Nov 6, 2013
When I first heard about the Miami Dolphin’s Jonathan Martin & Richie Incognito situation, the first thing I thought was what’s wrong with these two grown ass men? This guy left the team because of a bullying situation? Really? Your a grown ass man what are you bullying someone for? And you Jonathan how are you letting someone, a teammate at that bully you to the point where you leave the team?
At that point I hadn’t heard the entire story so my opinion has definitely changed now. First off I have to say what Richie Incognito was dead ass wrong. I understand the entire rookie hazing process, but at the same time it seems excessive and childish. It reminds me of the whole thing that used to go down in high school where the upperclassmen mess with the freshmen. Of course just like in high school, Incognito had to take the situation too far, my bringing the whole racial aspect into it. Even though we are years away from the slave days. that’s a topic that nobody wants to deal with.
So what could of Jonathan Martin had done? Some people say he could of fought Richie Incognito, I give that a solid nah. A lot of us were taught to fight bullies when we were kids, but this isn’t children we’re talking about any more. These are grown men with families of their own now. Then we have to take into fact that these are professional athletes. Let’s be real here, how would the media respond to a young black player coming into the locker room, calling out a well respected white veteran player then swinging on him. Doesn’t sound to good for Martin right? He would undoubtedly be portrayed as the angry black man who needs to learn how to take a joke. We might not even of learned what happened from both sides because of the immediate negative press Martin would of gotten.
Some say that Martin could of told the coaches. He could of done that but would that really of helped? This rookie hazing thing is apart of NFL culture, so what would make the coaches tell Incognito to stop? Maybe the whole racial part might of gotten the teams attention but with the way the whole Riley Cooper situation went down early this season, I really dobut it. Honestly I don’t think there is much the coaching staff would of done besides saying “Toughen up young fella”.
Who knows maybe somebody would of done something. Maybe a Martin/Incognito fight would of worked? Maybe telling a coach and looking like a snitch would of worked? All I know is, Martin let everyone know without having to do any of that. It probably hurt him a lot to walk away from the game of football, but he’s probably ok being away from that situation.
Me personally would of probably said eff the media and started a all out locker room brawl, but as I said before that isn’t the best decision. What would you guys do?
Everick Davis Jr.
Was good though, it's me Everick Davis Jr. Born and raised in Portsmouth Virginia, I'm currently a senior at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. I watch every sport (not so much golf) but I am huge on the NBA. My favorite players right now are J.R. Smith, Russell Westbrook & Nick Young. Drinking beer and watching sports is my favorite past time and I do it year round! I used to play basketball on the regular until everyone else kept growing and I still stood at 5'6. So that's when I channeled my efforts into becoming the next Stephen A Smith or anything close to that. I currently write for "The Carolinian" newspaper in Greensboro, NC and intern for http://theurbantwist.com/ Random Fact about me, I love anime, my favorite one is One Piece! Second random fact, I got beatz! check me out http://www.reverbnation.com/ielabs
