Former Dolphin: Martin didn't tell Philbin about bullying for fear of being let go

So...he didnt tell Philbin. Therefore, he has no case. Good.

 

Also strengthens that "martins a p****" argument if he was really that afraid.

 

Gee... more speculation from an unnamed former player who was unhappy to be released... why don't they interview the janitors and equipment guys too? Surely they know something or can speculate as well.

 

The problem with this article is that you have a voice on the outside who was here last year and voices that he thinks Martin may have feared being let go of if he went to Philbin with his problems. It is supposition at best, particularly since it has already been established that Martin did go to Joe Philbin in the spring about personal issues and questioned his desire to play football.

Another problem with this article is that Joe Philbin does not make roster moves. That falls on Jeff Ireland. Now last year, Philbin may have suggested to Ireland that he wanted a player moved, and Ireland obliged. This year though, we have established that the relationship between Joe and Jeff is strained, and that Joe talks more with Dawn Aponte than he does with Jeff Ireland.

The one thing you can take out of the article is that this is yet another player that believes Martin has taken the wrong course in dealing with this.

 

This whole thing is a god damn mess.

 

Actually, those guys probably know more than the coaches. Go read Andrew Brandt's column he wrote on the Dolphins situation and Joe Philbin in particular. The equipment managers, cleaners....etc....were termed "bartenders" in the locker room.

http://mmqb.si.com/2013/11/08/richie-incognito-jonathan-martin-joe-philbin/

 

Remind me not to go to CitizenSnips Attorney-at-Law next time I have a workplace dispute.

The article does not say whether or not Martin complained, it said that there were grounds for Martin to believe he could be fired if he went to Philbin with a complaint.

Getting rid of prima donnas and locker room cancers is good. Creating an environment where people with legitimate complaints feel that they will lose their job if they raise the complaint, not so good.

While it varies from state to state the law takes a dim view of workplaces that actively discourage workers from raising grievances with their employer as a method for management to claim they were unaware of problems. In most jurisdictions the employer's responsibility is a positive one, i.e. the employer needs to have avenues for workers to lodge grievances without the worker fearing retribution.

 

I'm ready to be done with Ireland and bring in a new GM, but I try to be fair to him as well. Ireland makes roster moves, but he isn't going to cut a player and hurt the team without Philbin's input anymore than he is going to draft or sign a guy without the coaching staff's input on how their abilities and team "fit".

As for the strained relationship, how do we know the validity of that or the catalyst for it? Just because Aponte and Philbin seem chummy with the saga of this season, doesn't mean that they are ostracizing Ireland. Where is the real proof?

 

But unlike normal jobs, he's under contract for at least 3 more years. He couldn't be "fired" anyway. Its not like you can just drop a player and not have to pay him anymore. I don't get how he could be afraid. A player picked in the top 3 rounds usually has at least 3 years of security as long as the same gm is around.

Don't get why the former player remained anonymous either. Yet another mythical source in a story filled with them.

 

The guys got a big wad of cash from his rookie contract. The easiest way for him to get a payday is just to perform badly enough to get cut and walk away. I used to tell my clients back in the day that once you take out lawyers fees, loss of income whilst the legal case is going through, the pain and uncertainty of putting yourself through a legal claim and the loss of income because your job opportunities get more limited if you make the claim the vast majority of people take a loss by lodging a claim. I'm sure tha Jon Martin's parents are well aware of that.

The research on why people sue show that for the vast majority it is about feeling they have been treated unjustly and they are seeking acknowledgement of that.

Sure there are some people who fake claims and make a very handy profit out of it, but they are far less common than most people think.

If Jon Martin wants a payday the easiest way for him is to drop out of the NFL quietly, enrol in law at Harvard and become a high priced suit for hire. Being involved in a national media storm would rank very highly on the things to avoid doing if he just wanted a payday.

 

Yeah, but how many of them have pockets like the Dolphins or the NFL? Lawyers will never go after someone that doesn't have money.

 

This is where having Philbin as the Head Coach was part of the problem.

As some pointed out as early as during Hard Knocks last year, Philbin seemed to try to avoid directly dealing with difficult situations with players. He preferred shipping them out. Marshall. Ocho (who had image and legal issues too, to be fair).

That continued with the entire leadership council from last year, and Karlos Dansby as well.

That's just what we saw from the OUTISDE. From the inside, Jon Martin may have seen other players let go after voicing any kind of problems at all with how things were going for them in the locker room. And even though this was NOT what caused the Martin nuclear meltdown, imo, it WAS one of the reasons it wasn't averted.

If Philbin fostered an environment that TRULY encourgaed players to openly express concerns to him, an environment that let them voice issues without it seeming to come back to affect them negatively (i.e. let go), then there would be more chance Martin could have been willing to seek a meeting with Philbin before going down the road he chose instead.

This went nuclear, in part, because one of the cooling valves meant to be an avenue for keeping things from escalating to crisis-level was not available to help coool the reactor when it began to overheat.

If Philbin walked his talk, and had a truly open office door for guys who weren't 100% okay with things, then maybe we could have averted the disaster we face today. Though maybe it still happens.

Either way, Joe Philbin may be a good X's and O's coach, but I have doubts about his ability to connect with his players, and be the kind of leader an NFL team needs. IMO, he lacks the interpersonal-skills, and, the courage to be comfortable having difficult conversations with players instead of 'making them go away'.

 

Yeah, but the Dolphins are known a-holes who are very aggressive when it comes to legal matters. That might scare off some frivolous suits, but it does encourage trench warfare when it comes to legitimate complaints, e.g. OJ McDuffie. Also for this type of action most of the time you're dealing with an insurer not the company, who have deeper pockets than NFL teams.

 

I agree with you strongly. Obviously, I dont know Philbin personally, but he has always come across as something even more than cold and impersonal to me. Distant, with dead eyes, no warmth at all. No expression, no humanity.

I dont know Martin either, but as a 36 year old man who has always been very passive, who was bullied badly growing up, and has dealt with anxiety issues as an adult, I can see how all of this contributed to what went down.

 

So now we are writing articles on the speculative as evidence?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

I went through my own personal workplace hell a decade ago. It wasn't bullying, but I had a supervisor who wasn't meeting her targets so her response was to load more work onto the best performers rather than manage up the poor performers. I ended up working 7 days a week, 10+ hours a day for over 12 months trying to keep up with the workload she put on me. I went through all the appropriate channels to get the situation resolved but the people higher up the chain didn't care (My boss was meeting her targets, I was meeting mine, so what problem?)

Having been in a situation where I have had no confidence in my superiors to resolve my legitimate complaints I can tell you that it is soul destroying, It chips away every single day. From my perspective it doesn't matter how warm or nice your boss is, in fact my best boss ever was a cold distant son of a ***** who was a genius at his job who gave me respect for being good at my job, but the important thing is having confidence that he/she will treat problems seriously and will resolve them appropriately.

 

So hes afraid to go to Philbin about the alleged bulling .Hes afraid to go to Richie about the alleged bullying . Hes plays like hes afraid to block a DE.How did this guy make it to the NFL

 

They key difference between your scenario and the Martin one, was you tried to follow the proper channels. Martin, did not. As far as everyone on the team is concerned, Martin went from being one of the guys to dropping nukes, in the span of a week.

 

So you think PHilbin is the walking dead come to coach?

 

I dont watch the show, but what he reminds me of is a poorly animated character in a video game, where on the surface he looks like a human and his eyes move in his skull, but there's just something wrong and it doesnt work, lol. The illusion is broken

 

Did you know that last year, after each win Philbin danced a jig for the players before his victory speech? The dances weren't filmed because he said they were just for his players. Or that players have said that he's actually really funny, its just his delivery is very dry and it took them a little bit to get the hang of it.

 

So he reminds you of an unfinished Disney animatron?

 

"IDK about u but im not hanging out with a guy that called me the n word and said he was gonna **** in my mouth, if i thought he was serious"

Brent grimes wife.

 

I think that was the case at first, but it appears that over this past summer, Joe loosened up and started showing his dry sense of humor with his players. Now, we have him going to his players and initially wanting them to stay quiet on the subject and defer all questions to him, and then he gets fired up around them, showing a lot of emotion, and tells them to go ahead and defend themselves because no one else was going to do that for them. It really seems like the players connected with him. I guess we will see as the season goes along, but we may be seeing a head coach that was starting to get more comfortable with his job and is using this adversity to connect even more with his players.

Plus, what I was thinking initial was that this was one of those problems that Joe ignored, but it is becoming more and more apparent that Jonathan Martin simply didn't let anyone know he was having problems up until the point he left.

 

Bottom line here.

I think Jeff Ireland will be fired regardless of the way the season ends. I think there are probably enough issues between he and Joe when it comes to personnel that the two will not be able to coexist long term. I also think it is a move that needs to be made for PR purposes as well. The fans hate him. The players hate him. So, he has to go at this point.

I'm 50/50 on whether Joe Philbin will be retained. I think if the team finishes strong, he may not only be retained. He may be put in a position to assist in hiring the new GM, whether the Dolphins make the PR move of making Dawn Aponte the first female GM in football, or if they go outside the program and possibly bring in someone from Green Bay such as Brian Getukunst, Richard Ball, or Alonzo Highsmith.

There is a definite chance that even though their may not be much to this story when everything finishes out, Stephen Ross may feel like this is enough of a black eye to completely restructure things and clean house.

 

So not a keeper.

 

It's amazing that it is considered relentless excuse-making and putting an idea before facts to take the victim's statements at face value. Not to mention when we know so much about the alleged perpetrator.

It's quite possible that Martin is being duplicitous or dishonest, but the evidence isn't stuff that is basically Understanding Bullying 101. You've got no reason to blame Martin other than your desire to blame Martin at this point, and you're doing so contrary to a mountain of evidence.

You're white-knighting a guy whom has been kicked off of his fourth team, whom is one of the most disliked players in the league. This episode at the golf course should really leave no illusions that Incognito is capable of the worst kind of harassment and abuse that isn't the slightest bit good natured, too.

 

Actually we're just waiting for real facts instead of listening to and hanging on sources who've done more 180s in the last week than most figure skaters do in a lifetime but whatever you gotta call it..

 

You're holding it in the best possible light for no other reason other than allegiance to the football team.

What exactly has changed that we need to radically re-calibrate how we look at this?

 

The Dolphins give Dansby an option to stay at a lower salary.

 

That's his fault then, Martin wasn't going to get released, Ireland is not going to cut a guy he's pushing the coach to play.

 

If you say so. I must be missing the posts that say Incog is a saint and totally innocent. Could you direct me to them?

The whole thing about Martin having that message for 6 months then just now having issue with it after he was benched should be a huge red flag to everyone.

 

As for recalibrating (nice way to put it), Fin D has a whole thread dedicated to the media and lynching mob's recalibrations.

 

Former Dolphin: Martin didn't tell Philbin about bullying for fear of being let go ???
well, that's a novel idea... anyone who has played contact sports or did a stint in the military knows better. bullies are a found on playgrounds not football fields.

 

Well when I broke down I was told by HR that I should have continued with the proper channels. So as far as the organisation was concerned I hadn't followed proper channels and dropped a nuke on them. From my point of view I had tried the proper channels - spoken to my supervisor and her boss and nothing was done (some nice things were said but nothing was done) so why would I go back and put myself through that process again when it was a proven WOFTAM?

So if Martin's initial complaints/approaches to resolve the situation were dismissed or not taken seriously then I can believe that Martin would feel that going back with more complaints would be pointless at best or counterproductive at worst.