The Crystal Ball 2013 Week 10

This week, with the increasing scope and disturbing revelations and turns of the Miami Dolphins bullying story, we at The Crystal Ball are going to do something a little differently. Considering the importance of this story and it's outcome goes far beyond locker room assholery, I'd like to focus upon it and some of the periphery story lines that have come about due to it.

Opening Kickoff

Jonathan Martin's lawyers issued a statement this week, defending Martin, his toughness and pointing out Martin's choice to walk away and speak up was tough and correct. It's sad that Martin needed lawyers to stick up for him.

Upon Further Review

Last week I used the unfortunate situation of Jonathan Martin to bring forth the idea that in order to correct the behavior, we simply cannot bully the bully. My hope was to attack the problem from a more intellectual, and empathetic standpoint rather than just repeating the behavior back to the offender.

Again, I am not defending, justifying or excusing Incognito’s actions. Like everyone, I deplore them and feel there is no place in our society for this behavior, nor those who perpetrate it. Punishing him by suspension, fines or even expulsion from the league may teach him a lesson. However vilifying him, attacking his family or any other modern day social media punishment accomplishes nothing. Those extreme methods only treat or attack the symptoms, not the cause. If we as a society do not attack the cause, all we do is maintain an environment where bullying remains. And as long as it stays, bullying will mutate to different forms, and grow over and over again.

Since last Sunday, a flurry of new information has come to light. Incognito has been suspended by the team, and some sources are reporting the Dolphins will not play him again this season. The Dolphins and the NFL are in possession of a voicemails and text messages Incognito left for Martin that include amongst other things, cursing at Martin, threatening his mother and Martin himself and using racial slurs. And there are reports of money changing hands, with Martin paying $15,000 to fund a trip to Las Vegas for the linemen that Martin did not attend. Whether this was planned or part of rookies paying for things as too often does happen is unclear, but apparently this was not the only time money has changed hands.

But the most bizarre aspect of this story has been the reaction from players and NFL personnel toward both Incognito and Martin.

The messages out of the Dolphins locker room have been mixed at best. There was initially the prerequisite support of Martin, but following that there has been massive support for Incognito, including amongst African American players. I understand the NFL locker room is a different world from the one in which we live, and players will put up a lot from some of the bad apples if they help the team win. But I find it stunning that African American players would come to the defense of a Caucasian man who so freely throws around racial slurs and threats.

Conversely, there has been a lot of derision and venom directed at Martin. Some players and team personnel are looking down at Martin because he spoke out about Incognito's treatment of him. Players and team personnel do not like that Martin took what they consider locker room business to the public. There is a palpable sentiment that Martin could broke an unwritten rule when he spoke out, that he just could not handle your typical locker room hazing. This has led to a ton of questioning of Martin as a man and his character, with people wondering why Martin didn’t just stand up to Incognito, why he was soft and weak and could not take a bit of teasing. After all, every young guy in the NFL gets teased and hazed, what’s wrong with Martin that he could not handle it.

After the deluge of new information and the bizarre defenses and seeming vilification of Martin there is another aspect if bulling I would like to shed light upon. In order to rid society of bullying, we must also cease excusing the behavior.

The excuses I’ve heard thus far include that Incognito is a good guy. The coaches told Incognito to toughen Martin up, so he was just doing the coaches’ bidding. That Incognito is a good guy and a good teammate, and its perplexing where Martin’s accusations are coming from. The more I hear, the more I keep thinking they sound like the type of excuses a battered spouse makes when talking about their abuser.

Shifting blame to coaches is lame. Excusing Incognito’s behavior because of his talent and his acceptable treatment of others is sad. As it is, Incognito will learn nothing from this. He will continue on with his life feeling he is not responsible and that he did nothing wrong. But turning the blame to Martin and making him the villain because he spoke out is not just pathetic, but disrespectful and dangerous.

Let’s get this straight. This is not hazing. Hazing is supposed to be fun, harmless pranks that tease but ultimately make the young guys feel accepted and part of the team. It should not make them feel they have no other recourse to make it end but to quit their job. This is far beyond hazing. This is bullying the different kid. This is picking on the smart kid, the sensitive kid, the guy who isn't a macho tough guy. This was psychological intimidation. This is extortion, racial hate crimes and terroristic threats. Once this crossed the line of hazing into criminal behavior this stopped being a code of the locker room situation. It became a potential criminal code situation.

But by the players excusing Incognito’s behavior, even as its sheer vileness is increasingly revealed, it only illustrates how these attitudes that do not take seriously the damage done by bullying persist. Martin was different, so he was picked on until he went home crying to his mommy. That’s the attitude that’s coming out of some locker rooms and from some former players right now. Not that Incognito went well past too far, but that Martin couldn’t cut it.

I've read a few hypotheses that perhaps because of Martin's seeming unwillingness to stand up for himself that was the reason others did not defend Martin as Incognito's behavior intensified. Why should that matter? So he wasn't an overly aggressive douchebag off the field, does that mean its ok for others to harass him? No. And there's nothing that's been said, written or quantified that shows me being an aggressive, tough professional athlete and decent human being that sticks up for and defends his fellow man must be mutually exclusive.

Look, even if this were mere hazing, not everyone is good at handling such things. Some people just are not built that way. If it were hazing, and Martin couldn’t handle that, you can’t tell me there would be no one on the team that could pick up on that and tell the others back off? No, they picked up on it all right. And then exploited that weakness over and over until Martin snapped and walked out.

You hear the same script being put forth from players and the league how being a part of an NFL team is special, how it’s more than family and how being in the league is being part of an exclusive brotherhood. I wonder where this brotherhood was when Martin was being relentlessly harangued by Incognito. Apparently, at least in some locker rooms, that brotherhood is only extended to those who fit in and don’t cause trouble. Players around the league are saying the same thing. Martin is a man and he should have stood up for himself instead of ratting out Incognito. You know another sign of being a man? Standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. From my vantage point, there are no men in the Dolphins locker room, and I'm not the only one putting blame on the team for allowing this to occur.

None of us know at this point what Martin may have done to try to stop Incognito’s actions and abuse. Perhaps he tried to talk with Incognito, perhaps he tried to turn the other cheek and tried to ride it out, or maybe he did talk to a coach. That has yet to be revealed.

But eventually he did speak up, and that’s what should matter most. It’s what we try to teach children in this situation. If you’re suffering from a bully, speak to someone, come forward and don’t be afraid anymore.

But by blaming Martin what message does that send to bullied kids? They see Martin speak out and stand up for himself, and then he gets ridiculed, marginalized and dismissed by not only his friends, but the authority figures in which he placed trust? How is that helping the bullying problem? It sends the wrong message. If I am a kid suffering at the hands of a bully, and looking for a way to stand up and speak out, and I watch this situation, you know what I do? Nothing, I suffer in silence. If my choice is to put up with a bully’s abuse or to speak out and then be called soft, weak, a coward, have my character questioned and have people support the man who did the bullying, I'd probably go with a tragic third option, which happens far too often in our society.

How will things changes if these attitudes persist? Some people seem to think it was bad that Martin told on Incognito, likening it to a kid tattling. But is that not what we want our children to do if they are being bullied? To not be afraid to speak out? How is Martin speaking up for himself and speaking out about Incognito’s abuse a bad thing, especially if Martin could not handle the situation on his own? By excusing, marginalizing the behavior and shifting blame, the NFL, its players, the media and NFL personnel are making the solution worse than the problem.

These ignorant men are setting back the efforts to stop bullying by years with each passing day. And with each pathetic defense of Incognito and vilification of Martin, they send the wrong message to kids who now are more afraid to speak out than they are of continued harassment. And they are creating an environment where they are putting kids in such danger of bullies and their own desperation, they might as well be doing the bullying themselves.

Thumbnail Sketch of a Bully

To hear the Dolphins players tell it, Richie Incognito is the salt of the earth and they support their exiled teammate through this trying time. The treatment he is suffering at the hands of the press and these terrible allegations by locker room rat Jonathan Martin are both tragic and mysterious.

But this behavior is not an isolated incident. Incognito's actions are merely another signpost on a long road of questionable behavior that has been excused to date due to his talent. Let's look at a few highlights of this career and the pattern of behavior that Martin's revelations may finally end.

 - In 2002, he was suspended from Nebraska for bullying a teammate so badly he quit the team mid practice.

 - The St. Louis Rams, who drafted Incognito because of his nasty play, eventually had enough of his nasty personality and cut him before the end of the 2009 season.

 - Actually, his history of incidents with teammates and opponents is quite long and well reported, so this behavior should not be a surprise.

 - In March 2012, Incognito was accused of sexual harassment at a golf tournament.

 - Incognito regularly held lineman meetings at strip clubs, and fined teammates that failed to attend.

 - One of Incognito's biggest defenders and character witnesses is Dolphins center Mike Pouncey, who is on record for defending Aaron Hernandez who is accused of murder and has now been subpoenaed by the same grand jury working on the case against Hernandez. Good character witness there.

I point these stories out not to denigrate Incognito, but to illustrate my point. Incognito is a man with a long history of bullying, bad decision making, poor behavior and aggressive anti social conduct. Why are so many players rushing to his defense and willing to throw Martin under the bus where it's obvious the problem starts with Incognito?

My guess is that by allowing Incognito's behavior to continue to the point where Martin felt forced to leave the team and break the code of the locker room, it makes their teammates look terrible for their inaction. The only way they can save face is to minimize the damage done by Incognito and try to portray Martin in a bad light. Unfortunately, that only makes them seem worse for this ignorant behavior. It's sad when many players across the league are the ones with a more reasonable outlook on the proper way to treat a teammate.

As Edmund Burke once said, "‎Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing." Well, good men in the Dolphins locker room did nothing, and that makes them as much of a bully as Incognito, and just as culpable.

The Steel Pit

Steelers 31 - Patriots 55

Yeah, that sucked. But there's bigger issues this week.

As you may have noticed, I have been happy with very little of the on-field from this team this season. And I have been less than quiet about it. I am a passionate fan, and I do love this team. Their performance this season has left me, and many others, with far more questions than answers and the behavior of some players has me speculating giving such support to this particular squad.

But then I read these articles, one from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and one from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, each story discussing the Jonathan Martin fiasco with Steelers players. And to a man, each interviewed soundly put down Incognito's behavior and were thoroughly disgusted with the story.

After reading these articles, I couldn't be more proud to call myself a Steelers fan. It's been a rough season, with very little to cheer about. But the old pride of being a member of Steeler nation came flooding forth. This is why I root for this team. They are, even in down years, a cut above other franchises. And while I doubt there will be much else to cheer as this season moves toward its conclusion, I know that at least I'm cheering for a team that may be in the losing column in the standings, but they're ranked number 1 as basic human decency.

He Said He Said

No commentary will follow the quotes this week. We'll let the words of these people speak for themselves. Some will make you question the intelligence and empathy of some people, while others will give and renew hope in the decency of humanity. All will make you think and hopefully re-evaluate how we all treat each other in our daily lives.

"Hey, wassup, you half-nigger piece of shit. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] shit in your fucking mouth. [I'm going to] slap your fucking mouth. [I'm going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. Fuck you, you're still a rookie. I'll kill you." - Richie Incognito's voicemail to Jonathan Martin

“You know what, I’m just trying to weather the storm right now. This will pass.” - Dolphins lineman Richie Incognito regarding his suspension

“I’m not surprised. In fact, I’m a little surprised something like this hasn’t happened before. If you’re mentally weak, you’re going to get picked on.” - former NFL offensive lineman Ross Tucker

"Incognito doesn’t have that filter. He was the jokester on the team, and he joked with everybody from players to coaches. That voicemail he sent came from a place of humor, but where he really screwed up was using the N-word." - former dolphins lineman Lydon Murtha

"They did a lot of stuff together. So if he had a problem with the way he was treating him, he had a funny way of showing it." - Dolphins tackle Tyson Clabo

"If somebody sees something, you have to kind of handle it internally. Somebody needs to step in and take care of it before it gets turned into a real problem. I guess that's what didn't happen there. Let's separate a voicemail from hazing because that's not hazing. That's an anomaly. That's a tremendous lapse in judgment. It has nothing to do with hazing in my opinion. Hazing is haircuts, hazing is filling a guy's car with package bubbles, putting water under their door at the hotel. It's pranks, it's carrying a helmet, all that stuff but all the while being respectful of that person and also sensing if somebody isn't well equipped to handle that and kind of tapering off a little bit." - Rams defensive end Chris Long

"As an interior lineman, you just want to earn the respect of your peers and the guys you are going against, let them know that you’re battle-tested and you are ready. Sometimes that comes on and off the field. But there is a right and wrong way of going about it." - Jets lineman Willie Colon

“I never heard anything of that extent or anything as vulgar or as foul as what's going on in Miami. But there is some banter that goes back and forth between players who are friends. I think some guidelines should be set in place. No one should have to endure that in their workplace, whether they work for IBM or for the Miami Dolphins. I honestly wouldn't have had any problem with Jonathan Martin hitting Richie Incognito in the head with a weight, but that's illegal and he'd go to jail and he shouldn't do that." - Steelers safety Ryan Clark

"A lot of people might look at Jonathan Martin and think that he's soft because he stepped away from the game, and say, 'Why don't you just fight him?' Well, if you look at it with common sense and being logical, what options did Jonathan Martin have? He could fight Richie Incognito. He could go and tell on the players, which we know in the football locker room doesn't go over too well. Or he could remove himself from the situation and let the proper channels take care of itself. And I think he made the intelligent, smart choice without putting himself or Richie Incognito's physical abilities in danger." - Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, a former college teammate of Martin's

“I think he handled it the right way by not being physical, by not causing more trouble by making a rash, emotional decision to retaliate with physical action. I would like to say that I would do the right thing if I witnessed it, and I have never been put in that situation. Thank God.” - Steelers safety Troy Polamalu

Idiot of the Week

This week, I emphatically label as idiot any Dolphins player, team personnel, team management official, NFL official, media member and any current or former player who in any way dared to try to defend or justify Incognito's actions and/or place blame for this situation and Incognito's behavior on Jonathan Martin.

Some of the bigger idiots in this mess include:

 - Former Dolphins offensive lineman Lydon Murtha, who went on record calling Martin and Incognito best friends, even though he only played with the two for several months and has not been around either or the locker room in almost a year and a half. It seems odd that without daily contact Murtha could defend or properly ascertain the nature of their relationship. He can't, but he had to stick up for the locker room secrecy.

 - Former offensive lineman Ross Tucker, who while usually an intelligent and well spoken analyst, justified being mentally weak in the NFL as an excuse for bullying.

 - Former defensive lineman Tony Siragusa, current Giants safety Antrel Rolle and dozens of others who advocated that Martin is to blame because he should have stood up for himself. It's funny how they all love the idea of frontier justice, yet they have no idea what Martin did to stand up to Incognito nor none of them advocated teammates sticking up for Martin. They all blamed Martin instead of the bully and his enablers.

 - current Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland, who told martin's agent when he contacted Ireland about the problem, that Martin should punch Incognito. Keep in mind, this is the same man who asked Dez Bryant before the 2010 draft if his mother was a prostitute. How he has a job is beyond me.

 - And of course Incognito himself for a multitude of reasons.

Incognito bullied Martin until he broke and that's bad. But these people have been bullying Martin almost as long as Incognito and that's worse. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. You chose defending a racist psychopath over the victim just because of some made up locker room code, or because the truth reveals their own cowardice and accomplice in this tragedy. How do you sleep at night knowing the damage you have caused?

Shame on all of you idiots.

On Tap This Week

Making these picks each week is hard. The pressure, the decision making, the study and instruction needed. But you know what's infinitely harder? Coaching in the NFL, just ask Gary Kubiak and John Fox.

Our best wishes for full recoveries go out to both Kubiak, who suffered a mini stroke right at halftime of last week's game, and Fox, who had heart valve replacement surgery this week. And gentlemen, take your time coming back. Your teams will still be here. Your long term health is more important than anything.

Now, where am I entering Week 10.

Last week: 8-5

Thursday: 0-1

Season to Date: 88-46

Pretty good, and sitting in third place overall. But perhaps the Incognito story has me discombobulated, but I had some trouble picking this week. Let's hope that was just nerves or cold weather.

Sitting at home, working on a wicked barbeque recipe - Cleveland, Kansas City, New England, New York Jets

Sunday

Detroit (5-3) at Chicago (5-3)

Nice comeback win by Chicago last week. But tell me this, could they have accomplished that if Aaron Rodgers had remained in the game?

Lions over Bears

Jacksonville (0-8) at Tennessee (4-4)

Meh.

Titans over Jaguars

Cincinnati (6-3) at Baltimore (3-5)

Call it a hunch, or just wishful thinking, but perhaps the Bengals have one more game left in them. If not, Bungle time is officially here.

Bengals over Ravens

Buffalo (3-6) at Pittsburgh (2-6)

I couldn't pick against my boys. Well, I could, and probably should, but not after what they showed me this week. Now if that could just translate to better on-field performances.

Steelers over Bills

Philadelphia (4-5) at Green Bay (5-3)

Do you trust the backup quarterback on the road, or the backup quarterback at home? Tough call, probably even tougher to watch.

Packers over Eagles

St. Louis (3-6) at Indianapolis (7-2)

If Indianapolis is down in this game by 21 points in the half, who feels more nervous, Colts fans or Rams fans? Discuss.

Colts over Rams

Oakland (3-5) at New York Giants (2-6)

New York is like Pittsburgh, a champion team in a down year. But there's no way I think that crappy Oakland squad is flying 3,000 miles and winning.

Giants over Raiders

Seattle (8-1) at Atlanta (2-6)

Seattle's offense looks terrible, but so does Atlanta's offense. And their defense, special teams, coaching....

Then why do I feel like this is a trap?

Seahawks over Falcons

Carolina (5-3) at San Francisco (6-2)

Carolina is creeping up the standings, but they haven't played anyone of quality. If they win today, I'll start taking them seriously. Until then...

49ers over Panthers

Denver (7-1) at San Diego (4-4)

Please, you think Peyton spent his bye week making pizza? Heck no! He spent it instructing interim head coach Jack Del Rio how to pretend to coach and stay out of Peyton's way.

Broncos over Chargers

Houston (2-6) at Arizona (4-4)

Inspirational game for their fallen coach? Maybe, but a third string quarterback on the road usually does not end well.

Cardinals over Texans

Dallas (5-4) at New Orleans (6-2)

Dallas can take control of the NFC East with a win. But they won't.

Saints over Cowboys

Monday

Miami (4-4) at Tampa Bay (0-8)

Here's your moral question of the week. Which team would you rather pick; the team that bullies one player, or the team whose coach bullies all his players? Disgusting.

Dolphins over Buccaneers