where my children can learn and develop as people. And this is no different. I take this responsibility very seriously.”
With words like bullying and racism floating around the media, it was crucial that Miami respond strongly and seriously to the allegations. As well as the suspension, the team also asked the league to conduct an external investigation into the matter, which was exactly the right way to respond. Kudos to the organisation on that. NFL Punter Chris Kluwe agrees:
The greatest credit, however, is reserved for Jonathan Martin himself for speaking out against the alleged bullying. Martin has paved his own way in the NFL, not worrying about potentially being labelled as “soft” even with the national media spotlight on him.
In doing so, Martin has made locker-room conduct a prominent issue. His stand is forcing the NFL to take a much closer look at the atmosphere in NFL locker rooms, and has helped pull back the veil on what goes on behind the scenes.
Following Martin’s lead, other players both past and present have spoken out to condemn their own uncomfortable experiences as youngsters in the NFL. Warren Sapp told the ‘NFL: The Coaches Show’ Podcast that in his rookie year he was tied up on goalposts every day by second and third string veterans after practice and left there until the other rookies came and cut him loose. He said that what he endured made him ‘hate his teammates’ to the point where he ‘didn’t want to play with them’.
Rich Gannon told a similar story on CBS Sports Network’s ‘NFL Monday QB’ about his time with the Raiders: “This culture…existed out there with older players bullying younger players. At one point, I remember coming into the locker room my very first year there, and I saw a group of defensive lineman had our young tight end tied up with tape. They were punching him. They were putting icy-hot and baby powder with water on this guy. They were trying to demoralize the player.“
Actions like this need to stop in the NFL, and the first step on the road to achieving that is to get the message across to every single player in all 32 teams that this behaviour is completely unacceptable.
Jonathan Martin, to his enormous credit, has begun that process by speaking out. The message is there now, being shouted from every media outlet in the country: bullying cannot be tolerated in an NFL locker room any more than it can be tolerated on the school playground. It goes against every possible notion of being a teammate and of being a decent human being.
To survive in an NFL locker room, you obviously need to have thick skin. In that team environment, pranks will be played. Rookie hazing will be practiced as it always has, shaving rookie’s heads, forcing them to sing their college songs and carrying the veteran’s pads after practice.
NFL players were in fact quick to defend the practice of hazing rookies once this story became public. Former Dolphins running back Ricky Williams said locker-room hazing is in “the nature of the game.” Minnesota Vikings defensive end Jared Allen agreed on Tuesday, explaining that it’s “a sign of respect” toward veterans and a “rite of passage” for rookies.
But there comes a point when such actions cross a line. It stops becoming the harmless ‘boys will be boys’ pranks and becomes something else entirely; it becomes abuse tantamount to bullying. Chris Kluwe attested to that on twitter:
That is what seems to have happened in Miami’s locker room. New Orleans Saints tight end Ben Watson believes as much, telling NFL Media’s Andrew Siciliano on Tuesday that the Dolphins’ situation is “the worst I’ve seen and heard… It’s very disturbing, and there’s no place for it in our league.” Former Patriots defensive end Willie McGinest said Tuesday on NFL Network’s “NFL Total Access” that Incognito’s comments were “non-football related” and had “nothing to do with trying to better your teammate.“
Willie Colon also agreed. The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive lineman told the New York Post:
“There’s a line for making a guy earn his rite of passage and then there’s another line of harassing a guy or making him feel degraded…I was always taught [to] respect the practice squad guy to the star guy — treat them all the same. Anytime a guy feels disrespected and feels like he can’t go to work and feel comfortable, you can’t have that in the locker room.”
The way to avoid that line being crossed lies with the veteran members of the football team. The stuff that goes on in the locker room needs to be policed, the way Ray Lewis used to police and lead the Baltimore Ravens locker room. There needs to be at least one enforcer in the dressing room; a man in a leadership role who does not allow things to go too far. Warren Sapp held that position during his playing days in Tampa, as did Willie McGinest in New England.
Leaders, like retired Baltimore Ravens captain Ray Lewis (#52), don’t ever allow the antics in their locker room to cross the line
Every NFL locker room has at least one of those guys, and it is up to them to make sure that things don’t ever go too far. When Rich Gannon saw what was going on in Oakland, he “flipped out” as he put it, letting the players know that what they were doing was unacceptable.
Richie Incognito was in one of those leadership positions in Miami, which makes the whole thing even worse. He sat on the six-player leadership council, and was supposed to be a role model and an ear for the younger players.
But Richie Incognito is not the only one to blame in this drama.
Granted, if what is alleged to have happened is true then Incognito has failed not only Jonathan Martin but the entire team by what he has done. He was a leader in that dressing room and he used that power to mentally beat down on a fellow teammate in a vulnerable position.
But that leadership council consisted of six men, not just Incognito. They are all equally at fault for what has transpired, and they have all let down Jonathan Martin. In fact, every single veteran on Miami’s playing roster who allowed Incognito’s actions to happen and didn’t speak up failed Martin in their silence. Speaking up is the key to stopping bullying, whether it’s on the playground among 6 year olds or in an NFL locker room with grown men.
If Martin endured harassment for an extended period of time and veteran teammates knew about it or observed it, they are enablers, and they are as much at fault as Incognito is. Rich Gannon wouldn’t have let it happen. Warren Sapp wouldn’t have let it happen. Ray Lewis wouldn’t have let it happen.
But the Dolphins players did let it happen, and that is the most discouraging part of this entire saga. An NFL locker room is a brotherhood, and this was one occasion when the family let one brother down. Nobody stood up for Jonathan Martin until he stood up for himself.
Taking the wider picture, this might be a good thing for the sport. Perhaps the culture in NFL locker rooms can finally begin to change from the dumb frat-house culture it has been for so long.
But for now, this is certainly not a good thing for Jonathan Martin. When you become a part of a sports team, you are supposed to stop being ‘me’ and become part of the ‘we’. The Dolphins players made Martin feel like a ‘me’, like an outcast within his own team. No player should have to feel like that. No player should be tormented the way he has been over the last year and a half. No player should have to take abuse, not just of himself but of his family.
There are a lot of people in Miami right now who should feel very, very ashamed of themselves.
