WTF is going on with the Dolphins?

[CornerThree]

I know ESPN is ESPN but generally I like the majority of the former players and coaches that they have working for them. The way that these guys are talking about the type of behavior that Incognito exhibits are pretty telling. Everyone is blasting this piece of shit.

 

[Witz]

Perfect spokesperson :chuckles:

[video=youtube;Rc3lvSRFkJ8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc3lvSRFkJ8[/video]

 

[Damage]

The term blockhead comes to mind. Just a big, meathead blockhead, rah rahhing his teammates and banging locker with his helmet since pee wee league,

 

[caf]

Why the fuck did he bring up Martin's mom? I've kind of ignored this story because I just thought it was some ESPN fluff. This is ridiculous. He should be suspended for quite sometime.

 

[Soda]

If you made 20k forcing you to pick up a $300 tab would be equally as insane.

That's 5% of his salary for the year, it's absolutely insane to force someone to do that.

I'm not trying to say it is right, really. I just don't really have a huge problem with that myself. Let's not try to pretend that 5% of his salary and 5% of a poverty stricken are the same thing. Once you start making a certain amount of salary (well below 600K), that 30K stings a bit less. Johnathan Martin still has 570K to pay his bills and life... Oh, the horror. At the same time, a $300 dinner for a poverty stricken person (anyone making 20K) cuts into their ability to pay basic bills.

It's a matter of opinion and I do respect yours.

Would love to have seen someone slide Dez Bryant a 30k tab

Did you intentionally pick Dez?

At some point, Dallas Cowboys rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant was going to get his comeuppance. Teammate Roy Williams all but guaranteed that during training camp.

Bryant made national news in training camp when he refused to carry Williams' pads after practice -- bucking the trend of veteran NFL players hazing rookies. Bryant later said he didn't know about such tradition.

"I'm not doing it," Bryant said then. "I feel like I was drafted to play football, not carry another player's pads."

Williams excused it, saying then that Bryant, who received $8.3 million in guaranteed money from his rookie contract, would just have to take the team out to dinner and get him some new shoes.

Well, that dinner happened Monday night. The final tab: $54,896.

Bryant took the offensive players out to Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. Williams, however, made sure Bryant got the message, inviting defensive players as well.

And guess who was left holding the bill afterward.

"They got the young fella," said Bryant's adviser, David Wells. "What could he say? He had to pay it unless he wanted to wash dishes for a month."

Players ordered basically everything on the menu and even took home bottles of wine.

After checking out the 90-page wine book, it's anybody's guess if anybody took home a bottle of Chateau Latour for $9,000. It's also possible a few players ordered a bottle of PlumpJack Reserve for $600.

No word from Bryant or Williams about the evening ... yet.

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/news/story?id=5626300

 

[David.]

Sure, theres a difference between poverty line salary and 600k, but regardless of when I was making 70k or 15k a year, I wouldnt at all be happy paying 5% of that number in a single night. No chance in hell.

 

[Maximus]

Did you intentionally pick Dez?
http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/news/story?id=5626300

No wonder 80% of the NFL files for bankruptcy WITHIN 5 YEARS of retiring...

 

[Soda]

No wonder 80% of the NFL files for bankruptcy WITHIN 5 YEARS of retiring...

Well, yeah, but this is NOT a hazing issue. This is a terrible understanding of finances. Guys make shitty investments all the time and guys buy stupid shit all the time. Being around guys like Nevin Shapiro and learning the high-life is how the players fall into bad spending habits. They think they need the most expensive bottle of champagne to show off.

 

[CornerThree]

Pft now reporting this is likely a "code red" type situation. I'm Predicting now that Miami will have to clean house on their staff this offseason and Martin will get paid and released so that he can choose his next employer. They are mad Martin didn't participate in a "voluntary" workout.

 

[CornerThree]

No wonder 80% of the NFL files for bankruptcy WITHIN 5 YEARS of retiring...

I'm sure you've seen "Broke" 30 for 30. That thing could have gone Ken Burns length and still worked. Easily could fill 15+ hours with stories.

 

[Phills14]

Anyone else tired of this story? Incognito is trash and I'm tired of people talking about him.

 

[David.]

Tired of people talking about it, bumps the thread.



:chuckles:

 

[Stitches]

In the VM that Incognito left (which supposedly Martin openly shared with the locker room and laughed about), after he said "I'll kill you" he ended the VM with "Ok, call me back". FWIW, sure seems like the players on the team are backing up Incognito.

 

[The Oi]

The more I think about it, the more I think it's possible Martin was acting like what a reasonable human being would...but not really abiding by the rules of just taking shit as a rookie like you're supposed to. Yeah, what Incognito was saying was ridiculous and it's objectively ridiculous to pay $15k for meals. No doubt, it's stupidity.

But it's the stupidity that goes along with sports and it's stupidity that I'm fairly certain almost all rookies are put through. I'm also wondering whether Martin was even put through worse than other rookies were. If I thought he was put through the same stuff everyone else was, I'd have less sympathy for him. If the entire team REALLY was isolating him and truly shitting on his self-esteem, that's not acceptable. There's a difference between one veteran ripping on rookies and subjecting them to stupidity and an entire team treating a guy like he's lesser than as a person, making him feel useless and acting a certain way because of who HE is rather than what his role is...as a rookie.

Popcorn in a car, getting donuts and getting stuck with maybe a $5,000 bill or contributing like $5,000 to a veteran's trip to Las Vegas seems pretty standard. $15,000 sounds awful high, but the question is...did other rookies get subjected to the same shit? Did they take it in stride? Is this a standard in most sports that most guys are able to tolerate and have fun with? Has Incognito put everyone through the same shit? Have other veterans put them through the same shit?

Calling him a half-n*** piece of shit and insulting his mother is obnoxious and wrong. There's a context where those kinds of insults, if they're going back and forth and in a friendship with mutual respect MIGHT be passable. But I don't get the sense Incognito had any respect for Martin and that he was saying what he was saying to put him down rather than to have fun and expect the same treatment in a return.

Above all...does Martin have emotional or mental problems that he was being bullied about? Was he known to be a guy that was sensitive beyond your standard, "hey man, I don't like it when you talk about my mom. please stop," type of way. Or was he known to spiral into a depression and retreat from human contact when he was being insulted. If it's the latter, then people should be able to pick up on that and leave him alone. It sounds like he's not the kind of guy that would have been seeking negative attention either, but probably more introverted. Seeking negative attention, getting it and then blowing up about it is a lot different than seeking no attention, getting negative attention and then blowing up about it.

Will be interested to see the details continue to come out. Just my take at the moment without having the full story.

 

[Nicky]

I think that they're gay for each other.
That's what I think.