RUSH: Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito has now apologized. Well, he has “offered apologies to teammate Jonathan Martin, team owner Stephen Ross and investigator Ted Wells on Tuesday in the wake of this report” detailing what a bully he was in the Miami Dolphins locker room. Something tells me this is not going to be enough. No closure on this yet, folks.
And, by the way, you know, the NFL scouting combine is getting ready to kick off in Indianapolis. That is the equivalent of the NFL meat market, where all kinds of college prospects show up and work out and try to impress teams with their athletic and NFL football abilities so as to get drafted as high as they can and make as much money as they can. They want to make the NFL. And guidelines have been issued to the teams. There apparently are rumors going around that three players last year were kind of asked about their sexual orientation in roundabout ways. Three players the teams took the back door in trying to get answers. Well, no, I don’t know if they got into the back door or not. Such questions as, “So we hear you like women. You like to date women?” And the player said, “Wait a minute, now, is that a trick question?”
So the NFL has now issued guidelines — this is a huge See, I Told You So, first of many — the NFL has issued guidelines that no such questions are permitted because there’s an interview process in the scouting combine. And there’s no such questions permitted. (interruption) That’s my question. If it’s supposed to be celebrated, how come we can’t ask? If there’s nothing wrong with it, why can’t you ask? But you can’t. The NFL sent out the guidelines. You’re not supposed to ask about it. You’re not supposed to allude to it. You’re not supposed to go in the back door with it. You’re just not supposed to bring it up.
Well, it’s not a psychological test. It’s an intelligence test that’s got some psychological aspect, called a Wonderlic test. And it basically tells the NFL whether or not these guys are smart or not. There’s general real-world smart and there’s football smart, and it’s not supposed to leak out how players do on the Wonderlic test. Well, it has leaked out when players have really bombed on the Wonderlic test. And I’ll tell you, it’s very competitive. You know what happens? Sometimes a team will leak that a guy is a raving idiot when he isn’t, just trying to lower other teams’ interest in him.
When Warren Sapp came out, University of Miami, there was a vicious rumor that he smoked pot and it wasn’t true, and it did hurt him in where he was chosen in the draft. So it’s highly competitive in there. I mean, Jeff Ireland, who is the general manager of the Dolphins, you know, Dez Bryant, number 88, wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, this general manager said (paraphrasing), “So what was it like to have a mom that was a whore? Really, what was it like to have a mom who’s a prostitute?” That got out and spread like wildfire, and he ended up apologizing to Dez Bryant for it.
It’s vicious. I mean, folks, it’s bloodthirsty capitalism in the NFL at this time of year, ’cause if a team is interested in a guy they’ll do everything they can to make nobody else interested. (interruption) They don’t want to know. The league says you can’t ask the sexual orientation now. (interruption) Well, I don’t know. Do they want to know or not? Does the league want to know? I mean, when players come out they celebrate that, so you would think that they would — I haven’t the slightest idea. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m just telling you people what’s going on there.
Anyway, Richie Incognito, let me get back and close the loop on this. “Richie Incognito offered apologies to teammate Jonathan Martin, team owner Stephen Ross and investigator Ted Wells,” ’cause there was “a pattern of harassment.” It’s hard to say there was bullying because there was nothing physical, but the — (interruption) not yet. He has not cried yet. It’s where I’m headed with this. I’ve got some solutions for Incognito if he really wants to fix this. They accused him of bullying, but he didn’t do anything physically.
So the wizards in the sport media are now saying, “Well, you don’t have to do anything physically to bully somebody. You can psychologically bully people,” which is what happened. But, anyway, like you, I’m sensing this won’t be enough. That it’s too little, too late, particularly since last week Incognito was out acting like the report was gonna come out in his favor. So he’s got a lot of egg on his face here.
Only two things that could save Richie Incognito right now. Obviously, one is declaring that he’s got some questions about his sexual orientation. Not sure. It would be a tough thing for him to do, I’m sure. These are just suggestions, not recommendations. But he can either come out as gay or suggest that he’s confused and conflicted, and that’s why he engaged in all that behavior. He was just trying to cover up, trying to make sure people didn’t find out, any number of ways.
The second thing he could do would be to attack me. That seems to be the ultimate get-out-of-jail card for people like that. He could say that he’d been listening to me for a number of years, and that’s where he got the idea of bullying. And you think he wouldn’t get out of jail free if he did that? “You know, I’ve been listening to Limbaugh regularly, and that’s where I got the idea of bullying people.” (laughing)
Snerdley’s cringing, “Don’t give him the idea!” Snerdley’s huddling and cringing. I’m just trying to make light of this, folks. But seriously, given the media me, do you think that would work? It might. I don’t bully anybody, and never have, but — (interruption) It could be. Could be. It might be even now. See, I’m just here to help folks. Like they say, the pioneers take the arrows.
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