Unless you do not follow sports, which then it would be pretty hard that you are reading this blog post anyway, you must be following the debacle that is happening with the Miami Dolphins. What one racist, which I will not mention his name as he is not worthy of getting any more attention, has done to one of his team mates, Jonathan Martin, is something that should never happen to anyone, be it in sports or not.
However, while my “Rant of the Day” is about this story, it’s about a side story that I listened to. As I do most days that I am home in the morning, while surfing the net I have my television on ESPN2 watching Mike & Mike in the Morning. And like anyone other sport show they too were talking about what is going on in South Beach.
As I listened to the spiel it seemed to be pretty aligned with most of the other programs that have talked about it, but then Mike Greenberg took a turn that made me write this post. He said “this incident has nothing to do with hazing”.
No, Mr. Greenberg, this has everything to do with hazing. Cause some take hazing as a small initiation, where maybe they make the first year players bring donuts to a practice or two or tieing them to the goal post (naked even). Others take a bit more, making rookies pay for dinners or for buying gifts/trips. So on and so forth, until we arrive to a moron like the one in this incident where he has taken this to a whole new level.
If there was no hazing then this would not have happened. But hazing is allowed, sometimes even welcomed and sometimes pushed for, with the excuse of team bonding or toughening up of the younger players to what the NFL is going to be. Which might have all be find and good, but then you find the one that takes it to an extrem and you arrive to this…
“Hey, wassup, you half n—– piece of s—. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] s— in your f—ing mouth. [I’m going to] slap your f—ing mouth.”
“[I’m going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter].”
“F— you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”
Sure, at this point it’s not hazing anymore. This is in the realm of being criminal. But this started somewhere, this began at some point, and the “hazing mentality” is what people like the one who spoke the above words got the power to be able to become bullies within its work environment. To be above the law. To inflict mental pain and anguish on someone who then he works with.
This started from someone who was kicked out from his college, ended up with another, had issues with the team he was on and let go. Again, this did not just happen out of the blue. This is an evolution of things, that began from… hazing!
And it’s the same mentality where someone in the Dolphins locker room, Mike Wallace, says the following…
“I know both of those guys personally. I like both of them,” said wide receiver Mike Wallace, who added he doesn’t believe the team’s pranks and hazing went too far. “I love Richie. I think he’s a great guy. I don’t think he was out of hand. I have a lot of respect for Richie. I wish he was here.”
In other instances people speaking about “The NFL needed players like him” or “I had to pay for dinners, there was nothing wrong with it”. Seriously, that is what the mega machine worth billions upon billions of dollars that is the National Football League wants to show to its fan base? To the people that already believe the league to be a haven of cons playing a game? It all started from one thing, a long, long time ago, from a small prank. And it has arrived to this. Sad but true.
Last year this same player was on the Dan Le Batard talking how he and the rest of the linemen were going to get their first round QB to buy them sea doo’s. And the host kind of laughed after what was said. Maybe it’s a far fetched comparison, but that interview almost feels like when in the 80’s-90’s the use of steroids in baseball was something that was known, but never to what extent. Welcome to Y2K media and fans, and to the next skeleton in the closet sports does not want to come out.
So, Mr. Greenberg, I appreciate you taking a stand against this racist and bully, but please do not make it sound as though this has nothing to do with hazing. This is just hazing at a level no one ever thought it would get. Sadly it has, and even more sadly, there is people inside that locker room that find nothing wrong with it.
In the end I do not know how to stop people like the bigot this post was written about, but I know how to stop the mentality… stop hazing! Enough with it! If a first rounder wants to bring in the donuts good, or else go get them yourself, or better yet, eat granola as it is better for you. If a first rounder, making millions, wants to take out the team for a dinner, good, if not, take your woman/fiancee/girlfriend on a nice dinner yourself.
Making fun of anyone will never bring anyone together, as people might forgive, but few ever forget. You want to make these players bond, send them to a soup kitchen, a hospice, or something like that for a day to see how some people have to live, and maybe just maybe, they will understand how fortunate they are to have been gifted with the talents they have.
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