The sports culture in the United States has shown its ugly side in the past year in a variety of ways. The most recent example has been the reaction that both the sports media and the mainstream media have had towards Richie Incognito’s bullying of Jonathan Martin. For those who have not been following this story, offensive guard Incognito has been suspended from the Miami Dolphins for “conduct detrimental to the team” after accusations of bullying were brought by offensive tackle Jonathan Martin. This bullying included racial epithets, physical threats and threats against his family. Some of the issues surrounding the situation have become muddled as statements come out, but one thing that has become clear is that there are things that can be reformed in the NFL.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has appointed an independent investigation into the incident and declared, “Under league policy, all employees have the right to a workplace free of any form of harassment.” Allegedly, the Miami Dolphins’ general manager Jeff Ireland advised Martin’s agent that Martin should punch Incognito to resolve their differences, and before that, Miami asked Incognito to toughen up Martin. No workplace free of harassment should include a manager saying that you should have to physically assault someone to resolve a difference.
Evidence that this is not merely an isolated incident can be found in an ESPN-conducted anonymous survey of three players from each NFL team, 72 in total. The survey found that 31 admitted that they had been hazed in the NFL and 28 had paid between $40 and $18,000 in connection with that hazing. Many have said that it is not a big deal because the NFL and professional sports are meant to be “manly” and all of the players should be able to deal with this type of hazing behavior.
This does not have to be so. Other traditionally “manly” jobs have had rules regarding hazing without a drop-off in camaraderie. The United States Marines has specific punishments and rules regarding hazing, but there are no NFL-wide rules against hazing. Instead, individual NFL teams set the hazing policies in the NFL. Because of the individual team policies, we can see that hazing does not really help the team. The Indianapolis Colts are number 2 in the ESPN Power Rankings right now, and they have also had rules against extended hazing since Tony Dungy started coaching in 2002.
If a team can get 10 playoff appearances, seven division championships, two conference championships, and one Lombardi Trophy with stronger rules against hazing, there’s very little excuse for the NFL to not have the stronger rules. There are a variety of issues that come with this hazing problem, including the mental health concerns that Brandon Marshall has talked about, but it is clear that the NFL must do something to prevent another player from being forced out of playing the sport he loves due to bullying under the guise of hazing.
Matthew Bailey is a second year law student. His column runs biweekly on Mondays.
