Miami Dolphins' offensive guard Richie Incognito has certainly been in the sports news lately. Further, he's been suspended indefinitely by the team while they, the NFL, the players union, and the usual horde of scribes and talking heads continue to dig deeper into exactly what happened between Incognito and offensive tackle teammate Jonathan Martin.
Several days ago, Martin took a leave of absence from the Dolphins, apparently because he felt threatened/bullied/intimidated by Incognito. Indeed, an electronic communication from Incognito to Martin, which has gone "viral", includes several expletives, something about slapping Martin's mother, and even the dreaded "N" word itself.
Quick physical stats on the two.
Incognito is 6-3, about 320 pounds, and 30 years old.
Martin is 6-5, about 310 pounds, and will turn 24 next month.
We're not talking about a Hulk Hogan vs Barney Fife scenario here.
These are both very big dudes.
In a perfect world, it shouldn't matter what color either of them are, but we all know this world is far from perfect and such biases continue to raise their ugly heads in certain quarters. It just so happens that Incognito is caucasian and Martin is an African American.
Per the current norm, the allegations and innuendos were quick to fly. Incognito's a racist, a bigot, a bully, etc. In their ever-vigilant quest for the next juicy story, scandal, etc., most of the media was quick to pounce on Incognito. Given he has a checkered past, it's quite understandable they would draw conclusions and start firing away. Tar and feather the bum and run him out of town -- or at least the NFL. And that may yet happen. It's the typical knee-jerk reaction we have seen so many times over the recent years before all the facts are in. Everybody's an arm-chair prosecutor these days.
But hang on. Something else seems to be emerging. Some former NFL players, and even members of the current Dolphins, are coming to Incognito's defense. And guess what? They're black. Surprise.
I think I can state with a reasonable degree of certainty that not too many people reading this post have ever been privy to what really goes on behind the scenes in an NFL locker room. Certainly not yours truly. Only the players really know. Not coaches, not owners, not the fans, and surely not the media, although they would typically have you believe otherwise. How the players interact privately amongst themselves is a domain known only to them. Could it be that many words and actions that mainstream society has come to abhor are not only commonplace in some NFL locker rooms -- but are accepted amongst the team as being just another part of the brotherhood ? The honest answer is -- we don't know.
Back to Incognito and Martin. Incognito is a 9 year NFL veteran while Martin is basically a rookie. Historically in the NFL, rookies have been subjected to a hazing process by their older teammates. Carry pads, bring donuts to meetings, chase phantom free turkeys just prior to Thanksgiving, perhaps pick up a dinner tab for the vets, etc. This is nothing new.
The operative questions would seem to be -- when does it become too much, and where should the line be drawn? Is shaving a rookie's head out of bounds? Should a cap be placed on a dinner tab? More to the current Incognito/Martin snafu, should the language police have the final say over internal team communications that get leaked to the public?
It should be noted that, so far, the usual gang of suspects that typically swoop in to further fan the flames when an "offender" and a "victim" are different colors (you know who they are) have yet to make an appearance. Indeed, the NFL and players' unions themselves are taking a wait and see attitude.
Unlikely as it seemed when the story first began to break, there are now even NFL players questioning Jonathan Martin's behavior more than that of Richie Incognito's. There are those that seem to think Martin "wimped out" when he walked way from the team because he felt "intimidated".
Yours truly has no idea how one intimidates a guys that stands 6-5 and weighs 310 lbs, especially a teammate when there's a whole locker room full of other big tough guys looking on -- but unless your name's Corleone and an "offer you can't refuse" comes into play -- it just doesn't seem logical. And I'm pretty sure Don Vito hasn't been around for a while.
For that matter, nobody seemed to know anything about this whole mess until Martin took his hike from the Dolphins and the voice mail, text, whatever, from Incognito was brought to light.
So what have we learned from all this so far? A few things. The media will continue to jump head first with guns blazing into any story they think can be sensationalized. Whatever truth may eventually come out down the road doesn't matter. It's all about NOW. Though they may be proven wrong later when all the facts have finally come in -- you'll seldom, if ever, see them look back over their shoulders and apologize for wrongfully trashing somebody. By then, they're on to their next hot scoop. I recently read a sports columnist say he would not vote for Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz ever being elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, because Big Papi was once "implicated" in the whole "performing enhancing drugs" baseball scandal a while back. Nevermind that Ortiz, and others, were eventually exonerated from such baseless allegations -- much less found guilty -- the attitude remains. It's akin to someone being accused of child molesting. Even if the accused can prove they were 100 miles away if and when it occurred, they will be forevever tainted. He/she must have done SOMETHING wrong. Though they were totally innocent, people will always look upon them with a suspicious eye. A sorry state of affairs indeed -- not to mention totally unfair. But that's where we seem to find ourselves these days.
Along the same line, there will always be the hordes of lemmings that believe anything they hear or read from the media. Most times this involves bad things, because "feel good" stories aren't nearly as popular.
So how will this all play out with Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin? Is Incognito a racist bigot that has gone way over the line even by NFL locker room standareds? Or is Martin just a big mama's boy that wimped out when it came to the harsh realities of what goes on behind the scenes in the NFL? Hard to say, but it's a good thing that the people who will ultimately make such judgments are taking their time before jumping to any conclusions.
Yours truly thinks this story has a few more chapters that have already been written but, like any good novel, it's usually a good idea to read it one page at a time as it unfolds to fully grasp it.
This whole scenario may turn out to be a big deal, or much ado about nothing. How about we let it play itself out before we decide how it's supposed to end?
Is that asking too much?
One thing is for sure, though.
Mr. Incognito is anything but these days.............
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