True - if all the players involved enjoy it. But if Bryant doesn't like carrying pads or some other player is uncomfortable singing in public, then it may not be so harmless. The problem is that lots of these guys hate it (you see that in the quotes of the veterans who say they had to put up with it, so now they want others too) - but they don't speak up out of fear of alienating their team, etc. But does that really help the team if some of the rookies are quietly upset/angry? One way to solve that is to simply ban it all across the board.
Then the problem becomes, where do you draw the line? For example, I suspect it is common for rookies (especially highly drafted ones) to be called "rookie" as in "hey rookie, time for the meeting" or by their alma mater as in "hey, The Ohio State University, time to catch the team bus". Do players now have to walk on egg shells worrying that they might hurt someone's feelings?
Depends - in this case, no one said Roy couldn't tell Bryant to carry his bags. But Bryant similarly had the right to tell Roy "no". That should have been the end of it. As a general rule, it seems people could just follow normal rules of society of how coworkers or friends or whomever treat each other - if they offend people, common sense tells them to stop or risk pissing off the other person. When there's a new guy in your office, do you haze him or welcome him? Do you treat him with respect, or talk down to him?
i don't think i can compare law firm culture to NFL locker room without thinking of apples and oranges.
Why don't you all go to mamby pamby land and we can work it out? Bunch of Jackwagons..... You guys want a tissue? DD
If you get some younger person in with no experience, of course you give them some grief but you do it in good fun.
I agree with Max about the differences between an office environment and an NFL environment, but it would not be surprising if the new guy in an office needs to buy/pickup the coffee and donuts for his first meeting or get stuck with a sucky assignment simply because he's the new guy.
Leadership is leadership. Respecting people, getting people on board with a vision, and methods of developing teamwork apply in all sorts of cultures and environments. There's no real evidence that separating people or degrading people has had a positive impact on teams. There is plenty of evidence of the opposite though. Lots of coaches and teams have had had success and won Superbowls without hazing. Many all-time great players and teams didn't go through hazing. So it might just be that hazing exists because it has always existed - not because it particularly helps things or is in any way necessary.
And I would suggest that - ignoring other factors - the business that does things like that will be less successful than the one that integrates the new guy as one of their own. Realistically, we're talking about something minor, and so the effects will be neglible either way, but if there is any, it will be to the downside. All the research and data on business management and leadership techniques suggests that kind of stuff is counterproductive to the work environment.
If Roy Williams needs help carrying his bag he needs to retire. The wiser vet would take the younger player under his wing knowing the more confident a rookie is the quicker he'll integrate and the more useful to the team he'll be sooner. Maybe even relied on later in the season.
Dez needs to go through the same crap all the other Cowboys rookies go through and quit acting like he is taking the high road because he's here to win football games. I don't recall any exceptions being made before and they shouldn't be made now. Some veteran lineman is going to make him do something...and we will see how he's going to squirm out of it then. As soon as one player starts bring his own rules around the lockerroom, that is when the trouble starts. Dez is trying to be Mr. Perfect in camp so far so why let something as stupid as this be the leading headlines coming out of camp? If he would have said "Roy hasn't done anything so he can carry his own pads.", then it would be a legit reason....not oh I'm here to win football games and I'm a number one draft pick so I don't have to suffer with the other rookies through the traditional rookie hazing. One way or another, they are going to get him for it. And, rightly so.
How is the guy who can't integrate himself into the offense going to teach a rookie how to do it? Not to mention Roy probably isn't looking forward to helping his replacement all that much.
these are a bunch of athletes (guys) ragging on one another. it's more akin to the atmosphere around friends than it is the atmosphere around the office. guys rag on each other. friends give each other hell. it's in fun. the stuff players on pro sports teams do to one another would get you fired from a traditional office setting. but it's just not one. it's like camp. i don't see this as degrading at all. honestly, i think this is making too much of it. it's goofing off. it's just having something to do in the midst of the misery of training camp. i don't think it's about winning super bowls. i don't think anyone puts it up on that kind of pedastal. at the end of the day, i think roy makes too much of it by insisting dez do it...and dez makes too much of it by not just picking up the pads and laughing it off.
In baseball, a rookie hits his first home run and the ball is retrieved. Someone writes all over a fake ball and gives it to him. Should that be disallowed/discouraged? In the same vein someone hits their first home run and when he gets into the dugout he gets the silent treatment. Too much? After a particularly good game when a player is getting interviewed he might get a shaving cream pie in the face on camera. Should that stop?
Sure - let's take your example. Lets say you have a group of friends and all of them have fun messing with each other. But let's say one of them doesn't like it. If he's your friend, are you going to keep doing something that annoys him, or do you back off? I agree - I think this is a nonstory. Roy Williams didn't do anything wrong. Dez Bryant didn't do anything wrong. I'm just saying Bryant has a right to not participate and it doesn't make him some kind of bad guy.
1. depends...you know among a group of guys, just because he's annoyed by it doesn't mean it stops. sometimes the fact he's annoyed is why you keep doing it. 2. agree...i think it's all ridiculously overblown. it doesn't say anything about the character of either of them. roy comes off looking like an ass to the extent he won't let it go. but at some point, this stuff is going to get worse for dez if he doesn't just smile and go along with it.
