Joined: Aug 20, 2007 Posts: 3882 Location: Kaufman, Texas
Status:
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 8:41 am Post subject: Another perspective
Time for rookie hazing to end
By Les Carpenter, Yahoo! Sports
Jul 27, 12:19 pm EDT
It took one practice for Dez Bryant(notes), supposedly too immature to play in the NFL, to reveal the childishness of a tradition that long lost its relevance.
Somehow, through the fog of old football players warbling their embellished yarns about days long forgotten and contrived vignettes on “Hard Knocks,” a notion has formed that rookie football players need to be treated like laboratory test animals to gain respect. This includes such time-honored traditions as charging exorbitant meal sums on the rookie’s credit card, duct-taping him to a goalpost or turning him into a football Friday.
Bryant has created a stir in his very short time with the Cowboys.
Team bonding they say.
It was in this spirit of camaraderie that Dallas Cowboys receiver Roy Williams – he of just 57 catches so far in his time with the team – ordered Bryant to carry his shoulder pads off the field after Sunday’s training camp workout.
Thank goodness Bryant refused because this needs to stop.
“I’m trying to win a championship, not carry players’ pads,” Bryant later told reporters on the side of the field.
When pressed on the issue Bryant added: “it’s not about playing games, it’s about doing the right thing and try to achieve our goal.”
This, of course, has brought Bryant considerable scorn by those who have decided that his refusal to humiliate himself is irresponsible and will tear apart the Cowboys locker room.
“Picking up some bills, having a few pranks pulled on u n doing some odd jobs for the vets is a small price to pay to gain respect,” Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers wrote on Twitter.
As if there’s dignity in being tied to a goalpost.
Maybe in the days long ago when players went by names like “Bronco” and played together on the same team for years, worked second jobs in the winter and spring, and then drank as one in the local watering holes, hazing had its place. But back then the idea of team was an eternal one. The same group lasted for several seasons – banging heads in the afternoon, then clinking mugs in the evening. There was no free agency. Like it or not, they were together for years and it was essential to build that unity.
But today’s players are independent contractors, subject to the whims of the salary cap and a coach’s need at the moment. Players whip in and out of locker rooms so fast many of them barely get to know the man on the next stool before his jersey is gone and a new teammate is pulling cleats from a bag.
Teams are made on the fly, thrown together in meeting rooms and sealed on a few scrimmages on the practice field – not by making rookies act like personal valets.
And yet football persists as if training camp is the Sigma Chi house.
Last summer, not long after head of the NFL Players Association DeMaurice Smith begged his constituents to start saving 25 percent of their money in preparation for a potential looming lockout, the San Diego Chargers treated themselves to a $14,508.67 dinner at the expense of first-round pick Larry English(notes). If English was upset about this development, his teammate Shawne Merriman(notes) offered comfort by claiming to have picked up a $32,000 tab run up by fellow Chargers in his rookie season.
The Chargers, properly bonded as a team by English’s generosity, lost three of their first five games.
Twelve years ago, in a hazing ritual that still defies explanation, several New Orleans Saints players forced rookies to put pillowcases over their heads and run a gantlet of trusted older teammates who smacked them with bags of coins. One player wound up with blurred vision; another had a broken nose.
“My worst street fight when I was a little kid wasn’t this bad,” Jeff Danish, one of the injured players, told the New York Times.
Of course that Saints team went 6-10.
At some point you would think athletes would understand the emptiness of their hazing. In recent years baseball players seem to have taken great joy in forcing their rookie teammates to walk through airports in the most ridiculous of costumes as if dressing each other in Hooters-girl outfits seals a male bond and builds a team.
Mostly what happens is a bunch of players who won’t be on the team in a few weeks humiliate a bunch of players who won’t be on the team in a few weeks. And that makes a team?
Funny how it took Dez Bryant, known in college for his tardiness and general lack of preparedness for adulthood, to show the Cowboys how childish they have been.
“It’s not about playing games.”
Maybe the Cowboys, January’s losers too many times these last few years, will finally learn that.
Les Carpenter is a feature writer and columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Send Les a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Posts: 9750 Location: The Republic of Texas
Status:
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:15 am Post subject: Re: Another perspective
This is hilarious to me. These guys are acting like these initiations or "hazings" are akin to sexual assault or something. LOL! They are just tradition, rites of passage...whatever. No one gets hurt. Sheesh!
I'll bet most of these reporters who are whining about this practice...either never played team sports OR were the kids who got chased all over the playground and had their ears thumped when it was freezing outside.
Get over it already...find something real to worry about. Damn.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:14 am Post subject: Re: Another perspective
mcfloyd wrote:
This is hilarious to me. These guys are acting like these initiations or "hazings" are akin to sexual assault or something. LOL! They are just tradition, rites of passage...whatever. No one gets hurt. Sheesh!
I'll bet most of these reporters who are whining about this practice...either never played team sports OR were the kids who got chased all over the playground and had their ears thumped when it was freezing outside.
Get over it already...find something real to worry about. Damn.
We disagree on this one, Mcf. I've paid my hazing dues and was a good sport about it; in fact, kind of enjoyed it. Call me a masochist!
But there were others who chose not to get involved for their own personal reasons and that was fine, even though people tried to get them to do it, and they too, were looked at as "pussies" and whatever, but at the end of the day...
the writer makes a point and I think Dez made his point. He's not here to "play games" and get caught up in nonsense that has no bearing on whether or not we win games going forward.
Parcells having TNew fetch him water or D. Ware was a right of passage and in a way an honor, but to have a peer do it is degrading, imo, and I think both RW and Dez were both right in retrospect, and I think the team will be better off because Dez took a stand. RW will be more serious, Dez will have to earn players respect with his game and not by carrying their shit, and the culture will be a bit more serious...which for this team, is probably a good thing.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:34 am Post subject: Re: Another perspective
We agree here Jhalp.
Hazing isn't productive.
Some people choose to participate. Some don't. In the end it doesn't really matter.
The problem with hazing is there are always a handful of generally petty types who struggle to recognize it for what it is, an immature game. If they push things it can quickly turn into a situation where people are genuinely offended or pissed off, and that can be damaging.
I have been on sports teams. I have been/am in a fraternity and my work has elements that are relevant to this.
I have seen my share of hazing from every perspective and I have never identified what makes it so attractive to some people.
I don't see what makes someone think humiliating someone is productive or enjoyable, nor do I see why anyone would play along with it.
Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Posts: 9750 Location: The Republic of Texas
Status:
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:51 am Post subject: Re: Another perspective
Jhalp wrote:
First off...guys with the talent and ability of Dez are few and far between. They are men among boys (bigger, stronger, faster) from Pop Warner league through College. That talent gap narrows greatly once they reach this level though, so I think it's highly likely that he's always been the BMOC and has never had to deal with initiations etc. Since he only played 2 years of college ball and because of his history, I have to take him at his word when he says If he'd known it was a tradition that he would have done it without hesitation. I don't think his immaturity is an act. He's a good kid who is just now being exposed to a world he didn't know existed.
To each his own J, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you would feel differently about this issue if it wasn't RW11 who was involved.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: Another perspective
mcfloyd wrote:
[..]
First off...guys with the talent and ability of Dez are few and far between. They are men among boys (bigger, stronger, faster) from Pop Warner league through College. That talent gap narrows greatly once they reach this level though, so I think it's highly likely that he's always been the BMOC and has never had to deal with initiations etc. Since he only played 2 years of college ball and because of his history, I have to take him at his word when he says If he'd known it was a tradition that he would have done it without hesitation. I don't think his immaturity is an act. He's a good kid who is just now being exposed to a world he didn't know existed.
To each his own J, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you would feel differently about this issue if it wasn't RW11 who was involved.
Perhaps you have a point about RW' involvement skewing me a bit, but that is my point, it's an unproductive clown who has a penchant for running his mouth non-stop engaging in this. RW needs to keep a low profile off the field and create a higher profile on it.
At the end of the day I don't this is a big deal and like I said hopefully this will turn out to be a positive due to a more serious approach to business. We've been camp cupcake, SB champs on paper, Cabo, feel good smiles, etc, and perhaps a more serious business-like approach might be the antidote to get us over the hump...we'll see.
Joined: Aug 21, 2007 Posts: 9750 Location: The Republic of Texas
Status:
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:16 pm Post subject: Re: Another perspective
Jhalp wrote:
[..]
Perhaps you have a point about RW' involvement skewing me a bit, but that is my point, it's an unproductive clown who has a penchant for running his mouth non-stop engaging in this. RW needs to keep a low profile off the field and create a higher profile on it.
At the end of the day I don't this is a big deal and like I said hopefully this will turn out to be a positive due to a more serious approach to business. We've been camp cupcake, SB champs on paper, Cabo, feel good smiles, etc, and perhaps a more serious business-like approach might be the antidote to get us over the hump...we'll see.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 12:26 pm Post subject: Re: Another perspective
I think you guys know how I feel about this: This writer basically echoed my sentiments from yesterday. The lockerroom culture that spawned this sort of behavior has changed but the behavior has not. Therefore a rookie coming into an organization isn't so much "breaking ranks" as it used to be.
Parcells said it: The game has changed and it's a young man's game. He meant that in two ways. First, you need a ton of energy to be a coach. 2. The players you have to deal with - that start - are younger and younger and wealthier. This ain't your Daddy's NFL.
I don't have a problem with a guy who even sycophantically carries another players shit. I DO have a problem with the turd who has one or two skins on the wall caring more about this shit instead of his dropped fucking passes.
Joined: Aug 20, 2007 Posts: 4134 Location: Mountain View, Missouri
Status:
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:11 pm Post subject: Re: Another perspective
Sixshooter wrote:
I don't have a problem with a guy who even sycophantically carries another players shit. I DO have a problem with the turd who has one or two skins on the wall caring more about this shit instead of his dropped fucking passes.
Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:38 pm Post subject: Re: Another perspective
Dez Bryant, known in college for his tardiness and general lack of preparedness for adulthood
Or maybe it was Dez being Dez? Thats what I think. Whether or not "hazing" should be part of the game is irrelevant. At the time this happened it was. As a result the immature player gets to further change the game for personal agendas. Disrespect? Bullshit. It was all about Dez and no one else. "I dont want to".
This is also not the "Cowboys" being childish. Its league wide. This sort of team building was a part of every SB team to date. Its never been an issue until 12PM Monday. Keith Brooking is a tad more about business than Dez and no issues from him taking part. Its a frigging game. Carrying pads should be a non issue. A child made it one.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
NAV
