Bullying tarnishes NFL
No players standing with Dolphin Martin
The NFL is a sausage. It is among the biggest sausages in the world, bedecked in bunting and streamers, banners and colours. It is a sausage with military flyovers and television contracts and ever more lavish stadiums, and it is delicious. People cannot get enough of this marvellous sausage, produced in 32 flavours, each with their own name and distinct packaging. Sure, some versions of the sausage are awful. Cleveland sausage, for example. Buffalo sausage hasn’t been good in what seems like forever. Oakland sausage always tastes weird. And the less said about Jacksonville sausage, the better.
But overall, the product gets more and more popular every year. The only real problem is that we keep finding out more about how the sausage is made. The new thing is the case of Jonathan Martin of the Miami Dolphins, who was apparently bullied and abused by fellow offensive lineman Richie Incognito, and maybe others. There are profane, racially charged and threatening voice mails, tales of borderline extortion — according to the Miami Herald, “veterans using the younger players as ATMs” — and an allegation of a physical attack. More ugly details will surely come.
There are even allegations that Incognito’s father anonymously patrolled message boards alleging that Martin had previously attempted suicide. There are layers, nuances, and an awful lot of people willing to blame Martin for not being able to deal with it.
It seems like a high school of giant powerful sociopaths, run as a gladiator academy, and one boy with Harvard parents with some issues who didn’t belong. The Miami Herald reported the Dolphins asked Incognito to “toughen up” Martin, a second-year secondround pick; Pro Football Talk reported that when Martin’s agent complained about the treatment, Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland recommended that Martin fight Incognito. An NFL personnel director told Sports Illustrated’s Jim Trotter, “I think Jonathan Martin is a weak person. If Incognito did offend him racially, that’s something you have to handle as a man!” Others echoed him.
Players? Nobody is standing with Martin. Former Dolphins offensive lineman (and Incognito’s friend) Lydon Murtha wrote for theMMQb.com, “What people want to call bullying is something that is never going away from football.” Miami offensive lineman Bryant McKinnie said, “if you had all these problems, maybe this is not your occupation.” Former offensive lineman and concussion advocate Kyle Turley, a thoughtful man, told Los Angeles Times he was given Incognito’s role when he played, and while Incognito may have gone too far, he understood the role. “It’s absurd for the real world to accept this, and nobody should,” Turley said, “but this is not the real world. This is football.”
This is football. Not every locker-room is the same — Marc Trestman banned any form of hazing in the Bears locker-room when he arrived — but it sure seems like the NFL seems to have convinced itself that this is part of how warriors are made, how men are convinced to hurl themselves into a present and future filled with pain. The U.S. Marine Corps, by the way, has a no-hazing policy,
This is how the sausage gets made. The NFL’s 20- year work in suppressing and distorting the science of concussions, which have become a gaping maw of horror into which people like Junior Seau vanish. The amount of pain players endure. (Jason Taylor once told Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald he played with a catheter from his armpit to his heart due to a staph infection, hiding the catheter under his arm with tape.) Bountygate. By the way, this week legendary Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett was one of three men who became the first living ex-players to be diagnosed with the neurological disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy. We don’t want to know how football is made. But we’re learning.
Last week, this space went 6-7.
As always, all lines could change. THE PICKS Philadelphia (pick) at Green Bay
Nick Foles threw for seven touchdowns last week, so he may keep the starting job when Michael Vick comes back. In Green Bay, Aaron Rodgers fractured his collarbone, which means Matt Flynn, who was paid $14.5-million US by two teams after one great Green Bay start in 2012, has a tryout. The circle ... may be complete. Pick: Philadelphia Seattle (-5) at Atlanta That NFL fantasy football commercial with people on players’ shoulders? A meat grinder. Browns running back Trent Richardson? Traded. Falcons receiver Julio Jones? Out for the year. Atlanta QB Matt Ryan? Directing a 2-6 team. Just watch your back, Demary- ius Thomas. Just be careful out there. Pick: Seattle Detroit (pick) at Chicago
After 18 days Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is already back from the groin injury that was supposed to sideline him for four weeks. Teammates are apparently calling him superhuman, and Wolverine. Maybe this will finally quiet the dimwit chorus that questions his manhood all the time — no, probably not. Pick: Chicago Carolina (+6) at San Francisco
Has anybody noticed that the Panthers, at plus-98, have the third-best point differential in the NFL? They lost their opener to Seattle 12-7, lost 24-23 at Buffalo, and lost 22-6 at Arizona — weird — but have won their last four games by a combined score of 130-48. Against junk teams, but still. Pick: Carolina Denver (-7) at San Diego
In other offensiveline men-quitting-the-team news, third-year Denver Bronco John Moffitt walked away from over $1 million US this week, and retired. As he told the AP: “I think it’s really madness to risk your body, risk your wellbeing and risk your happiness for money.” What a crazy thought. Pick: Denver Miami (-1) at Tampa Bay
So what we have here is the mediocre team engulfed in the bullying scandal with a racial component versus the winless team with the insane throwback drill sergeant coach who may have leaked drug information about the quarterback he released? Enjoy, Monday Night Football. Pick: Miami The rest Jacksonville (+12) at Tennessee Pick: Tennessee Buffalo (+3) at Pittsburgh Pick: Pittsburgh Oakland (+9) at N.Y. Giants Pick: Oakland St. Louis (+9.5) at Indianapolis Pick: St. Louis Cincinnati (-1) at Baltimore Pick: Cincinnati Houston (+2.5) at Arizona Pick: Arizona Dallas (+7) at New Orleans Pick: Dallas Byes: New England, N.Y. Jets, Cleveland, Kansas City Last week: 6-7 Season: 62-67-3