TeamoftheCentury":2dc1x8kk said:
Regardless of whether or not RI is at all guilty of any of the accusations... How many of you would enjoy having the worst everyone else can project on you... those moments plastered all over the media or here on .net? Would you be kicked off .net for the kind of person you are? Guess what? We're all that person to some degree. There are things about of all of us that we want to associate only with worst that we can conjure up in our minds about RI and others we can find for comparisons so we can make ourselves feel better about ourselves. It's just easier for us to want to look at a guy like that and berate him so that we don't have to think about the worst in ourselves.
What?
We are not all that kind of person. Not even to some degree. If we all lashed out with physical and emotional violence half as much as Incognito has (at parties, at team community functions, against his own teammates and coaches, over the past 12 years) we would be in prison, or facing other dire consequences. He has been given repeated opportunities and fresh starts despite a pathological inability to control his anger because that "skill" is useful, when harnessed, on the football field.
It does not make me feel better about myself to point out actual events that he himself perpetrated, and which in turn have established his reputation. I feel sad for the people who have invested in him and tried to help him, only for him to betray their trust and cause pain and misery in his wake. Getting kicked off teams and assaulting people are not media-created character attacks. The situation with Jonathan Martin was not a singular event.
As far as opposing views on him as a person, no he's not a child-eating demon every moment of every day. Consider him like the Incredible Hulk. Feel sorry for the Bruce Banner part of him that agrees to go to therapy, but don't for a second forget that at the drop of a hat the Hulk could explode and smash everything that everyone involved was trying to make better.
For the most part, all bullies are in pain and they erupt because they too were bullied somehow. While that helps to explain their behavior, it does not excuse it, and it does not excuse their inability to get over it without harming others. Nor does it mean you invite them to your house for dinner, or onto your team. Given Pete's emphasis on psychological profiles, I feel comfortable believing we won't even consider going near Richie with a 10-foot pole.
