"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Incognito-Martin Update

As I said below, this is a story that seems very little about race or "bullying," and much more about how the media and the legal profession descend upon athletes (who happen to have a lot of money), and blow what are perhaps normal human interactions and friction between co-workers and friends into national stories and potential lawsuits.   Do I believe Jonathan Martin was unhappy about how his pro-football career (his first real "job" out of college) was going?   Sure.   23 year-old men are often unhappy with their first jobs.  Do I think Richie Incognito is a big brash guy who is probably funny-edgy among other big young men who play a very violent game?   Could he have gone over the line?   Sure.   But he seems pretty credible in this interview as being someone who actually loved Jonathan Martin as a brother -- a fox-hole buddy, if you will -- and who is baffled by what has happened.   This is a story, in short, where, if the lawyers and the media would have just left everybody alone, Martin would probably be back with the team and Incognito wouldn't have had his name turned into a byword for racism.


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