RE: NFL releases report: Incognito, others "bullied" Martin
(02-16-2014 10:09 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:
(02-16-2014 09:47 PM)assman Wrote:
(02-16-2014 08:31 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote: This is different from guys like Richard Sherman, who also attended Stanford, but grew up in COMPTON and attended regular public schools there. So he's used to riff-raff.
Wouldn't 4 years of college football (assuming he was on the team/in the locker room all 4 years) acclimatize him to this?
Elite schools like Stanford and Duke (basketball) recruit very carefully. They look at character, academic success, and athletic talent. Their recruits have high gpas, a clean background, good families, and are generally class acts. It's a completely different paradigm from how state schools recruit. Therefore, the locker rooms and campus culture in those institutions are much different as well.
Point taken.
Though plenty of guys come from schools like Stanford and Duke into pro football and basketball. I don't recall Jim Plunkett or Andrew Luck crying about the NFL's locker room culture. Or Grant Hill or Shane Battier whining about the NBA's.
I can see how his environment didn't prepare him for NFL-style hazing, but it also clearly did not prepare him to be a man.
(This post was last modified: 02-16-2014 10:24 PM by assman.)
RE: NFL releases report: Incognito, others "bullied" Martin
(02-16-2014 10:24 PM)assman Wrote: I can see how his environment didn't prepare him for NFL-style hazing, but it also clearly did not prepare him to be a man.
Indeed it did not. I feel sorry for him. Not because he was "bullied", the most over-used word on the planet for 2013, just like "abuse" ..."my husband won't buy me that new kitchen I want because he says we can't afford it...that's domestic abuse!!".
No, the reason I feel sorry for Martin is that, despite all his gifts and advantages, he has to this point developed very little tenacity, self-esteem, and mental toughness. He gave up on himself. I've had bouts with depression. I know there can be a brain chemistry component. But every time I had, it was because some situation got me feeling down, and that triggered the bad brain chemistry and the depression. Often it involved a girl leaving me. Once I toughened up, I stopped getting depressed. This took years to achieve and I didn't have it completed by the time I was 23, Martin's age. So in some regard I also feel sorry for him because he's a young dude in a tight spot.
I don't feel particularly upset about Incognito. Yes, he's a tool. But there's always a tool around! If it wasn't him, some other tool would have hurt Martin. The only way to inoculate yourself against A-holes is to reach a point where you genuinely don't care what they think.
(This post was last modified: 02-16-2014 10:42 PM by Walter White.)
RE: NFL releases report: Incognito, others "bullied" Martin
(02-16-2014 10:24 PM)assman Wrote:
(02-16-2014 10:09 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote:
(02-16-2014 09:47 PM)assman Wrote:
(02-16-2014 08:31 PM)Hencredible Casanova Wrote: This is different from guys like Richard Sherman, who also attended Stanford, but grew up in COMPTON and attended regular public schools there. So he's used to riff-raff.
Wouldn't 4 years of college football (assuming he was on the team/in the locker room all 4 years) acclimatize him to this?
Elite schools like Stanford and Duke (basketball) recruit very carefully. They look at character, academic success, and athletic talent. Their recruits have high gpas, a clean background, good families, and are generally class acts. It's a completely different paradigm from how state schools recruit. Therefore, the locker rooms and campus culture in those institutions are much different as well.
Point taken.
Though plenty of guys come from schools like Stanford and Duke into pro football and basketball. I don't recall Jim Plunkett or Andrew Luck crying about the NFL's locker room culture. Or Grant Hill or Shane Battier whining about the NBA's.
I can see how his environment didn't prepare him for NFL-style hazing, but it also clearly did not prepare him to be a man.
Yeah. Consider that different NFL teams have different locker room cultures too. Though rookie hazing is prevalent, it seems Incognito was an outlier with the level that he took it to.
I still think Martin had a relatively overprivileged background, because his unique background goes beyond college, but also his upbringing and family history. The Ivy League isn't as scary a place mentally when you've had generations of your family educated there. Hell, George W. Bush got an MBA from Harvard despite being a C student in college and no prior work success. That was likely a foregone conclusion based on who his dad and grandfather was.