IN MY OPINION Greg Cote: Miami Dolphins bullying scandal puts spotlight on troubling locker room ‘cu

The controversy that has mushroomed and swarmed and swallowed the Miami Dolphins franchise and its team’s season has become a real life soap opera making mere football games seem incidental.

This thing is an unholy mess wherever you turn.

The bully – suspended guard Richie Incognito – comes off as a macho clown whose maturity got stuck in middle school or (benefit of doubt) high school. It is all but certain he’ll never play for Miami again and good riddance. Let him be some other city’s problem. Better yet, let him be a former NFL lineman.

The victim, the away-on-personal-leave tackle Jonathan Martin, unfortunately and unfairly gets stigmatized now as soft or weak or a snitch, all things tough to overcome for a professional athlete, and all because he’d had enough and wouldn’t play along with the curdled culture of the locker room. I’d be surprised if he plays for the team again.

And the coach, beleaguered Joe Philbin, comes off as the non-leader who either did nothing about what was going on or was oblivious to it, neither option speaking well of him. If his 4-4 team does not make the playoffs to save him, I think that and this bullying scandal together will see Philbin fired.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/05/3731255/greg-cote-miami-dolphins-bullying.html#storylink=cpy