Dolphins Harrassment Study

[Nconroe]

The official study came out this week
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200...miami-dolphins

My quick review is three Dolphin Players and one coach committed harrassment toward 2 players and one assistant coach.

Team and NFL actions sure to follow.

My thought, times are changing/have changed and one needs to adapt or suffer consequences.

[HPF Bob]

Jock confines tend to be bastions of physical humor and overt masculinity. Making fun of the weak and effeminate is a staple of their conversations and a subtle warning to anyone who might try to wimp out, homosexual or not. In a brutal sport like football, teammates need to know the guys they line up next to are not going to crack in stressful situations.

None of that is to excuse hazing or singling out weaklings for punishment but it's almost like asking players to play without helmets if they can't tease and heckle teammates, sometimes with profane and ribald humor. The problem with basing political correctness according to what the offended finds offensive is that the offended seem always eager to move the goalposts to the point of absurdity.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

The problem with basing political correctness according to what the offended finds offensive...

There are plenty more people than Martin who are offended.

And referring to it as political correctness just makes you look more ridiculous than usual.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Jock confines tend to be bastions of physical humor and overt masculinity. Making fun of the weak and effeminate is a staple of their conversations and a subtle warning to anyone who might try to wimp out, homosexual or not. In a brutal sport like football, teammates need to know the guys they line up next to are not going to crack in stressful situations.

None of that is to excuse hazing or singling out weaklings for punishment but it's almost like asking players to play without helmets if they can't tease and heckle teammates, sometimes with profane and ribald humor. The problem with basing political correctness according to what the offended finds offensive is that the offended seem always eager to move the goalposts to the point of absurdity.

True dat.
National sports media types like Tony Kornheiser & Jim Rome who never played football even in HS and majored in English Lit in college are now imposing their cultural values on the NFL. I see the possibility of an NFL with non-contact rules, perhaps total touch-football only in our future and a code-of-conduct including rules prohibiting unacceptable language.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by chuck

There are plenty more people than Martin who are offended.

And referring to it as political correctness just makes you look more ridiculous than usual.

Of course, it's political correctness. What do you think the whole "Redskins" thing is about? What do you think all this media lovefest over Michael Sam is about? What do you think the NFL dresses up all in pink for an entire friggin month is about? It's kissing ass of every minority group out there so that none of them feels offended so they don't picket outside stadiums, take the NFL to court, vote against their publicly-funded stadiums or reduce the NFL's earning power in any way.

What's even more ridiculous is that the NFL is probably 70% African-American and yet they still have to cloak themselves in all this PC garbage.

Words in a locker room. That's all the Dolphins thing is about. I went to high school in Houston in a mixed-race environment in the early 1970s and there were whites (even coaches) who teased the blacks and blacks who teased the whites and if anyone was offended, we settled it out back behind the gym like men. But most of the time the teasing just allowed both of us to laugh with each other and bond as teammates.

We are a society now that is wound way too tight and way too eager to act offended at anything because there is political power in claiming victimhood. We've institutionalized political preference based on race, gender and sexual orientation which accomplishes just the opposite of the alleged goals of ending racism and sexism. They've now legally sanctioned it.

I'll end here since this is a football board.

[chuck]

No surprise, you have it completely wrong. The concept of political correctness is a fantasy dreamed up by paleolithic skidmarks like you who seek to claim victimhood from a society increasingly impatient with their various idiocies. Of course you would belittle native groups who find caricatures demeaning. Of course you would pretend that media attention surrounding a gay player is because of people like me and not precisely because of people like you. Of course it makes sense to you that a guy like Matin address his issues with violence. In your bizarre sub-reality societal problems would disappear if only we'd all just ignore them.

You have one thing right, though - parading ones self around as a victim is unbecoming. It's pathetic, actually.

[HPF Bob]

I'm no victim other than to that which is common to all of us and watching a government that encroaches seemingly daily on our freedoms and protections.

But of course it makes sense to protest a tacky nickname of an NFL team to distract the masses from the failings of the economic illiterate in the White House who keeps minority unemployment above 15% with his job-killing mandates. If the Redskins change their names, the Native American community sees no tangible benefit but if more sensible economic policies were in place, thousands of Native Americans might have a job or get a better-paying job, improving countless lives. So, by all means, protest what's truly important like what a football team decides to call itself.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

But of course it makes sense to protest a tacky nickname of an NFL team to distract the masses from the failings of the economic illiterate in the White House who keeps minority unemployment above 15% with his job-killing mandates. If the Redskins change their names, the Native American community sees no tangible benefit but if more sensible economic policies were in place, thousands of Native Americans might have a job or get a better-paying job, improving countless lives. So, by all means, protest what's truly important like what a football team decides to call itself.

If the argument over the Redskins name was truly just meant to stir up trouble and distract the easily distracted masses from real problems, and if I wanted to see those real problems given their due attention, then would I…

1. Engage in an argument with the PC crowd about how the Redskins can be the Redskins and nobody has the right to tell them otherwise. Thus heightening the argument and drawing even more attention to it.

2. Or Would I say that yes, that name should be changed, putting the discussion to sleep, and putting the attention back on the problems I think are more important.

Seems pretty obvious I would go with #2 every time if my motive was really to focus on what matters. But it takes two to tango. The anti-PC crowd wants to argue on these subjects every bit as much as the PC crowd does. Neither of the sides that shout and bang their fist really wants to accomplish change, they just want to be heard.

As for the Martin case, it is clear that Miami was a mess, even if you want to grade on a huge football testosterone curve. And if it takes an English lit guy like Kornheiser to help the football guys understand that threatening to rape each other’s families is not a productive way to bond in the work place, then I am glad someone finally got some use out of an English lit degree.

[chuck]

I don't care what the Redskins call themselves but I am wondering what an economically astute fellow such as Bob might suggest to spur job creation.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by chuck

I don't care what the Redskins call themselves but I am wondering what an economically astute fellow such as Bob might suggest to spur job creation.

If you live in Texas, the answer is right under your nose. Texas combined sensible budgets, low taxes and incentives for business to create a pro-business environment that added jobs while much of the rest of the country was losing them. Yes, Rick Perry tried to take credit for it when he was just a small part but the formula works - that should be undeniable.

The Texas economy would be even stronger were it not for meddling from Washington, particularly the EPA. If the next president (this one is hopeless) killed ObamaCare and used government to grow the private sector instead of strangle it, you would see a major economic comeback rather than the five years of ineptitude we have seen.

[Nconroe]

Originally Posted by barrett

As for the Martin case, it is clear that Miami was a mess, even if you want to grade on a huge football testosterone curve. And if it takes an English lit guy like Kornheiser to help the football guys understand that threatening to rape each other’s families is not a productive way to bond in the work place, then I am glad someone finally got some use out of an English lit degree.

So, three controversial discussions on this harrassment topic.

Well, I agree with Chuck and Barrett, as I understand it, in thinking Dolphins were and maybe are still out of control on player relationships.

They had multiple players and coaches acting very poorly over a long period of time, not just one accidental slip of the tongue.

This is not excusable with comments like that's the way it is. or its PC. You guys need to read the study a little closer.

Those days if they existed are gone. And the team ownership and league need to make an example on this and quite likely will.

The harshness of the league likely depends on words of ownership and coaches. Miami has already changed their GM, partly due to this topic.

[HPF Bob]

The Dolphins have fired the trainer and coach involved.

[nunusguy]

A rule change, rooted in the same issue of respect, could also be on the horizon. The league’s competition committee is contemplating a policy of penalizing a player 15 yards for using discriminatory language on the field, most notably a racial slur used against African-Americans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/sp...ield.html?_r=0
*****
For all of the fans of English Prof Kornheiser, you'll probably cheer loudly for this proposed rule.

[chuck]

No one asked me but I think this proposed rule is idiotic.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

A rule change, rooted in the same issue of respect, could also be on the horizon. The league’s competition committee is contemplating a policy of penalizing a player 15 yards for using discriminatory language on the field, most notably a racial slur used against African-Americans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/sp...ield.html?_r=0
*****
For all of the fans of English Prof Kornheiser, you'll probably cheer loudly for this proposed rule.

Belichick will have his players learn ventriliquism.