Quote:
Originally Posted by Saul Good
I'm not defending Incognito. I'm sure he's guilty and hope he never draws another NFL paycheck. I'm defending the paradigm that looking at all sides of a story is never worse than only getting one version.
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I'd be delighted to hear Incognito's version of the story. I think we all would.
However, Incognito painted himself into a corner. He vociferously denied any role and loudly protested his innocence, and then the team and the league start reading the voice mails and texts, and documenting the shakedowns. So we already know on Page 1 of the story that he's willing to lie.
Based on the evidence, we know that he was involved. We know that he sent threatening and nasty messages to Martin. We know that Martin paid money for him to go on vacation, and we know something about a $30,000 dinner tab.
So let's speak for Incognito. What reasons could he offer for these, and are they acceptable reasons? The theories I've heard so far are:
1. Everyone participated in these things because they're a team, and they were normal behavior that even Martin participated in at times. When it was Martin's turn to be the victim, he had a fragile mental makeup and snapped.
2. Incognito treats everyone that way and is just boisterous, witness the TMZ video of him in the pool hall. Martin just has a fragile mental makeup and can't handle that type of personality.
3. This is normal rookie hazing, and everyone has to go through it.
With #1, the key is whether everyone received the same level of harassment and whether Martin participated. My guess is that we won't see the same types of behavior toward others that Martin received. If we do, and others laughed and moved on, I guess we could say that Martin was more fragile. It still doesn't excuse the behavior and it should stop, but it makes it seem less terrible.
#2 is possible, I guess. Can Incognito produce other texts where he threatened cousins, neighbors, teammates, etc., and informed them that he would like to defecate in their mouths? If so, he probably should take some time off and get off the steroids.
#3 doesn't work. Martin wasn't a rookie.
Incognito's big problem is that his history points very strongly toward a "presumed guilty" judgment by any reasonable person. He made his bed and now he's lying in it.