I'm a Dolphins fan, still.
If you haven't heard the details coming out about this Richie Incognito story, keep up the good work. I wish it would go away. Check that, I wish it never would have happened, and by that I mean I wish the Dolphins never would have signed Richie Incognito in the first place. But that's neither here nor there. I simply just don't want questionable character guys on my team. I can sleep much easier being a loser with good guys on the team, than winning with a bunch of jerks (and worse).
If you don't know Richie's history, you should look it up. If you don't know the facts of the story (as they are being told right now), you should look it up. It's all over the place. I'm not going to rehash the story. I'm merely giving my take on what's going on. That's it. It's a guess, which is all anyone else is doing right now. The truth, in its entirety, may never surface. As Adam Shefter said last night, "In any story like this, there are really three sides. He said, he said and the truth, which is somewhere in the middle." That's probably the case here. But I'm going to speculate as to what I think is going on based on what I know, and knowing what it's like when a group of guys are together all the time and bag on each other without mercy.
A college dorm is the closest I've ever been to life in an NFL locker room. I'm not saying it's the same, but it's the same principle. There are guys who become a family and they rip on each other all the time. They prank each other. One of my roommates used to think it was funny to light bottle rockets and toss them into the shower while I was in there. Hilarious. But that's how guys operate. And we say stuff to each other that is way outside the realm of good taste. Guys pick at each other, and someone always crosses the line. And that's what I think happened here.
You can disagree and that's ok. I'm just saying in my experience, we could say some really mean things to each other and know that if we weren't such good friends, we could never get away with that. The problem is that not everyone could take it, or could only take so much for so long. Then, if someone crossed the line and you didn't say anything or fight back, it continued, with the thinking be that everything was ok. I do believe that's what happened here. I could be wrong and the evidence may come out to blow my theory out of the water. But as of right now, that's what I believe happened.
Now, under no circumstances would I use the language Incognito did. I believe the "n" word is off-limits, and I think anyone who uses it is a racist. And I get that there are circumstances where a white guy and a black guy are closer than brothers and that word is ok between them. That's between them. I'm standing by what I said. I hate the word and wish racial slurs of all forms were wiped from our vocabularies. The voice mail Richie left is particularly incriminating, if for no other reason than because the context is missing. I don't believe Richie was going to slap his mother or kill him or defecate in his mouth. Again, this is crude language to say the least. But guys rip on each other, and I've definitely heard worse.
That being said, we live in a culture where bullying is taken seriously at all levels, as it should be. I just think that Martin tried to keep it all to himself and he ended up just reaching his breaking point. I cannot believe that if coaches and higher ups in the organization had known the depth of what was going on with Martin that they wouldn't have done anything. There are attorneys on retainer who get paid big money for keeping companies out of dangers like this. Listen to what the other Dolphins players are saying. None of them are saying this is bullying. Every interview I've heard is that everyone got the same treatment and it was nothing out of the ordinary for what goes on with a football team. I'm not saying I condone any of it. I just get it. I've got other opinions, but it doesn't matter. I hope I never see either of these guys in a Dolphins uniform again. Richie is an idiot and Martin is a quitter. And I believe that no matter what evidence comes out after this, I will always see them through that lens. And once again, the Dolphins are a laughing stock, but this time it's more embarrassing than 1-15 ever was.
