I’ve been fascinated by the reactions to the Jonathan Martin bullying situation. For those of you not familiar with the situation, he was allegedly bullied by his teammates and things got so bad that he left the team to seek treatment. There are many that empathize with Martin and believe that he’s a victim. There are those that feel that this behavior is unacceptable for an NFL player — an occupation perceived by many Americans to be macho.
On one hand, the Jonathan Martin bullying controversy shows how universal the issue can be. Bullying can happen to a person of any race, sex, ethnicity, occupation, etc. Seeing it happen to a professional athlete — especially an NFL player — is extraordinary. Some believe that this is a fantastic example that shows the severity of bullying — something that will help people realize that it’s not just something that happens to kids in grade school.
On the other hand, some believe that this is a sign of the softening of the NFL and society in general. Several of you RPadholics have accused NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of “pussifying” the league. Several ESPN.com commenters have said that the Jonathan Martin bullying situation never would have happened in the NFL of the ’70, ’80s, and ’90s. It can be argued that American sports have gone soft and Martin is an example of how soft things have become.
Since you RPadholics are outstanding at bringing up interesting points of view without blasting each other like the silly kids on G4tv.com, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Jonathan Martin bullying situation. Is he the victim of dickish teammates that was driven to seek therapy for legitimate emotional issues? Or is the problem ridiculous for highly-paid athletes that have one of the manliest jobs in America? Kindly vote in the poll below and share your feelings like a Care Bear in the comments section.
[poll id=”187″]
I voted “all off the above”. because I could.
Eh. It’s a job. And there’s always somebody at your work that doesn’t like you. The only difference is that his job entails physical activity with other people, so the physicalness manifests itself that way. If he were in an office environment, he’d quit because people were being assholes to him. Like I said before, you can’t force people to like each other.
The situation sucks but people have been jerks to each other at work since the Jews built the pyramids.
-M
I don’t think this is an example of a sports league “going soft” rather finally recognizing something that is wrong and allowing it to be addressed instead of ignoring it and pretending it doesn’t exist. Personally I don’t think sports, or people for that matter, are suddenly “softer” in this day and age, but we are more willing to admit that things are wrong. For example, ww2 soldiers had to deal with pretty much identical mental issues as today’s soldiers, but everyone knows who we as a culture identify as being the “tougher” generation of the two. People tend to forget that people have always had feelings and emotions; it’s not some new thing that only recently came about.
I’d have to say all of the above. There’s a fine line between hazing and bullying and I think Incognito crossed that line. But, I think Martins reaction was just a little to over dramatic. Its one thing to remove yourself and avoid the situation by leaving the team but to go and “seek treatment” just tells me he was as soft as baby shit.