If you're one of the majority of people who categorize people into "good" or "bad" or whatever, and you cut out the gray area, I imagine that the Lawrence Phillips- and Ritchie Incognito-types of people in the world give you little cause for reflection. As a teacher/coach who has spent much of my life working with kids from mostly very tough backgrounds, these are the sorts of people who haunt my thoughts because I've often seen players/students of mine who struck me as being at a crossroads in life who could go in either of at least a couple extreme directions, just like Phillips or Incognito. I can simultaneously think that Incognito was an awful human being in many ways yet also be glad that he seems to have figured things out eventually; I mourn for Phillips (and his victims) that he did not.
I write all of this because I just came across the bizarre story of Jonathan Martin and his apparently threatening online tweets. I don't want to run Martin through the mud either, but I generally assumed that he was very much an innocent sort of victim to extreme hazing when the story broke in Miami about how Incognito and teammates acted towards him. Now I have to think that Martin has had some fairly deep and dark demons of his own that Incognito and Co. exacerbated and brought out to the surface.
Incognito said that he was giving Martin a hard time in a good-natured manner, not realizing that it was having the effect that it did because Martin didn't make it clear enough to him how he felt about it. Sure, Incognito acted like an @$$, but it made me think of those students I've known over the years whose dysfunctional fathers teach them how to do dysfunctional things, not understanding that they're being dysfunctional. It doesn't make it right, but when, for example, a father teaches his son how to pound beer because he sees it as a bonding experience (I've seen that one a couple times), how should you view the pathetic attempt at masculine/fatherly relationship building when it was well-intended, yet so wrong?
So what of Incognito? I don't think of him as a role model or anyone I'd want my sons to be around, but isn't there still hope for him? We toss aside too many people too quickly, I believe. I'm a sucker for redemption stories.
Thoughts?
Here's the article on Martin: https://sports.yahoo.com/former-nfl...ial-threatening-instagram-post-063653148.html
I write all of this because I just came across the bizarre story of Jonathan Martin and his apparently threatening online tweets. I don't want to run Martin through the mud either, but I generally assumed that he was very much an innocent sort of victim to extreme hazing when the story broke in Miami about how Incognito and teammates acted towards him. Now I have to think that Martin has had some fairly deep and dark demons of his own that Incognito and Co. exacerbated and brought out to the surface.
Incognito said that he was giving Martin a hard time in a good-natured manner, not realizing that it was having the effect that it did because Martin didn't make it clear enough to him how he felt about it. Sure, Incognito acted like an @$$, but it made me think of those students I've known over the years whose dysfunctional fathers teach them how to do dysfunctional things, not understanding that they're being dysfunctional. It doesn't make it right, but when, for example, a father teaches his son how to pound beer because he sees it as a bonding experience (I've seen that one a couple times), how should you view the pathetic attempt at masculine/fatherly relationship building when it was well-intended, yet so wrong?
So what of Incognito? I don't think of him as a role model or anyone I'd want my sons to be around, but isn't there still hope for him? We toss aside too many people too quickly, I believe. I'm a sucker for redemption stories.
Thoughts?
Here's the article on Martin: https://sports.yahoo.com/former-nfl...ial-threatening-instagram-post-063653148.html