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Second-year NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin walked away from the Miami Dolphins last week, citing harassment he suffered during his time with the ‘Fins organisation for his departure.
He has now brought allegations of player misconduct against Miami and specific players, and he will likely be placed on the reserve/non-football illness list by the team.
While it’s reported he was mistreated by numerous members of the squad, the primary instigator was veteran offensive guard Richie Incognito, whose racially-charged attacks appeared to be the tipping point for the 24-year-old tackle.
The attacks included a particularly abusive voice message, which was reported by ESPN and known to both the NFL and Dolphins organisation.
Incognito was suspended, justifiably, and by some reports has played his last snap with the team.
But while the entire event is more than a little surprising, perhaps most alarming are the ill-thought out and knee-jerk responses to Martin’s departure from the team.
Both responses betray the NFL ‘culture’ as callous, thuggish and just plain dumb.
The first argument claims this kind of thing is commonplace in the NFL, and hazing of the younger players by the established veterans is a perfectly normal part of NFL culture.
The argument goes that this happens to every NFL player, and Martin should have just toughened up and taken his medicine like everybody else.
Of course, this is idiotic. Hazing is absolutely a part of the NFL, or most team sports. But that usually entails a player having to carry the veteran’s pads at training camp, being duct-taped to the goal posts, or having to pay for his offensive team’s expensive dinner.
I don’t recall any newcomers to a team being called a “half n—– piece of shit” as part of this ritual.
I don’t recall any player being expected to pay for everything Martin was reportedly bullied into paying for.
Clearly a line was crossed, so let’s not heap this abuse under the ‘hazing’ category. It’s much more than that.
The other argument is Martin should have stood up his ‘bullies’ and punched his nemesis in the face.
Suddenly the narrative shifts from Incognito’s unacceptable abuse of a fellow teammate and becomes an indictment of Martin’s own character.
Why didn’t he stand up for himself?
Why didn’t he just say ‘no’?
Why didn’t he just punch his bully in the face?
That’s exactly what Hall of Famer Mike Ditka suggested.
“When this would happen in my time: you take the bully and you kick his butt,” he said during an ESPN panel.
“I mean you go to ‘fist city’ with this guy.”
Oh please.
That’s a great idea. Punch a 300-plus pound teammate in the face. The one notorious for bad sportsmanship and dirty plays. The one with friends in the locker room and voted onto their leadership panel.
Only in the NFL could violence be seen as an acceptable solution to a workplace issue.
In any case, he did try and have it stopped. The issues were reportedly made known to the ‘Fins head coach Joe Philbin early in the spring, during training,
He tried to get the issue with some of his teammates resolved early, but it continued two months into the regular season.
What else was he supposed to do?
There is an issue with NFL culture that somehow insists their players be tough, both physically and mentally, while essentially forgetting this is a workplace, and any workplace, including one in pro sports, should not feature this kind of harassment.
Jonathan Martin couldn’t work in that environment and got out before it ruined him.
It was a bold move, one almost unheard of in the NFL. Rarely does somebody walk away from an NFL team like this.
But that’s not what some people are saying.
Some instead chose to blame the victim, rather than looking at the problems within their own organisation.
And that’s not something the fans, Dolphins organisation or the NFL can be proud of.
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