NEW YORK (AP) — For much of the regular season, starting when offensive lineman Jonathan Martin left the Miami Dolphins in late October, locker room bullying was a toxic topic that roiled the NFL.
There have been outrageous allegations and “he said, he said” accusations about what happened in Miami between Martin and suspended teammate Richie Incognito. Other players around the league have told stories about being forced to foot $10,000 dinner bills.
And now, as the offseason begins and the Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks concludes Sunday night, hazing — and the line between playful banter and inappropriate harassment — will once again be part of conversations about professional football.
“It’s kind of the culture of football: There’s rites of passage. That’s kind of how veterans look at it. If you have veterans who want to take advantage of it, it can be bad. But if you have good veterans, nothing crazy is going to happen,” said Broncos defensive tackle Sione Fua, who played college football at Stanford with Martin.
“I’m sure after everything that happened to Jonathan, the NFL is probably going to take matters into their own hands and maybe be stricter about it or ask coaches to be more accountable, I guess, to really make sure their team doesn’t do anything bad,” Fua said. “We’ll see what happens.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell insists he will be the first to address the issue.
“Our number one priority is to make sure we have a professional work environment, recognizing that we have unique circumstances. But we have to make sure that our players (and) our other employees have that type of professional work environment,” Goodell said Friday, indicating it may be time for the league to issue new guidelines.
As it stands, the topic of workplace behavior is brought up with players at the league’s annual rookie symposium, and all 32 teams are supposed to address it during training camp each year.
The NFL’s player policy manual distributed during training camp outlines the league’s personal conduct policy, which includes provisions for violent or threatening behavior between employees inside or outside the workplace.
“I’ve already started discussions with external parties. I’ve talked to the union. I’ve also met with several groups of players, individually and collectively, to discuss the circumstances. What do we need to do? What do we all want? And the first thing I hear and the first thing I believe is that we all need to get back to respect,” Goodell said.
“It’s respect for others, respect for the game, respect for your organizations, respect for your opponents, for the game officials,” he continued.
Goodell stressed that education and “eventually” policy change will be priorities.
“I’m certainly supportive” of considering new guidelines for locker room behavior, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said, calling it “a positive for the NFL and for the Kansas City Chiefs to actually study this.”
In a televised interview this week with former NFL head coach Tony Dungy, now an analyst for NBC, Martin said he wasn’t the only Dolphins player to be the victim of hazing. He also said racist, aggressive and sexually suggestive comments all played a role in his departure from the team.
“I have no problem with the usual hazing that you see in the NFL, the haircuts, that kind of thing, the little pranks,” Martin said. “But the personal, aggressive nature, I don’t think there’s any room for that.”
Incognito said he regretted the racist and foul language he used with Martin, but said it stemmed from a culture of “brotherhood” in the locker room, not bullying.
The NFL has hired a lawyer, Ted Wells, to investigate what happened in Miami and issue a public report. The league is waiting until after the most important game of the season to release its findings.
The NFL Players Association is conducting its own investigation, but union head DeMaurice Smith said Martin declined to be interviewed.
Smith, who often disagrees with Goodell on all sorts of issues, actually praised the NFL for its handling of the case, comparing it to the New Orleans Saints bonus case.
“The manner in which the league conducted this investigation was what we believe to be consistent and appropriate,” Smith said.
“This is an area where there has been a considerable level of cooperation between the players’ union and the league on this issue,” Smith said, “because I believe we both have a vested interest in making sure our workplaces are safe.”
Some players on the Super Bowl teams said they expected the NFL to make sure something like this never happened again because, as Broncos safety Michael Huff said, “it was such a big deal, such a big deal.”
“The more information they can give the players, the better. The more you can educate the players, the better,” Seahawks special teams player Chris Maragos said. “I’m sure they’ll take steps to continue to improve what’s happening in the NFL and make sure all the bases are covered.”
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AP professional football writer Barry Wilner contributed to this report.
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Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at https://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
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AP NFL Website: www.pro32.ap.org
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