As any athlete can attest, sports locker rooms are a place like no other. The culture is regimented in its rules, yet loose in its methods of enforcing them. Leadership is the job description of the coaching staff, yet assumed by veteran players. The only way to gain respect is to perform. You do your job, and you'll become a welcomed member of the locker room.

I have been an avid sports fan my entire life. I've lived, breathed and bled New York sports for as long as I can remember. The locker rooms of my favorite teams were a revered and abstract place that all my sports idols spoke about; it was the ultimate hub of sports culture. For my 11th birthday, my dad somehow scored tickets to an off-season training program with the New York Giants. The players taught us the fundamentals of tackling, throwing, running and blocking. At the end of the program all the kids got to talk to the players in the locker room itself. I will never forget conversing with Michael Strahan, famed defensive end and Amani Toomer, the always-reliable wide receiver, about what it's like to play football for a living. But the most noteworthy part was the way the players spoke about each other. They relentlessly made fun of each other, yet so evidently respected each other. Every jab or joke was taken in stride because the underlying level of respect always existed.

In this vein, everyone who has ever called themselves a sports fan should be absolutely appalled at the current state of the Miami Dolphins locker room. On Oct. 28, rookie offensive lineman Jonathan Martin dismissed himself from the team after a dining hall altercation. In the ensuing days, more and more details continue to be publicized, mostly involving fellow offensive lineman Richie Incognito. Voicemails from Incognito using racial slurs, death threats and even recent reports of physical abuse have all been reported. Martin recently checked himself into a mental health hospital to help cope with the emotional damage that took place in this tumultuous environment.

In his first public interview since the reports, which aired on Fox Sports this past Sunday, Incognito pushed part of the blame onto both Martin and all of sports culture. Incognito argued that all of the insults and abuse "came from a place of love" and that vulgar communication was normal among Dolphins players. Incognito continued, "All this stuff coming out, it speaks to the culture of our locker room, it speaks to culture of our closeness, it speaks to the culture of our brotherhood. And the racism, the bad words, that's what I regret most. But that is a product of the environment." Its not my fault, claimed Incognito, it's just what happens in the locker room system. Incognito has since been dismissed from the team.

However, Incognito fundamentally misunderstands the culture of a locker room, which is why he sees minimal fault in his actions. Locker room culture is predicated on success; that's where one earns his stripes and earns his respect. It is therefore the responsibility of the rest of the locker room to create an environment for all to succeed in the long run. Pushing rookies to their physical and mental limits, within the scope of reason, is vital to each player reaching his ultimate potential. Just as associate lawyers are the last to leave the office, and first-year investment bankers wont see daylight as first-year employees, so too football players must work up the proverbial ladder to achieve the success and, subsequently, earn the respect of their peers.

This "earn-your-stripes" environment is what Incognito was referencing when he claimed the behavior was "coming from a place of love" and simply an act of "brotherhood." He may have actually thought he was helping Martin reach his potential by acting in this manner-he seemed rather genuine in his interview. But there are fine lines between pushing one to reach his potential and basic harassment. Incognito blatantly crossed those lines with his deplorable behavior. Racial slurs have no positive implications whatsoever and physical abuse has no practical implications whatsoever.

Michael Strahan, the New York Giants player I met as a child, now works as a commentator for Fox Sports. When asked if any hazing occurred during his tenure as the veteran leadership of the Giants, Strahan replied, "We never did anything like that." Strahan elaborated that the hazing on the Giants under his tenure from 1993 through 2007 consisted of having the rookies bring breakfast sandwiches on Friday and donuts and coffee on Saturday. Rookies learned their place in the locker room and respected their elders. Never offensive. Never harmful.

The problem therefore lies not in locker room culture, but in how Incognito interpreted that culture. Veterans have an obligation to help rookies reach their full potential, and part of that process is learning to respect those who came before them. That, however, does not give Incognito, or any veteran player, the right to abuse anyone else. Incognito crossed the line that differentiates constructive hierarchy to harmful abuse. Hopefully, the rest of the sports world will learn from his mistakes and situations like this will never arise again.
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