The NFL Cesspool: Sheer Ugliness, Painted With a Very Broad Brush

Sometimes Joey Porter's Pit Bulls can't help but wonder what we're supporting with our cable TV payments and emotional/financial investment in the NFL. As much as we love the game itself ...

It's getting tougher and tougher to buy what the NFL is selling.

If you're a fan of the NFL, we recommend you read the entire "REPORT TO THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE CONCERNING ISSUES OF WORKPLACE CONDUCT AT THE MIAMI DOLPHINS."  Read the whole damn thing. All 144 pages.

And if you watch the NFL Network, you may have noticed the terse mention on Friday of Darren Sharper. He faces ugly criminal charges that are about as ugly as ugly gets without the word "murder" involved, as in the case of Aaron Hernandez.

Words that come to mind thinking about the NFL in the wake of these most recent stories: Shameful, despicable, sordid, criminal, idiotic, vile, base, offensive, disturbing, off-putting. Cesspool.

The report on the Dolphins was compiled by a law firm hired by the NFL to present findings on the escapades of the oafish Richie Icognito and his pals, Mike "Free Hernandez" Pouncey (twin brother of Steelers' center Maurkice "Free Hernandez" Pouncey), John Jerry and, apparently, the entire Dolphins coaching staff and management organization. If the coaches deny it, they're lying.

The Pouncey twins, wearing their cute little
"Free Hernandez" hats expressing their support of
accused murderer
Aaron Hernandez, former NFL player

The report makes clear and lays bare the sheer ugliness in Miami, and you can be pretty sure we're still not getting any near the full story. As columnist Greg Stoda of the Miami Herald wrote, "Forget locker-room mentality; the Miami Dolphins have a prison-yard mentality."

When all this broke a few months ago, any number of Incognito apologists made the point that the sort of behavior described in the report is common across the NFL, as if that makes it okay. If so, let's keep in mind our cable TV dollars pay for the precious "locker room culture" and lifestyle of the players described in the report.

Richie Incognito made nearly $5 million last year alone, even with the suspension. The 24-year-old Pouncey made nearly $3 million, and Jerry made more than $1.5 million. Five million dollars in one calendar year: In what other line of work could the incomprehensibly stupid, oafish, porcine, boorish, loutish, obtuse, bullying, dense Incognito make that kind of money?

And you wonder why your cable bill is so high?

How some people are able to maintain jobs is a wonder. You'd think Stephen Ross, the billionaire owner of the Dolphins, would want to clean house. Fire everybody. Sever ties with all the coaches and several players, including Incognito, Pouncey and Jerry and probably others.

Does Richie Incognito and his pals have sisters, mothers, wives and/or girlfriends? What do those women think about their boys now? The same guys who "jokingly" threatened to assault and gang-rape the sister and mother of Jonathan Martin, who threatened to kill Martin (even as fellow NFL player Aaron Hernandez [he of the "Free Hernandez" cap worn by the Pouncey twins] faces murder charges), and who threatened to shit in his mouth?

Karma has a way of swinging around on people. There is no way to polish the turds that Richie Incognito and his pals threatened to shit in the mouth of Jonathan Martin and fling at others in positions of weakness, including rookie players and the assistant trainer who happens to be of Japanese descent. If any NFL team adds Incognito to its roster, shame on them. They will have relinquished any claim to the word "character" ever again.

And then there's the NFL Network, the league's own. Darren Sharper, presumably, won't be on the NFL Network anytime soon. We'll just have to rely on Michael Irvin, Warren Sapp,. et al,  for the kind of precious insight, pithy wit, jocular mirth and "expert analysis" we just can't get anywhere else. Yeah.

Friday was a dark day for the NFL, and it's getting tougher and tougher to feel good about so much that the NFL presents. Why are we supporting these people anyway?  Roger Goodell?

Links:

Greg Doyel, CBS Sports: "After Richie Incognito Gets a Taste of His Own Medicine ..."

Slate: "The Best Report on Bullying Ever"

Will Brinson: "Dolphins Lack Leadership from Top to Bottom"

Deadspin:  "Darren Sharper Allegedly Drugged, Raped Women in Four States"

William Rhoden, The New York Times: "A Vile and Graphic Report"

The Sacramento Bee: "Harbaugh: Jonathan Martin Can Resume Successful NFL Career"

Dinner at Maurkice Pouncey's House?

We have to ask: Will Steeler center Maurkice Pouncey (currently on injured reserve) invite Cincinnati's offensive line over to dinner at his house on Saturday night?  ... the way he supposedly did for his twin brother Mike's team, the Dolphins, last Saturday night? ... the night before the Dolphins beat the Steelers.

The Pouncey twins, wearing their "Free Hernandez" hats.

At least that's what was reported here, before the supposed dinner event.

We can't help but wonder: Do you get the feeling Maurkice Pouncey would rather be with the Miami Dolphins than the Pittsburgh Steelers? He's from Florida, his twin brother plays with the Dolphins, and he could play guard just as easily as center. The twins could even wear their "Free Hernandez" hats.

And Mike's pal Richie Incognito, a guard, won't be in Miami next year, so that could open a spot at guard for Maurkice -- which is where the Steelers might consider putting him anyway.

Just wondering.

Here Come the Bengggals, with a grrrowl ...

For a worthy overview of this year's Cincinnati Bengals, visit Anthony DeFeo's write-up over at Behind the Steel Curtain: "These Aren't Myron Cope's Cincy Bungals Anymore."

Maybe, but they're still the Bungles.

Has the NFL Jumped the Shark?

This post will go over like a Led Balloon; skip it if you don't want to read anything negative about the NFL.

First, let's be clear: Joey Porter's Pit Bulls remain passionate and emotionally invested in football generally and the NFL in particular.

We love the game of football that appeals to the kid in all of us who played ball in the backyard, in the street, on oil-slicked rock-hard fields, in high school, in college, in highly competitive venues, in crazy situations of all kinds. Intensely. We love football.

But ... this latest bullshit with the oafish, reptilian Richie Incognito and his ignorant apologists is yet another major turnoff in a series of diminishing returns.

The NFL is perilously close to jumping the shark.

As heretical as it sounds, the NFL has lost some of its patina that appeals to the kid in all of us.

The NFL is a multi-billion dollar business. During Roger Goodell's tenure as commissioner, it feels like the NFL sold it soul somewhere along the way.

It's increasingly tough to overlook ... 
the golden goose that is television, with its ceaseless fawning, incessant babble, over-saturation of coverage, Thursday night games, Sunday night games, late-season Saturday games, Monday night double-headers -- oh, and, of course, the all-too-frequent and lengthy commercial breaks during games -- the NFL doesn't seem so special and fun anymore.

It's increasingly tough to overlook ...
performance-enhancing drugs, steroids and human growth hormone; absurd rules changes; rampant bounties; institutionalized extortion, thuggery, hazing, browbeating as "initiation" rites; concussions, CET, brain damage and early-onset dementia; designated "strike zones;" deliberately targeted knee hits prompted by the new rules governing upper-body hits; constant and eternal roster attrition from injuries, injuries and more injuries; the continuous legal squabbling; the ridiculous regular-season games in London and Roger Goodell's continuing threat to move franchises to London (from Jacksonville and maybe other cities) and Toronto (from Buffalo).

It's increasingly tough to overlook ... 
the many, many player arrests (from the seriously disturbing Aaron Hernandez  murder case to the insanely absurd Alameda Ta'amu incident on Pittsburgh's South Side); cretins like Michael Vick; blockheads like Riley Cooper; jerk owners like Jerry Jones, Zygi Wolf and Dan Snyder; asshole coaches like Rex Ryan, Joe Philbin, Greg Schiano, Gregg Williams, Bill Bellichick, et al; Todd Haley and his wife; the selfies; the constant Tweets by clueless self-absorbed idiotic athletes, self-imporant talking heads and former-player blowhard "analysts" like Ray Lewis, Michael Irvin and Warren Sapp; the breathless bloggers, the uber-analytical Pro Football Focus Sabremetric-type "experts" who are about as fun as actuaries ... and so on, and on, and on.

It all detracts, takes its toll, from what used to be a more enjoyable, fun diversion and, yes, a passion that still means a lot to us.

Football is supposed to be a game, but it's got "business" written all over it.

It's as if Roger Goodell and his minions never heard of the adage,"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Joey Porter's Pit Bulls remain deeply invested in the whole scrambling omelette, but ... there is something to be said for perspective and balance, if you will, if not wisdom.

We still watch the Steelers closely, with passion and intensity, but ... we're also watching the Aaron Hernandez and Richie Incognito situations, along with all the other crap, almost as much as we're watching the games.  The bad with the good; you don't get one without the other.

If you can't say something nice about someone ...

Confusion in Pittsburgh. Ugliness in Miami.

It's been a tough week. Steeler fans are looking for answers and hope. Steeler players are fumbling for excuses.  Steeler coaches -- who knows what they're doing?

The most sort-of interesting thing we heard from Mike Tomlin's weekly news conference on Tuesday was the following statement, which raises more questions than answers:

“I take responsibility for the players we have drafted since I’ve been here, not only in recent drafts, but since I’ve been here. Because it’s the truth.”

Tomlin's statement could be interpreted a couple of ways:

1. Tomlin assumes stewardship of the players drafted by the Steeler' front-office personnel decision-makers and placed under his care -- somewhat like a first-grade teacher "takes responsibility" for the children sent to school for guidance and direction. ... Or ...
2. Tomlin actually has final-say decision-making responsibility for selecting the players in the draft; which would be news to us but not, presumably, to Kevin Colbert, the general manager of the Steelers. In other words, Tomlin decides which players to draft. If so, that might explain some of what appears to be his infatuation with certain players, and why some players either were overdrafted (not to name names) or shouldn't have been drafted at all (not to name names).

As for the ugliness in Miami, ugh. We suspect what's been reported down there occurs to some extent on many other teams across the NFL -- maybe not to that extent, though.  If true, and it sounds like it just might be true, what Richie Incognito allegedly did goes far beyond "hazing" and "bullying."  

It's criminal: Extortion, harassment, terroristic threats, etc., and it sounds like it was (and continues to be) condoned by other players and the coaching staff in Miami. Shame on them. It's tough to see that kind of behavior shrugged off, sanctioned and even institutionalized.

Just another black mark for the NFL, and it is an especially ugly one. What a colossal turn-off for fans even as invested and impassioned as most of us are.