Shannon Sharpe: The Dolphins were cowards, Philbin should be suspended

I'm not sure you can characterize it as cowardly, but there absolutely was a leadership void.

 

Yeah I heard him on the show this morning. Whether we agree or not he has a strong voice and I believe him that if he had witnessed what happened he would have stopped it. We need strong leaders like that.

 

I don't want to hear former players talk about this much because similar stuff could have happened around them but now they're just taking the bully pulpit. I'm pretty sure Sharpe was on the Ravens during Billick's tenure. That very same team is notable for having locked coaches out of the locker room during hazing activities. Should Billick have been suspended?

 

Doesn't invalidate Sharpe's point one bit.

If you're in charge, you're responsible.

Except, of course, when you work for Steve Ross.

 

Yaaaaaawn. I'm sure his hazing was ALWAYS politically correct.

 

Weren't the Dallas Cowboys during the Jimmy Johnson years notorious for their antics in the locker room?

 

The Dolphin locker room were cowards because they couldn't read J. Martin's mind.

 

Didn't Sharpe piss on our field? F..k em.

 

This whole thing is REALLY interesting. Everyone knows and has known for a LONG time that NFL locker rooms are some rough areas. Everybody has at least been aware that some rough **** goes down in there,

Here's why it's interesting: Why is it now such a big deal. The media, fans, and everybody who's angry at the Miami Dolphins only, and mad at bullying, is being hypocritical. Essentially what you're telling me is that bullying, hazing, quasi-racism, sexism, and homophobia is A-OK as long as everyone can take it. Fans and the media have been complicit in this because all of this has been implicit since time immemorial.

EDIT: I'm in no way defending anyone or anything that occurred. I think that people involved will probably be suspended, and rightfully so. The NFL wants to protect the integrity of the shield and if it takes making a big a huff about something just because it becomes public, so be it.

 

Here is some information to help with perspective

 

No, its not OK under any circumstances. The Miami Dolphins literally made everyone sign and agree to a policy prohibiting it. Bullying, hazing, etc. inherently acts of imposition. These aren't things people seek. I've never heard anyone say "I want to be hazed".

 

"...able to handle the mocking"? That pretty much refutes his claim that there was distress in the relationship. When you have to "handle" something, that almost inherently entails it being unwelcome.

 

Did anybody see the Ravens "Hard Knocks" series of episodes?

Yep....hypocrite.

 

This pretty much sums it up. The mocking and so forth was strong enough that it caused Martin to break and Garner to seek external support to cope with it. Garner is essentially suggesting the mocking was intense enough that, had he not had a fiance to lean on, he could've very well cracked too.

 

that raven situation is different KM, Sharpe is calling the dolphin players cowards for not sticking up for Martin, even though he sucked, nobody had the guts to face Cognito even though they knew damn well he was crossing lines..you can keep the coach out of the lockerooms but it's still about the players in it looking out for one another.

They were cowards..Richie and Pouncey, two meatheads who you could tell sometimes looked like they could rage on you at any moment, I've seen footage of Cognito fu&$ed up in a bar, that's a three hundred pound man that looked absolutely quick and explosive while he's mocking his black friend and saying #### in public that was completely out of line, then you have Pouncey, mr I support murderers in public and play with guns.

Sounds like double trouble had the whole locker room scared..

 

My guess is, Garner's wife told him to sack up or she was going to cut him off.

 

Sounds like the locker room thought Martin was a puss and agreed with the treatment he was receiving.

 

This has gone far enough. I'm petitioning the Hague to make jokes about mothers and sisters human rights violations under international law.

 

Well so did Channing Crowder....

 

Hazing tends to have a purpose and generally ends after a certain period of time, e.g. when people make it through training camp. Hazing can serve as a rite of passage from one mode of being to another, and it can bring people together. In the case of football players, it can bring the rookies closer together. You don't have to like it, but I think it is important to understand that hazing rituals came about to serve a purpose, and they often do serve that purpose. It can help if an organization has rules about hazing in place and if its members respect those rules.

What was described in the Wells report is not in the same category as hazing, IMO, because it didn't seem to have a purpose, and, perhaps more important, it didn't have an expiration date. There was no passage from one state of being for Martin or for anyone else; there was simply daily abuse.

 

people "handle" children. They are not always unwelcome

 

You answered one part of my post without the context in order to give an answer. You can explicitly state that this is bad and wrong and etc., but it had always been implicitly accepted because "that's how it is in locker rooms". Your individual feelings don't change the general situation.

 

Not enough for him to leave, and that mocking that was so intense was also before Incognito, Jerry and Pouncy were part of the team.

 

Yet the Dolphins defied what was the norm and created a policy which explicitly prohibited it.

 

"not enough to leave" is not an established threshold. If you are harassed and put up with it, you are still being harassed. I don't think Jon Martin handled the situation well at all, but its more than obvious that the team's policy was repeatedly and egregiously violated.

 

I saw, I don't recall their version of hazing crossing the lines.

 

Wasnt Sharpe a team mate of
[h=1]Bill Romanowski?[/h]

 

So you are telling me that it's not all totally Joe Philbins fault? Incognitos? Turners? And of course the ever so absolvable Jeff Irelands fault? That stuff like this was going on since 2008? Throws a monkey wrench into laying this at the feet of only a few people. Oh what will the hang the "clueless" Philbin People do now? I guess Armando will have to write another article with a longer list of people who were in so deep over their heads. Might even have to mention Ireland in that one....the one name he always so conveniently omits when furthering his agenda

 

I find it funny that the guys with glass houses are throwing stones.

 

I think it is the culture of the NFL

 

I agree. It kept on building to a point where someone was going to fold up.. To place this at the feet solely of Philbin and a cast of characters is a joke. People are making out that this was created by Philbin and the Dolphins. They were the ones that the hand grenade blew up finally in a lockeroom. Not giving them a pass but not laying this solely on their backs either

 

Does Philbin deserve some criticism for not knowing any of this? Alot of people place NO blame at all....he is the head coach.

 

The main problem I think is people view the nfl like they would high school. High school antics are allowed as it is acceptable. Its kind of like the army from what I see. I think its really time for America to grow up. It sucks its us having to help it do so, but it needed to happen I think.

 

Of course he does. He could have very easily been fired over this without most blinking an eye(myself included) yet to make him the poster boy of NFL incompetence is criminal. I would bet every dollar I have the same stuff...even worse went on in other lockerooms. It just blew up in ours

 

Blah blah blah!....Sharpe is the hero by default then yes? Pointless to bleat after the report. Hindsight is becoming a trend lately. Shannon Sharpe? Just another voice trying to make himself the ultimate Samaritan, voice and Saint of the locker room. Yeah ok. Join the Queue.

 

where is Shannon on the state of the locker room and leadership in the locker room that has multiple PEDs violations in the past 2 years or the locker room that had an accused killer causing trouble with it's then star? thats Seattle and New England

 

Sharp absolutely would have stopped it. i remember during Super Bowl week when the media kept badgering Ray Lewis about the murder investigation. Sharpe interrupted and told the reporters to back off...and of course they did.

 

Their version is now rumored to be banned in a future version of a NFL Camp code of conduct.

But Shannon loved when GOOOOOOOOOOSE did it...so it's all good.

 

When they taped the guy to the field goal post?

I don't consider that on the same level as what Cognito and Pouncey were doing and saying to martin..