Blame Richie Incognito: 10 Things We Learned About NFL Bullying [PHOTOS] - Page 3
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With a crazy bullying scandal in the Miami Dolphins locker room becoming public, more information is coming out about this very secret culture within the NFL. Former players are starting to recount their very coarse experiences and the stories will surprise you.
According to Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin, his fellow teammate Richie Incognito put him through a very abusive time during his rookie season. Martin voluntarily left the team and Incognito was suspended indefinitely once the news hit.
Since then different NFL personnel have come forward with their stories about hazing, bullying and playing with Richie Incognito. The Los Angeles Times interviewed former players Cam Cleeland and Kyle Turley respectively to discuss their time in the league which includes broken bones, coaching negligence and a lot of blood on the hands of Incognito, allegedly.
Here are 10 things we learned about bullying in the NFL from the LA Times article & more. Let us know who you think is to blame in the comments section.
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Photos: Youtube, Sportsgrid, Huffington Post, Sports Illustrated, USA Today,
Gang like initiations:
Former tight end Cam Cleeland admitted to being forced to run a gang style initiation gauntlet. “You tried to make it through, and they literally just beat the ever-loving crap out of you as you tried to get through. Everything you can imagine, from kicking, punching, scrapping.”
If you avoided the initiation:
Former offensive tackle Kyle Turley explains the consequences to those players who passed on ritual. “The guys who chose not to participate and locked themselves in their room, got buckets of water thrown under their doors. The water didn’t come from the sink, but from toilets, with urine. Guys that decided not to show up, their belongings were trashed, pissed on, their beds, all their clothes.”
Don’t go to your coach for help:
What happens if you go to your coach and say, ‘This guy’s bothering me.’ He’s going to look at you and go, ‘Are you crazy? You wuss. You’re not tough. Get out of my office.” I’m not saying that’s what would happen with Joe Philbin [Miami Dolphins], because I don’t know, but that’s what’s going to happen with 95 percent of coaches.”
Cleeland on Richie Incognito:
“I’m not afraid to say that he was an immature, unrealistic scumbag,” Cleeland said. “When it came down to it, he had no personality, he was a locker-room cancer, and he just wanted to fight everybody all the time. It was bizarre beyond belief.”
Coaches appoint players to toughen up their position groups:
In Kyle Turleys’s opinion “the coaches apparently enlisted him to be the leader of that offensive line. ‘This is your line now. We need you to get these guys in shape and together.’ The culture is to direct players. They say, ‘You’re the leader. We need you. We’re coaches; we don’t play the game. These guys need to respect you. It’s your duty.'”
Motivation in the NFL is actually bullying:
“Positive motivation in the NFL could in the real world be considered bullying,” Turley said. “Positive motivation is, ‘Get the … up!’ You’re like brothers. And when you say, just like I would to my little brother in a pickup basketball game, ‘You’re dragging, man! Pick it the … up! Suck it up!’ Because you feel like you know this guy. You feel like it’s your brother, and you’ve got to make that connection so that you can come together.”
How Coach Mike Ditka responded days after Cleeland finished the gaunlet:
“Coach [Mike] Ditka gave me a speech as soon as it was done,” he recalled. “He was like, ‘Oh, man, you should have just popped those guys in the mouth.’ I said, ‘Coach, there were 60 of them.'”
The St. Louis Rams originally drafted Richie Incognito because he was nasty:
Mike Martz, the Rams’ coach in 2005, told the New York Times that his team wanted players with attitude, and Incognito was just the kind of guy they thought could become part of the tough, physical offensive line they wanted. “Because that’s the way the game is played in the NFL, obviously,” Martz said. “That nastiness is evident, especially in Incognito.”
How Richie Incognito conducted offensive line business:
According to NationalFootballPost.com, Richie Incognito held meetings at strip clubs and fined his fellow offensive linemen if they didn’t show.
Richie Incognito is about that bully life:
His bullying issues go back at least to his college days. According to USA Today, “his issues stretch back at least as far as his Nebraska years, when he was convicted of misdemeanor assault and suspended from the team at least two times before transferring to Oregon in 2004. He often instigated fights with teammates and was ejected from a game for fighting in 2002. In 2003, he allegedly spat at opponents in the Alamo Bowl. Oregon even cut him loose before he participated in a single practice.”
