For obvious reasons, the Sunday suspension of Richie Incognito has made player hazing and bullying a hot topic in the NFL.
The Miami Dolphins guard was suspended for conduct detrimental to the team in connection with his actions toward teammate Jonathan Martin. Martin left the Dolphins last week and reports say it was because of Incognito's constant bullying, which included threatening voicemails that contained racial slurs.
The topic was discussed with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Tuesday morning and with head coach Jason Garrett Monday evening.
While Garrett said he didn't want to speak to the particular situation involving Incognito and Martin, he did share some general thoughts on the topic.
"You certainly want to have the right kind of guys on your team and you want to build team chemistry and camaraderie on your team," Garrett said. "We always hope the lines of communication are open. We have a lot of resources in this building. Coaches, player development people, a lot of different resources players can go to hopefully to help them with any situation that comes up – on the field, off the field, in this building or outside of it. We want to make sure they always understand that and we're here to help them."
Garrett later mentioned the traditions of having rookie players sing in front of the team, carry teammates' shoulder pads and buy food on the road.
"That's been around forever and that's part of the process and part of what this league has been about for a long, long time," Garrett said. "Hopefully it's always done in a way where it's developing team camaraderie and team chemistry and it's good for your team. If it comes close to crossing the line, it certainly has to be addressed. I haven't seen it like that in my career as a player, as a coach. You try to keep your eye on any of those kind of things but I haven't really seen it being an issue in the past."
Jones, however, has seen things go too far. He referenced an incident during his weekly radio interview.
"I've had to ask a couple of times a couple of places out here to rethink, let's say a liquor bill, when they've taken a rookie out and hung him with a huge, huge bill for liquor, where they've exorbitantly ordered," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM]. "I might tell you that one of the finest businesses in this town, when they had ordered and charged one of our rookies a lot of money, they just absolutely took it off the bill and gave it to him.
"It was Pappas Steakhouse, to give you an idea. That's having compassion. It was overdone. They just decided, 'Hey, we'll make our contribution to the do-right rule, here.'"
Jones never mentioned the player's name but no one would be surprised if he was referring to Dez Bryant. In Sept. 2010, Bryant took his teammates out for dinner at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse and was reportedly left with a bill that topped $50,000.
On Wednesday, ESPNDallas.com reported that multiple veterans helped Bryant pay for the bill, but one player said that it was Jones himself might have been the one who picked up the huge tab for Bryant.
"Nobody paid, but from what I heard, Jerry picked it up," an anonymous player who attended the dinner said in a text message to the website.
Before giving that example, Jones talked about how the players need to have respect for each other when various hazing traditions take place. And if it's done in the right way, Jones doesn't have a problem with it.
"There are things in society that are certainly moving over into sports, certainly professional sports, NFL football. There's things that society has asked everyone to recognize," Jones said. "Having said that, I've always thought that anytime people welcome a new player with the proper type of sensitivity, but yet with the spirit of camaraderie and the spirit of joining the crowd — and you got to pay to join the crowd — I've always thought that had its place.
"On the other hand, any time you're dealing with that, you get involved in different degrees of judgment and it can be overdone. That's been going on since the beginning of time. We certainly would like to think that we're on top of those issues."
Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota
