dagblog - Comments for "Jonathan Martin Does Not Need Your Nonsense"

My experience with the army

ocean-kat — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 06:49:31 +0000

My experience with the army in 77 to 81 was that those in command did not use other low level personnel to enforce discipline. Not even in basic training. Everyone goes through the same basic combat training, though there may be some differences between the services. during my time after basics I was in a non-combat MOS (military occupational specialty, simply a job classification) I have heard that this sort of bullying is used in advanced combat training and combat units.

Mike Pouncey, the

rmrd0000 — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:49:10 +0000

In reply to Jonathan Martin Does Not Need Your Nonsense

Mike Pouncey, the African-American Miami Dophin Center, has been served and is being requested to testify in the Aaron Hernandez trial. Hernandez,, a firmer Boston Patriot, has been charged in a murder. Pouncey was a college roommate of Hernandez. Pouncey and his brother wore hats supporting Hernandez after the charges were filed.i suppose Hernandez is more authentically Black than Martin in Pouncey's eyes.

Yes to all of this. First of

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:33:54 +0000

In reply to The charge of weakness is a

Yes to all of this.

First of all, Jonathan Martin can't fight Richie Incognito. Given both man's size and strength, the only physical option would be felony criminal assault. Anyone attacking Incognito would have to set out to do real damage. And someone Jonathan Martin's size attacking someone with the intent to do real damage is almost inevitably criminal assault.

And of course, forcing a grown adult to fight other men in the locker room is a way to strip him of his dignity and self-worth. Martin was surely raised to see that kind of behavior as a sign of complete personal failure.

Any workplace that even passively encourages its workers to physically attack each other has gone, and I'm going to use a technical term here, batshit insane.

I don't know, Peter. I

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:21:21 +0000

In reply to Same with the military. Yes,

I don't know, Peter. I haven't been through basic training, but my hope and general understanding is that military training is not like this. And I react strongly to people who use militarized language to glorify the NFL, as if football players were soldiers. Playing football is not fighting a war, and virtually no one involved in the NFL has ever served.

There is the endless abuse of people who are deployed over and over again, and kept on duty when they should be sent home to heal, and those are people who don't have enough choices. But that's about policies that go much deeper than training regimes.

Yeah, the race and class

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:10:22 +0000

In reply to Chris Rock makes the comment

Yeah, the race and class thing was something I didn't want to get into, but it's very sad.

Yeah, I saw this Times story

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:09:17 +0000

In reply to This fellow did just walk

Yeah, I saw this Times story right after I posted. It's nice to be timely.

It's interesting that Moffitt quit shortly after Martin did.

Thanks, Orlando.

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 02:05:07 +0000

In reply to This blog is even more

Thanks, Orlando.

The charge of weakness is a

Michael Maiello — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 23:19:47 +0000

In reply to Jonathan Martin Does Not Need Your Nonsense

The charge of weakness is a pretty interesting knee jerk response. How do we treat or think about people who respond to bullying with violence? In this case, people are saying, "that giant can't be a victim of bullying. It makes no sense." But what is the expectation here? That he use his physical attributes to put a stop to it? Is that really the world that people want to live in? Our lives are full of hierarchies, after all. Large, physically imposing men can be bullied by smaller bosses or smaller police officers or even smaller people in the service industry. Should the larger man lash out against every Napoleon complex he encounters? What if the bully is a woman? We don't want these big guys to be weak, though. It hurts the mythology we've built around them. So, okay. We're giving them license to lash out. No, we are demanding that they lash out. I wonder if there might be unforeseen consequences to this. If you are large and can be reasonably expected to hurt the people who bother you, then you must not remove yourself from an abusive situation and heaven forbid if you seek counseling. A good number of people want you to lose it and take some villain's head off his shoulders!

Except they don't want that because these people are the first to demand the police get involved when that actually happens. They are the first to demand tough criminal sentences. They are the first to demand the quick restoration of civilized order.

Or maybe they just want to big guy to shut up and take it and never do anything about it. That means that these people are taking the bully's side. You have to wonder why they would. I'm sure the people around them could offer some explanations.

Actually just ran across an

Donal — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:34:33 +0000

In reply to Lacrosse is big around here.

Actually just ran across an ESPN article, Youth football participation drops:

The nation's largest youth football program, Pop Warner, saw participation drop 9.5 percent between 2010-12, a sign that the concussion crisis that began in the NFL is having a dramatic impact at the lowest rungs of the sport. According to data provided to "Outside the Lines," Pop Warner lost 23,612 players, thought to be the largest two-year decline since the organization began keeping statistics decades ago. Consistent annual growth led to a record 248,899 players participating in Pop Warner in 2010; that figure fell to 225,287 by the 2012 season. Pop Warner officials said they believe several factors played a role in the decline, including the trend of youngsters focusing on one sport. But the organization's chief medical officer, Dr. Julian Bailes, cited concerns about head injuries as "the No. 1 cause."

Lacrosse is big around here.

Donal — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 16:00:57 +0000

In reply to Chris Rock makes the comment

Lacrosse is big around here.