Daily Archives: November 9th, 2013

Preliminary Ethics Observations On The NFL Bullying Scandal

A thoughtful article regarding the Richie Incognito incident in the NFL. In other news, did you know the NFL considers itself a “nonprofit trade organization,” so over a half billion dollars collected by the league office since 2010 was not subject to taxation by the Internal Revenue Service. In other words the taxpayers are subsidizing high jinx like this and so much more. What makes me wonder: Is there anything the NFL can’t do?

Ethics Alarms

If you are unfamiliar with this story, the details are here. There is much that remains in question, but the basic outline of the incident is this:

  • The Miami Dolphins, like most professional football teams and also most college teams, have a tradition of “hazing” rookies, humiliating and harassing them in various way, “all in good fun, of course.”
  • The ironically named Richie Incognito, a starting guard for the Dolphins, was known as an especially relentless and enthusiastic hazer.
  • Last weak, the team’s second-year tackle Jonathan Martin walked out on the squad and checked into to a hospital, saying he could  he could no longer deal with the continued harassment from his teammates.
  • Incognito was shown to have referred to Martin using abusive language and racial epithets in voice messages.
  • Based on the evidence of the voice mails, the Dolphins suspended Incognito, who is being defended by his team mates…

View original post 669 more words