Reaction to the Richie Incognito Incident

The bullying situation that is plaguing the Dolphins headlines seems to be rather serious, first came the indefinite suspension of Richie Incognito followed by the release of the voicemail he left teammate Jonathan Martin as well as racist texts.

This situation is inexcusable not matter what way you look at this, there is no place in any NFL locker room for this kind of behavior because it demoralizes teammates and also because it is blatantly racist.  I saw the voicemail as it was shown on ESPN and I was horrified by what I saw.  A grown man using racial slurs and disrespecting Martin and his mother by threatening violence against both of them, that is not something a teammate or anyone should ever do.

I am unsure of what caused these issues, but Incognito has a history of offenses and this is probably a career killer for him, regardless of whatever age you are bullying is bullying plain and simple.  This is not only inexcusable but pathetic as well, this is a teammate and your brother in the locker room, and you don’t disrespect anyone in that manner at all regardless of that situation.

This event could shine light on this issue in other team’s locker rooms and I wonder how this ever happened.  Incognito should be punished by the NFL as well, and I think a suspension is at hand, but they should make it for next season because reports are out that he will not be on the team following this season and I applaud that decision.

Incognito is a repeat offender and unless you suspend someone (and it better be without pay assuming anyone would sign him) they generally continue their bad behavior.  This also needs to be done to show an example to fellow NFL players that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated, behavior like this can become worse and it can lead to poor decisions. 

On a final note I find it ironic that Incognito was part of the Dolphins video on how fans need to act during their games, talk about a hypocrite….  And of course bullying does not belong in the NFL nor anywhere else, in a world plagued with bullying an example needs to be set showing it is not okay, and the NFL has every chance to help stop this awful fad from getting worse.