I won't get into whom is at fault, but I will say this, if I am an owner or GM I want NO part of Martin on my team. Those text messages do not help his cause.
Well yeah, Martin put out the first set of texts that painted Incognito as some sort of bully villain, so Incognitio eventually released the rest of them to show context. Incognito is an absolutely horrible human being, but in this case, he's not wrong.
I'd rathe have incognito. He's a tough ***hole and seems like of of those guys you hate as an opponent and love as one of your allies
wow after reading those texts first of all these guys are acting like teenagers and Martin seems like a real jerk for doing this whole thing. Just trying to get money for nothing out of the Dolphins. Just crazy.
Wow. If that's a complete record, it sounds like Martin really does have mental health problems. He then bussed his friend or let his agent do it. It seems pretty cowardly to me, and I think Incognito is a class A douche.
I'm not so sure about all of this after seeing the reports and seeing Incognito run off at the mouth on social media a couple of days ago when he should have stayed silent which shows how much of a bully he is.
I have a feeling there is a lot of this stuff going on in the league behind closed doors. Banning Incognito from the NFL, or for a few seasons, would be a good warning to the other players.
I don't know who it was, but there was another lineman who wrote an op-ed saying this is not normal and does not go on in other locker rooms. I didn't see the article, just a twitter headline blurb on Thursday or Friday.
I think to this point, there hasn't really been a discussion on Martin the football player. In the end, isn't that all that matters? You have rapists and (alleged) killers and racists and just horrible people playing and prospering in the NFL. If Martin has talent and can play well, of course I want him on my team playing for minimum. But if he's not good enough on the field, he can be a choir boy for all I care and I still won't give a damn.
This, in a nutshell, is what sports has become. Winning seems to be the one and only value. Although I love to compete and I love to win, as a fan there are more important values to consider. Unfortunately, meh (and I enjoy and value your posts), you are in the majority in this regard.
The fact that winning is the main value of sports is one of the greatest things about sports. No one cares about your race, religion, or sexual preference so long as you are good at what you do, it's a true meritocracy. At the same time, you can be an awful person like Ty Cobb or Richie Incognito and it doesn't matter so long as you are good at what you do. You have to take the good with the bad.
I'm not advocating that athletes should strive for sainthood. However, even the demigods of sports must IMO exhibit a modicum of honor and human values. Likeability is not a value. It is nice but not necessary. For example, in his early years I was a fan of Kobe Bryant. However, his rape and subsequent payoff of that girl in Colorado forever ended my respect for him. IMO he should have been permanently banned from basketball. The same holds true for Michael Vick. What sick, demented person tortures dogs for "sport?" Sports is a gigantic plus for society precisely because it is the flower of meritocracy. It's just that I believe that flower cannot bloom without roots, stems and leaves ... and a lot of fertilizer.
I get what you are saying and I'm not opposed to there being limits but it usually polices itself. If it is determined that his locker room antics and just generally being a horrible person is detrimental to the team to the point that he's a net negative, he'll be out of the league in a heartbeat. The same goes for Martin, I HIGHLY doubt he ever lands another NFL job because he'd have to be the best OT in the league to make up for what a locker room cancer he is. I'd be fine with both Incognito and Martin never working in the NFL again as a result of their actions that completely derailed a potentially playoff bound Dolphins squad.
