UPDATE: Richie Incognito

Bully, or Employee of the Month?

Bully, or Employee of the Month?

Yesterday, The Machine awarded our Tuesday Teabag to Richie Incognito (whose name, we’re told, is code for “Dick in Disguise”) for his bullying/harassment of Jonathon Martin and subsequent suspension from the Dolphins.  The story seems simply:  a player with a known history of anger issues and being a douche clown harassed and intimidated a teammate.  Everyone was quick to jump on the “Condemn Richie” bandwagon.  However, this story has elevated to Manti Te’o crazy…we’re learning new things constantly, and it just keeps getting crazier and crazier.  And because journalistic integrity is super important to The Machine, we want to give you the latest, which is this:

Richie Incognito is a victim.

Let that marinate for a second, and then hear us out.  Yesterday, we (astutely) said the following:  “Makes you think that [the Dolphins are] taking it seriously not because they just found out about it, but because everyone else did.”

Bingo!  That’s exactly what’s happened.  Last night, the Sun Sentinel reported that Dolphins coaches instructed Incognito to “toughen up” Martin, and that’s what led to Richie leaving that voice message and his persistent targeting of him.  And the timing supports this.  The voice mail in question was left in April, right after Martin missed two days of (voluntary) team practices.  That’s when Richie, known as the Team Enforcer, was told by coaches to contact Martin to “get him in the fold.”  He did it at the direction of his employer, and now he’s being held out as the sacrificial lamb for doing his job. 

Now, of course the Dolphins will say that they didn’t know what Richie was going to say, they never told him to say those things, and that he crossed the line.  That all may be true, it’s all after the fact, cover your ass bullshit.  Why didn’t the Dolphins ask Ryan Tannehill to reach out to Martin?  Because they wanted to send the right message, and now the Dolphins are doing everything they can to distance themselves from the messenger.

But it’s too little too late.  It’s like hiring Ron Jeremy to teach your son about sex, and then getting pissed when he goes for the money shot on the neighbor’s daughter. 

Richie, get back there and practice that message again, this time with a little more flare!

Richie, get back there and practice that message again, this time with a little more flare!

So how is Richie the victim?  Perhaps he really had changed his ways (or was trying to) but the team kept calling on him to be the Enforcer, the take no prisoners asshole that gets everyone in line.  Maybe he was just doing his job, perhaps overzealously, but still at the direction of his employer.  That explains why there is more support for Richie in the Dolphins locker room than Martin.  He was doing what he was told, for the betterment of the team.  The same team that callously used him and then tossed him aside.

There are a ton of things wrong here, and by wrong we mean actionable conduct that the league will be forced to investigate.  First, the fact that the team is (allegedly) pressuring players to attend voluntary team workouts.  These voluntary practices are exactly that…voluntary, and they are voluntary because that are specifically bargained for in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the NFLPA.  Any violation by a team of the CBA is a big no-no, what lawyers refer to as a ULP (Unfair Labor Practice).  To use another legal term:  that’s some serious shit.

Also, it seems that the Dolphins not only knew that Richie was harassing Martin, but instructed him to do so.  Can you say hostile work environment?  An employer ordering an employee to “toughen up” another employee is frowned upon, especially when the employer asks someone known as “the Enforcer” to do their bidding.

The Dolphins quick response to this issue, while championed by folks as showing the world that they’re not going to tolerate this sort of behavior, is all a smokescreen, designed to protect the organization.  However, the spotlight has been (rightfully) put on the team, and The Machine’s willing to bet that the Dolphins aren’t going to be able to withstand scrutiny.  We’re thinking fines, potential loss of draft picks, and suspensions from the coaching staff.  Coach Philbin has some explaining to do. 

This has now become larger than Richie Incognito (don’t worry, he’s still worthy of his Teabag).  This has changed from a player (on his own) harassing a teammate into a team-sanctioned policy of violating the CBA and actively assisting in creating a hostile work environment.  Heads are going to roll.

Who knows where this will end, but this much is for sure:  there’s still a lot more crazy to be uncovered.

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