The Miami Dolphins are dealing with a very delicate situation when it comes to what has occurred with Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito and now that the lineman has been suspended for conduct detrimental to the team and reports have various incidents coming up, including Martin paying $15,000 for a Las Vegas trip he did not want to go on.
According to ESPN and other news outlets, Martin left the team after being pranked, harassed and bullied by players on the team, with reports identifying one of the main culprits as Incognito, who has now been suspended by the team. Martin left before last week's game against the Bengals after an incident that happened at the lunch room at the team facility and now reports have come out about various incidents, including threatening and racial messages left on Martin's phone as well as a trip to Las Vegas that he paid $15K for out of fear of consequences from Incognito if he did not, even though he said he would rather not go on the trip.
That report was reported by Adam Schefter at ESPN.com and sources said that Incognito asked Martin to contribute the money to help pay for a trip last summer and while he didn't want to do, he also feared the consequences of not paying, so he gave the money. That, and other allegations are now being investigated by the league and the NFLPA has stepped back, as they may have to represent players once punishment is meted out. The issues could be bad for the Dolphins and the NFL, as locker room culture is a big deal in the league and it also puts other issues in context.
The team as recently as this past weekend, after Martin left the team and the issues surfaced, put a $30,000 dollar dinner bill on rookie. The evidence was relayed by Twitter of course as well as a Miami Herald Reporter, who noted that rookies making the minimum will make $400,000 this season. Jared Odrick tweeted out a picture and wrote a comment about the rookies paying and while that is a common practice in sports and the NFL, with all this going on with Martin, it does not look good in the situation and could be something that gets addressed later down the line.
In the Monday Morning Quarterback column this week, Peter King asked Jets lineman Willie Colon about the situation and while he said some of it is about earning respect and coming up as a young player, Colon also noted that there is a "right way" to handle things and that asking a player who was a second round, pick, aka someone who does not make tons of money, to pay that much for a trip he doesn't even want to go on is not right. Colon gets the attitude right about the situation and Incognito looks like a royal a-hole if it turns out to be true and he also has been seen in Hard Knocks video from last season pranking another teammate and acting as if there was nothing wrong with it and while it may have been harmless then, it shows a pattern of this behavior in the locker room from the lineman.
