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Seriously... Is there any more that needs to be said? I don't mind making a rookie put in for dinner, or make them wait for haircuts. Make them address all veterans as sir, or make sure they are the last to the water cooler....
Death threats and racist nonsense on a guy who's not even a rookie goes well beyond to me. Miami's entire culture needs to change I think.
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It sounds like the player that was the target of Incognito's conduct has kept the texts and voice mail(s). If the stuff being reported is true, Incognito's football career could be over.
"Multiple sources confirmed to ESPN that the following is a transcript of a voice message Incognito left for Martin in April 2013, a year after Martin was drafted:
"Hey, wassup, you half n----- piece of s---. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] s--- in your f---ing mouth. [I'm going to] slap your f---ing mouth. [I'm going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. F--- you, you're still a rookie. I'll kill you."
Sources tell ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter that officials from both the NFL and the Dolphins have heard the tape and have copies of the message.
Sources familiar with the tapes say these are terms Incognito used over time and were not isolated incidents, including the use of the racial epithet multiple times.
Sources also say Martin received a series of texts that include derogatory terms referring to the female anatomy and sexual orientation."
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Now it's coming out he threatened Adam Schefter (on Twitter of all things. How dumb can you get?) for reporting about the racist messages.
Seriously, how bad an person do you have to be for Belichick to put you on his Do Not Draft list?
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I am just glad the oak allowed 7 td passes. Finally a waiver wire move that worked.
This bullying stuff, really, they are grown men. Wyy dont they act like it?
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I'm changing my tune on this. The more I listen to other players, black and white, defend this, the more I second guess whether I should be mortally outraged. Here's the thought pattern.
Martin missed an OTA, the Dolphins coaches told Incognito to get him into the fold. So you've got Incognito riding you hard, alienating you, extorting you, and doing anything he can, but I'm betting there's a goal at the end of this that has nothing to do with a trip to Vegas being paid for. I'm beginning to really believe that if Martin turns at Incognito and says, "You know what, go fuck yourself." and follows it up with a phyiscal altercation, I think this all dissappears and Ritchie probably high fives him.
While this seems like I think this behavior is "cool" I should clarify. This type of behavior is only to be expected when you pay people top dollar to excel at physicality. Every Bears fan (and likely most NFC fans in general) were not sad to see Rodger break his collarbone. I'd bet you every defender thought, "Well this game and season just got a whole lot brighter for us."
Nobody is going to say that, because the fans are part of a different society, and one that is largely intolerant when it comes to crossing their perceived notions of civility, but civility has no place on an NFL line. Martin will likely never play for another team again for anything more than the league minimum. He doesn't handle adversity with toughness or violence, which is normally admirable, but in professional football where your job is to keep Suh from ripping your quarterback into pieces and leaving nothing but a bloody pulp on the field in his place.... It's a full contact sport, and "dirty" by any sense of the normal standard, and in that light, I don't think Incognito went that far outside the scope of the normal NFL way.
I'm sure this isn't popular, and yes Incognito is crazy, and he's certainly guilty as hell by my "computer programmer" standards of conduct in the workplace, but when black NFL players all around the league say he's being unfairly treated, you need to really stop a moment and consider that. You heard the voicemail right? How can that be "OK". Well, it's okay because it's the NFL, and you better be able to hear ANYTHING and deal with it. You better be able to deal with someone pushing you around, manhandling you, threatening you, and basically wanting to kill you, because that's going to happen every Sunday. If you offer someone millions to protect someone from another guy being paid millions to hit/hurt that guy.... What do you think the culture is going to become? Dirty as hell, but that's the sport. The crime here was this becoming public, because it's going to cause a public outcry, and NFL teams are going to have to figure out a way to keep guys in a frothing frenzy without stepping over the spirit of "fair play", which is a complete bullshit myth in the NFL. There is no such thing as fair play.
When someone has a tragic injury, the players will band together, because that's truly never the goal. You don't want someone unable to walk for the rest of his life because you broke his neck. Anything short of that however is fair game, on the table, and probably threatened every game.
I'm not saying Incognito should be given a total pass on this, but I'm not on board with crucifying anyone involved without a SERIOUS investigation into the culture of every NFL team, because I'm betting it's a lot closer to the norm than most people realize.
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This situation isn't going to end well for Martin. To a man, it appears the Dolphins players are standing behind Incognito.
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Yeah, more and more this is just getting wierd.
Brian Hartline (black) said Martin played the voicemail earlier in the year in the locker room for everyone and was laughing his ass off about it.
.... Say what?!?
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Sorry, I'm even going to disagree with the independent report. I was a football player (kinda, I was the kicker). I've been in that locker room. I've seen kids kill themselves trying to make a team, and kill themselves trying to win. I've seen them make plays, get amped, bounce around, look for more. I've seen them cry when they were carried off the field hurt. Not because of injury, because they couldn't keep playing, and it was a big game...
Unless you've been in a hockey or football locker room, padding up with contact athletes who are putting it on the line out there in a big way, you don't understand the "alpha male" mentality. The rules are different there, just like Basic Military training. Name me another job where you get screamed at and fucked with for the first three months of your employment, at ALL times... It's a different job, requiring different skills, and it cannot be held to the same standard of an office administrator.
Fors, you may still be into the NFL, but I gotta tell you man, this shit lost me 2 years back. I follow on Yahoo headlines a little bit to see who's playing well... Try to watch the super bowl, find I don't really care mostly... It started with excessive contact calls to the QB, seriously restructuring pass defense, dicking with the kickoff because players get hurt on returns.... Celebrate? Fined. Do anything different with the uniform? Fined. Question anything? Fined. Touch the QB's helmet? Fined.
I'm sorry guys, I grew up watching Lott and Atwater. Singletary, Offerdahl, Long, Taylor.... Legends
like Tatum... "If you don't want me to kill your receiver, don't throw to my f---ing side of the field..."
This is just becoming a sport of complete pussies (can we say pussies now? I can't call them most other names because those are banned by a politically correct society that's hell bent and determined to fuck up anything fun in life...). Listening to a 325 lb NFL OFFENSIVE LINEMAN cry about bullying is a lot like listening to Danica Patrick bitch about how her Lamborghini Gallardo just isn't functional enough.... WTF?!?!?! You're playing fucking football you little lip quivering bitch, go hit someone... wtf....
Now... If I said that at my job? Sure, I'm outcast. But I have yet to have to throw myself in front of a 300 lb demon in order to prevent my coworker for getting murdered by him. That's just not my job. If it was, I'd understand that physicality, strength, and warrior mentality are what is required, and anything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger. I'd also ask for 5 million a season.
Good luck with whatever you do in life Martin, but I can almost fucking guarantee you'll never be on an NFL football field again. Miami wasn't that far out of the normal for football treatment. Sure there's some hazing, sure they are vulgar and nasty, and if you're a banker, that's shocking. But these guys aren't bankers. They bleed together every weekend, and aren't really expected to cry like toddlers everytime their diaper fills...
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"Fors, you may still be into the NFL, but I gotta tell you man, this shit lost me 2 years back."
I'm not renewing my season tickets. I'll still watch, but I'll be paying a lot more attention to the college game.
I'm not sure if you read the report or just a story about the report. I didn't read the whole thing, but in one of the stories I followed, I found this text to be the perfect summary for this entire situation. This is a text from Jonathon Martin to his mother (of all people)
"I figured out a major source of my anxiety. I'm a push over, a people pleaser. I avoid confrontation whenever I can, I always want everyone to like me. I let people talk about me, say anything to my face, and I just take it, laugh it off, even when I know they are intentionally trying to disrespect me. I mostly blame the soft schools I went to, which fostered within me a feeling that I'm a huge pussy, as I never got into fights. I used to get verbally bullied every day in middle school and high school, by kids that are half my size. I would never fight back, just get sad & feel like no one wanted to be my friend, when in fact I was just being socially awkward. Most people in that situation are witty & quick with sarcastic replies, I never have been. I'm awkward around people a lot of the time because I simply don't know how to act around them."
I couldn't believe that an NFL lineman sent this text, but I was absolutely floored when I realized he sent it to his mother.
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I read the story about the report, but I read the texts that went back and forth from Martin to Incognito, and I saw NOTHING that looked like Incognito hated him, treated him badly, etc. I bust my FRIENDS balls almost as bad.... Frequently enter a room with a friend, and say, "What's up hooker? You have a dick in your mouth today, or are your kids going to starve?"
Now.... That being said, I realize this is a very very crazy way to convey love for your fellow man. That same dude had surgery yesterday, and I called him to see if he was okay and needed anything... That's the pro's and con's of being a male friend of mine.. I will make fun of you at any possible opportunity, but if you need something, I got you.
I saw a lot of that in the text transcript... To your above point, the end result of this is going to be the NFL trying to cater to this element of humanity, and I don't believe that anyone this socially inept needs to be concerning themselves with an NFL career any more than they need to be a spokesman for a global company... It's just not a business built for people who are shy and unable to communicate. Course I'm the jackass that will say giving a firefighter job to a woman who can't carry 200 pounds down a ladder simply because she's a woman (and you have to hire a woman) is a dumb move... I refuse to let go of common sense while being as objective as I can about people and all their variety.