This Paragraph From An Ex-NFL Player Explains A Lot About The Dolphins Bullying Fiasco
Richie Incognito
Ex-Miami Dolphins player Lydon Murtha wrote a column for Sports Illustrated about the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin bullying controversy.
In the column, he says what Incognito did to Martin isn't bullying because it happens all the time, all over the league.
He also says Martin is at fault for being shy on a team full of "grown-a** men." He claims Martin once refused to pay for a team dinner, for example, which rookies are typically forced to do. He implies that Martin's passive personality simply doesn't fly in the NFL.
The entire column serves as an artifact of the NFL's hyper-masculine culture.
If you want an explanation for how the alleged bullying of Martin went on for so long without anyone on the Dolphins stopping it, just read this paragraph from Murtha:
"What people want to call bullying is something that is never going away from football. This is a game of high testosterone, with men hammering their bodies on a daily basis. You are taught to be an aggressive person, and you typically do not make it to the NFL if you are a passive person. There are a few, but it’s very hard. Playing football is a man’s job, and if there’s any weak link, it gets weeded out. It’s the leaders’ job on the team to take care of it."
Men. Testosterone. Hammering bodies. Man stuff.
That's the micro-society within which this controversy took place. It's not the same as the outside world — where any employee would be immediately fired for, say, calling a co-worker a "half-n*****."
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