Jonathan Martin and the Miami Dolphins

Grown assed men actling like fucking kids. Enough with this bullshit. All involved need a timeout.

 

Hoge said on SportsCenter this morning that hitting up rookies for $15,000 is a regular occurrence, he even said the amount was low.

Don't really believe that... I get there's a locker room code of silence, but that's a large chunk of change (especially for a rookie) to be doling out without someone saying something.

 

I wonder how many of the reporters positioning themselves as "in the know" now were part of the vote that gave Incognito their Good Guy Award last year.

 

In 1998, T.J. Simers wrote a story in training camp that was the beginning of the end for Ryan Leaf in San Diego. One of the central anecdotes was Leaf getting very, very upset that Junior Seau stole the rookie's credit card and took teammates to dinner.

 

So, the Dolphins have said,

Go, Incognito.

 

It's not unheard of, as long as more than a few rookies are being stuck with the bill. If one rookie had to foot the entire bill, that would be noteworthy, unless the guy was a top pick, one who got a giant signing bonus...

 

The three NFL teams I dealt with all had meals during training camp when the rookies would take the veterans out and pay the bill. Typically, the rookies would split the bill, or if there was one guy who was a really high pick, he might pick up the tab. I know of a first-round QB who picked up the tab for the entire dinner, which was $18K. He didn't mind doing that, but he was then informed that he had to take out the offensive linemen as well. That tab was $6K and he was pissed about that one because they were dicks about it and were ordering food and wine that they had no intention of drinking...

I wrote the story about the $18K dinner. I didn't know about the lineman dinner until later in the season when the QB in question was still pissed at two of the players involved in that meal.

 

Like, say, Dez Bryant ...

I don't like this tradition, of rookies having to pick up astronomical tabs, just for kicks. To me, one's money is almost sacrosanct. I get that these guys get paid good money, but $15K is $15K. If someone actually wants to live modestly, it seems like he should be allowed to do that.

 

It can be a nice tradition.

The story I did on the $18K meal was one of my favorite stories I did because the players were talking about how fun it was and how happy they were when the first rounder picked up the whole tab, even though it was supposed to be split among eight guys.

When guys start, I hate the use the word "bullying" but I guess it fits, and push it too far, that's where a cool tradition can turn into something pretty shitty...

 

Mizzou, I think you were in a college fraternity. I thought you had mentioned it here.

I went through "hell week," and I thought it was a ton of fun. Nothing was out of hand. It was mostly a big bonding experience. But occasionally, you'd get someone who would just flip the fuck out about it. My brother went nuts on an active during his week, when I was a senior and he was a freshman - not surprisingly, the active who was being the biggest asshole to him was the guy who had taken the most shit and hated going through it the most when he was in my class. (Now they go to Cardinals games together regularly. Go figure.)

 

None of the seniors on my high school team ever asked me to pick up a $30K dinner tab.