Other than this guy being a personal friend of Incognito's, the main problem I have with this article is that this guy was cut after the pre-season of 2012. That means he spent roughly 2 months around Incognito and Martin of the 15 months since Martin joined the team. That doesn't seem like a long amount of time.
I believe him, for the most part. I think his description is probably the most accurate so far. I also believe in Incognito's past. He's been described as a maniacal bigot by people that have known him at essentially every level. His history of fighting teammates and getting into screaming matches with coaches is far more extensive than a singular pre-season fight. His history of being a dirty player on the field also speaks for itself. I think he's most comparable to Adam Jones. When he was Pacman, nobody defended him. Would you ever ask Pacman to take somebody under his wing, even today? This guy is nothing but a POS. He's the exact opposite of what the NFL wants its image to be. As far as the locker room goes - I know a lot of the type of stuff that goes on in a locker room. I played a decent amount of football in my day. I never made it to the NFL, so I don't know exactly what goes on when there's insane amounts of money involved, but as a teammate, I don't know if I could condone all of this crap that's coming out. Maybe that's why I'm not in the NFL, though. As far as my ultimate opinion on this matter, I place the blame on the coaches and the management. I have a hard time believing that they knew nothing about what was going on. I blame them for letting Incognito try to be a motivator or a leader of that team. I blame Incognito for the things he's done, and his past is finally catching up to him. He may have squandered away millions of dollars for acting like an idiot. I guess I can blame Martin a little bit for not confronting Incognito. I can absolutely see why he did not. It seems as if he tried to handle this in a civil, gentlemanly way, although he was not necessarily in a gentleman's world. At the same time, I applaud Martin for separating himself from the situation. Maybe he's not cut out for the NFL. A lot of people aren't. But I can't possibly hate on the man for seeking help in the situation. There are so many people out there that have a hard time doing this sort of thing.
Exactly. This guy is trying to be objective, but his opinion is obviously skewed. Still, I think it's the most accurate depiction of what's going on here. I don't think that says a lot though.
But it's probably much more accurate than what the uninformed media is throwing around. They sensationalize everything. I'm sure this story is no different.
I trust what current players are saying more than this guy, by far. Although I think the situation was largely hidden from view, which explains why team leaders like Tannehill are so shocked by all this. It's possible a lot of this stuff was taken out of context and therefore looks really bad on Incoginto's part, but given his history, I find that unlikely. Martin may be cut from a different cloth, but it also sounds like the Dolphins lockerroom is an absolute toilet. For example, can you see something like this going on in the Texans' lockerroom? I sure as hell can't. Can you see Rick Smith or Gary Kubiak instructing players to fight each other? Not on your damn life.
He far from took the high road...he put his teammates and coach on full blast...via his agent. It really seems he didnt even try getting the attention of teammates...Heck they dont even know that this was the extent of the situation. And players around the league are genuinely interested in seeing the repercussions. While Martin genuinely dealt with a total knucklehead, he jeopardized his NFL career. The fact that teammates are sticking up for the knucklehead only proves the point that Martin failed to use the right channels of communication and management. If he did, he should provide the info that he contacted Coaches, management or other personnel and informed them of the situation. Since nothing like that has come out, it leads me to believe that Martin didnt handle this well at all.
Martin told the GM + got advice from Dolphins General Manager Ireland to just retaliate + punch Incognito
That is a different story, but that's exactly what I can see happening in an NFL environment. I don't, not in an NFL environment. But it was ok to those players in their locker room. That's what the writer is telling you. The NFL locker room is a different animal. You say everything must be taken in context. The context of the NFL environment is that some of this stuff is allowed. They are doing interviews with the players. They don't care! That's all I'm trying to make you understand. We are not dealing with IBM or some professional work environment. We are dealing with a bunch of highly aggressive men who get paid to beat the crap out of each other each week. This is a gladiator environment.
Sounds like Martin has anxiety, or is a little awkward in social situations. Guys prey on that - because they may not understand why. DD
Ridiculous? In the "real world" you are 100% right. However we are not talking about a culture or world that 99.9% of the people live in. In professional sports and especially in the NFL the "code" and attitudes are different. Management and coaches have an attitude in general very similar to those the players hold. You simply do not show weakness, you stick up for yourself, you don't talk things out, you don't go to management and no matter how right you are, if you complain or bring it to the attention of a coach or management you are the one causing the problem. The "meathead" mentality is strong and from a more practical standpoint the coaches and front office view themselves as too busy to worry about what they view as complaining. I guarantee you in private the front office in Miami is NOT blaming Incognito, but blaming Martin for breaking the code and getting them in trouble. Ultimately I believe the public pressure will force the coaches to comdemn the actions of Incognito, but it won't be sincere. Likewise the players will eventually back off defending Incognito out of fear... but I think it is obvious how they really feel.
Can Incognito and Martin just come forward and defend themselves? All of these "sources" are annoying. We have Dolphins players saying one thing, and the media saying another. Someone is either exaggerating this, and really taking one side of the extreme.
Wait, this guy says he doesn't have a dog in the fight, but he went to college with Incognito? dafuq? And he looks like another fat tattooed douche cut from the same exact cloth as his boy. Even if Incognito was 100% innocent in this (which he isn't), I still wish nothing but the worst for him. It would simply be karma finally catching up to his fat ass.
Martin had issues with several Fins _____ _____ _____ _____ <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>At some point very, very, very soon expect Richie Incognito to file grievance vs <a href="https://twitter.com/MiamiDolphins">@MiamiDolphins</a> for losing his weekly $235,294.12 salary</p>— Alex Marvez (@alexmarvez) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexmarvez/statuses/398522041105534976">November 7, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Incognito is in final year of 3-year, $12.9M contract extesion signed in March 2011. Becomes free agent in offseason.</p>— Alex Marvez (@alexmarvez) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexmarvez/statuses/398522243619123200">November 7, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Have at it. He's only given up the most sacks for a G in the NFL this season. But yeah, other than that, what a tough BAMF!
Better than watching Wade Smith get constantly blasted in to the backfield every run play. He's worse than you think.
