Richie Incognito and the Hypocrisy

We encounter bullying at almost every phase of life. Its always unfortunate, but its indeed a part of engaging with people. Whether its a schoolmate, a relative, church member, or in the nation’s most recently noted case, a teammate.

We are all familiar with the extensive coverage on the Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin situation in Miami. What was supposed to be “rookie hazing” turned into something that should not transpire in any work setting. The actions of Incognito have been broken down seemingly all day by major networks and even more so on social networks. What has rarely been talked about was the work setting itself.

First off, lets take a look at the particular sport. Football is literally a gladiator’s sport. You cannot play this sport and not have some sort of a mean streak. Knowing this, why are we shocked that things like this go on? Its rather hypocritical of all of us to expect for these guys to be the nastiest and most physical on Sundays (sometimes Monday, Thursday, and Saturday) and then expect them to be model citizens the rest of the week. For example, its almost like dog fighting. Just like the dogs, most of these players are trained to be ferocious in order to beat their counterpart at a very young age. That is not going to be turned off just for the sake of being nice.

Now, lets look at the overall workplace. We have all heard stories on the “hazing” that goes in with the rookies. Thats about it, stories! We have no clue of the actual environment because the majority of us have never been a part of that particular culture. Those athletes make more money in their signing bonuses and 1st contracts than most of us even have a chance on making in a lifetime. Knowing this, they are simply going to behave differently. They are essentially rich, sometimes barbaric, gladiators so its almost fitting that their version of fun differs from ours just a tad.

Knowing all of this, its hypocritical of the NFL to try and tame these lions and to pretend that it actually cares about the “hazing” that goes on with the rookies. If there is anything that we know about the NFL is that it cares more about its perception than it does actually protecting its players. We’ve seen the NFL actually use replacement refs instead of settling and getting them on the field.

Incognito was clearly out of control and the NFL should take some action instead of just the Dolphins. I’m assuming that will happen at some point in the near future. The bottom line from all of this is that there is a culture in place that we cannot ignore. They simply cannot all be gladiators on gamedays but then turn right around and pretend they don’t have to collide into more massive guys the very next week. What can be done about it? Probably nothing! Its been a part of the league for probably longer than most of us will or can even know.

The only thing we can agree is that the actions were egregious. However, we don’t know the extent of those actions. Lets just hope Jonathan Martin doesn’t lose a career and a livelihood. Hopefully the players will act accordingly after this incident. I’d prefer to just know that the “hazing” exists but never actually hear about it. Somewhere I’m sure we can all meet in agreement that the NFL has always felt this way!

University of Mississippi graduate in Broadcast Journalism. Huge lover of sports with a bigger love for people.