Recently headlines have highlighted the plight of NFL player Jonathan Martin as he left the Dolphins organization due to what has been referred to as “bullying”.   But, NY Giants Safety Antre Rolle believes that Martin is just as to blame as Incognito, Martin’s alleged harasser. This begs me to question, can grown men be bullied?

Recently, Giants player Antre Rolle spoke on WFAN Radio about the incident(s) and said this:

Was Richie Incognito wrong? Absolutely. But I think the other guy is just as much to blame as Richie, because he allowed it to happen. At this level, you’re a man. You’re not a little boy. You’re not a freshman in college. You’re a man.

I hear you Rolle, but blaming the “victim” is a slippery slope even if what we are talking about is just speech.  What if Martin never told Incognito to stop, is he still culpable?  Is he still responsible for part of the blame?  What if Martin behaved in a stereotypical “Black” manner which led to Incognito’s racial harassment?  Would Martin be to blame?  What if Martin was a female reporter in the locker room and was the target of Incognito’s remarks?  Would a female Martin still be partly responsible?  Probably not.

Unfortunately, men still carry the very heavy burden of being able to handle various forms of abuse and be quiet about.  If a man has the courage to step out and say that he has been the “victim” of any sort of “attack” than a lot of us automatically think, “WHY DIDN’T HE JUST MANHANDLE THIS FOOL!?”

My hope is that most reasonable people will come to recognize that the locker room is a workplace. NFL players are coworkers and the law is actually designed to protect people from workplace harassment such as this.

Somewhere in history, we forgot that men are actually people too, with desires, feelings and rights.  Every working person has the right to come to work and not be harassed, either racially or otherwise.  Care to know what some of the texts actually said?  Here’s a snip, courtesy of ESPN.com:

Hey, wassup, you half n—– piece of s—. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. [I want to] s— in your f—ing mouth. [I’m going to] slap your f—ing mouth. [I’m going to] slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. F— you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.

Workplace teasing, bullying, or harassment?  You decide.