In the last few days, I've heard a number of current and former players say that it's difficult to take anything the Dolphins players say at face value right now because the players are in CYA mode. That along with contradictory statements some of them have made (at first somewhat admitting to having seen stuff but blaming Martin for being soft but then saying that they didn't see anything and they thought these guys were best buds) is setting off a lot of BS detectors. Seriously, if I were an attorney advising Dolphins' players, I'd be telling them to say nothing at all and let the NFL handle the investigation, because the more they talk, the worse they make it for Incognito, Martin, and the Dolphins organization. Right now it's like a bus heading for a cliff and everyone seems to be pushing on the gas pedal.
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
It's not a complex story once you realize that an NFL Locker Room is subject to the EXACT SAME RULES as your workplace.
You can think what you will about workplace discrimination laws, anti-harassment laws -- you can think we've become an overly PC society and that these laws are an annoyance -- but they exist and there aren't special exemptions to them for places of business that just happen to be bursting at the seams with meatheads and jocks.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
nmculbreth (11-07-2013),RedsBaron (11-07-2013),Redsfaithful (11-07-2013),The Operator (11-07-2013),traderumor (11-07-2013)
The laws apply, but what constitutes a hostile workplace is certainly going to be judged differently in an NFL lockerroom than in a quiet corporate cubicle farm.
And this story is complex well beyond any legal question. That's probably the least interesting part.
The other thing to remember about all these statements coming out of the Dolphins locker room is this:
Everyone involved is thinking about their careers.
Public support for Icognito? Saying that it should have been handled "in house" or the like? What else would you expect of guys who will, in the future, be in different locker rooms or working for different GMs and Coaches? Guys in the Dolphins locker room don't want reputations as snitches, leaks, or guys who are disloyal to their superiors / teammates. They don't want reputations as being thin-skinned, or as a guy who you can't trust to bring in because they'll flip on you the minute a camera is in their face or the situation gets hot.
Take everything being said with a pound and a half of salt.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
Chip R (11-07-2013),Revering4Blue (11-07-2013)
Do you really think you can trust anyone associated with the Dolphins' organization right now? Have you ever been a part of group of young men that was involved in a scandal? Now that some of the team's key players have voice support for Incognito, do you think any Dolphin player who might have a different view is going to stick their neck out and risk getting ostracized like Martin has been?
I was a member of a fraternity back in the late '80s-early '90s when a lot of hazing scandals were occurring and the Dolphins players are exhibiting the classic behavior of fraternities from that era. You get a few mouthpieces for the organization trashing the victim and claiming everything was just for fun and the victim just overreacted. The victim never showed any signs of not wanting to participate and was laughing about it beforehand. Meanwhile, inside the frat house, pressure whether overt or subliminal, is put on anyone who might view things differently to keep quiet. Anyone seen talking to outsiders about the issue are immediately under suspicion. The number one rule that supercedes any notion of law and justice is, don't talk against the brotherhood or you will be out.
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
The Operator (11-07-2013)
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
It doesn't justify it though. I was a member of a fraternity when a number of hazing scandals went down at our school and at some nearby universities. In one instance, our school's hockey team was suspended for a year and later disbanded for duct-taping a freshman and forcing him to drink until he ended up in the hospital. In another, a chapter of my fraternity at a nearby school, one we had partied with multiple times, was deactivated for spanking pledges, forcing them to act like dogs to the point of eating dog food during initation week, and urinating on them. Our university and our national fraternity instituted zero tolerance policies. Some of our older members and alumni were upset by this because they felt that everyone should go through hell during initiation because they had to. Although we adapted and changed our own ways, we still had old guys coming around who would start giving pledges trouble, to the point where one alumnus was told not to come back. In my time with the fraternity, I've heard horror stories about how pledges were treated in the '70s and '80s to the point where I'm amazed no one died. And they would talk about how things would escalate with each new pledge class, with the newer brothers trying to outdo the older ones in how they tormented pledges. Eventually you have to break the cycle and put a stop to it.
Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!
Slyder (11-08-2013)
No, it doesn't but that's how it is. Like I said before, without the voice mail, there would be a great deal more support for Incognito than there is now. I'm not saying that the racist thing made a mountain out of a molehill but it did make it more of an issue if it had been just Martin having to pick up tabs at restaurants or contributing money for a trip to Vegas he didn't go on. The voicemail is why the mainstream media is on this issue like a tick on a dog. Otherwise it would have been confined to ESPN and sports talk radio for a few days then they would have moved on.
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