Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin have brought bullying to the fore of Sports Literature, Culture and Society. We are left trying to piece together our individual feelings regarding the treatment of teammates, friends, colleagues, classmates, etc. Did Martin and Incognito actually have a friendship? What are your thoughts on this? Using the link above, read the articles provided for Tuesday. You may have to access through a smartphone or tablet. If you have problems, please email me and ask for the list.
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The Wells report actually swayed my opinion on the subject. From the start I though Incognito was innocent and Martin was just a struggling football player who needed to find someone or something to blame, but I now see I may have been wrong. I believe Martin tried be friends with Incognito to end the harassment, but that backfired because since they were friends Incognito thought he could say things without Martin taking offense to them. In the long run this friendship hurt Martin because while he was hurting Incognito thought their friendship was going great. It was a situation of bad communication where I don't think there is one person to blame and especially not Martin who I blamed for the last few months.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Martin and Incognito were not actual friends.Of course, when your on a sports team, especially at a very high level, you will have a relationship with all your teamates. Basically a friendship, but I dont think they were really friends. And once all the name calling and all that stuff got worse and worse, a few lines were crossed, and it started this whole thing. You can't really say that one person was totally at fault too. The whole situation was handled very poorly by everyone involved, which made everything even worse.
ReplyDeleteFrom reading the text messages, I believe Martin and Incognito were indeed friends. It seems to me as teammates the two shared a bond on and off the field. Somewhere, somehow things came crashing down. There has been past reports of this type of behavior by Incognito and after reading some the articles I believe Martin was being bullied. Someone caused Martin stress when he left the team and when he almost tried to committ suicide. That someone is Richie Incognito.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Martin and Incognito actually had a friendship. I think Martin was just trying to fit in with his teammates and be freidnly to them. Clearly, Incognito just doesn't know how to treat people. Judging from the past reports of Incognito doing this to other people, I don't think that he genuinely tried to bully Martin. It sounds to me like he just doesn't know how to treat people. Specifically, he doesn't know when it's okay to stop joking.
ReplyDeleteI believe Incognito and Martin had a very shallow friendship. They were both in different pages. Incognito thought they were just messing around all the time and that Martin wasn't taking offense to it. I think Martin never spoke out until now because he was a young player just getting started in the NFL. Incognito was constantly crossing the line thinking they were messing around and Martin never said much about it. I think both players are at fault. Martin completely blindsided Incognito when he came out with the bullying stuff. Incognito has said in interviews that he believed him and Martin were great friends and that he was betrayed by Martin.
ReplyDeleteI do think that these guys were pretty close friends. Incognito may have taken things to the next level sometimes, but Martin was saying the same stuff back. I think Martin took advantage of the situation and threw Incognito under the bus. This should have never been a big deal. Martin should of said something to Richie if he actually felt like he was getting bullied. And Richie should have taken inconsideration that Martin is still young and he should have known when to stop.
ReplyDeleteI believe Martin and Incognito were more of acquaintances then anything. Reading the texts between the two made it seem that they were good friends off the field. Then I heard about the harassment. Sporting news stated that three Dolphins offensive lineman made racial slurs directed at Martin and other wildly inappropriate sexually explicit comments about Martin's mother and sister. One of the three Dolphins was Incognito. Sports Illustrated also stated that it was proven that Incognito did lead a systemic campaign of bullying and ridicule. Not only Martin was affected, but also at least one of Incognito/Martin’s teammates, and at least one team employee. Clearly Incognito is a horrible friend and a horrible teammate. Incognito and Martin do not have a friendship in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think that Incognito believed that him and Martin were good friends when that actually wasn't the case. Incognito seemed to say some very mean things in the texts he sent, but he believed it was all out of fun and he didn't mean it. I think Martin seemed to understand it was a joke, but I don't think he could handle all that was being said to him. At the end of it all, I really think they could've handled this issue within the locker room, but either Incognito was too mean or Martin was just being a baby. The media still made everything much worse.
ReplyDeleteI really do not think that Martin and Incognito were friends. I don't think any real friend would say the things that Incognito said. I understand that friends mess around and say stupid things to each other, especially teammates who spend a lot of time together. But there are some things that are just incredibly inappropriate and offensive that were said which crossed the line from joking around to harassment. I do think that Martin should have tried to talk to Incognito first, but I understand why he wouldn't as he is relatively new to the NFL. I think there is a good chance that Incognito genuinely thought that they were friends, but if that is the case then I think that Incognito is an immature and condescending person who needs to know when he is taking things too far.
ReplyDeleteI believe that RIchie and Jon had a friendship. I read all of their text and they had a real friendship according to those. They would go out and do crazy stupid stuff and that is what friendship is about. On the other hand, I believe that Incognito may have been over the line pretty much all the time when it came to how he addressed Martin, his sisters, and those around him.
ReplyDeleteI think that Jonathan Martin did this with somewhat of a publicity stunt in mind. Things like this have come up in locker rooms from all NFL teams. I do not condone what Incognito did, but I think Martin could have solved this in a better way. But now we have to brace for Roger Goodell to come up with some rule about this because it cannot go unnoticed. If you have heard other players speak on this, most of them don't know of anything like this.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I don't think that Martin and Incognito were friends. Maybe they were "friends" because they played together but that doesn't mean they were actually friends. Like for example, at school you can say that a lot of people are your "friends" but how many people are you actually friends with outside of school? If you're friends with someone you wouldn't be harassing them. I get that friends do tease eachother but the way that Incognito harassed Martin was not a friendly tease. I don't believe that Martin broke any guy rule or is less of a man because he left to get help. Yes he could have talked to Incognito but talking doesn't always work things out. I actually think Incognito would have harassed Martin even more if he tried talking to him about it and would have tried pulling it off as a joke because maybe he did see them as friends but didn't know when he was crossing the line.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to what Garrett said, I think that Martin tried to be friends with Incognito just so he wouldn't have to risk the harassment. Incognito seemed to have more strength than Martin in a way that Martin was more hurt by what was said. I think that Incognito didn't necessarily mean everything that was said, but Martin took it seriously.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that Incognito and Martin had a very close friendship. I read their texts, and they definitely have a level of comfortability with each other. Like Mary said, I think that Incognito was stronger than Martin when it came to points where hurtful words were said by both. Some of the things he said were just awful. Despite that, Incognito most likely did not know that he was hurting Martin's feelings at some points. With that being said, I still do think that they had a true friendship because of how comfortable they were with each other.
ReplyDeleteI think they started off as friends because at first thye acted that way. And some of the texts they exchanged seemd more friendly than others. However, i think they still had a little hate towards each other and when the line was crossed things sort of blew out of porportion a little. I also think that the situation shouldve been handled differently. The dolphins shouldve kept it in the locker room because once it went public it was here to stay and virtually impossible to settle because it is so controversial.
ReplyDeleteIncognito and Martin were without a doubt good friends. If Martin truly felt like he was getting bullied then he wouldn't have always tried to meet up and hangout with Incognito. People who are being bullied tend to avoid the bully at all costs. It's hard to believe that there wasn't a friendship between the two after reading the text messages
ReplyDeleteI believe that they were friends. When your friends with people you tend to mess around with them like that, even though they took it far. They would always talk about meeting up and hanging out and that's just something you wouldn't do with someone you don't like. Even though it was taken to the extreme I believe they just had a very odd but close friendship.
ReplyDeleteI think that in this situation Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin where friends, but not at the level that incognito believed they were at. I believe that they were friends and acquaintances, but only on the level of knowing each other as fellow players. The situation was blown way out of proportion because one of the players misinterpreted there friendship.
ReplyDeleteI believe there was some sort of friendship between the two, and that incognito just took it a step to far and really made Martin sad and hurt that he was openly using the n word. I believe they started off as friendship but their friendship quickly vanished when Martin was done with Incognito's treatment off others.
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