Bullying in professional sports? NFL culture questioned

The public blowup between two Miami Dolphins players who lined up side by side before every offensive snap has prompted a National Football League investigation into the level of locker room pranks among teammates.

Starting linemen Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito are both temporarily gone from the team, while Dolphins and league officials sort through their twisted controversy of hazing and workplace abuse, the New York Times reports.

Martin, a classics major who attended Stanford and the son of two Harvard graduates, left the Dolphins last week after an episode in the cafeteria in which teammates stood as Martin sat, the last in a string of perceived slights, according to the Times. Incognito, a 30-year-old veteran with a reputation for dirty play and a history of rough behavior, was suspended indefinitely by the Dolphins late Sunday until the investigation concludes.

The Dolphins team saga and the resulting NFL inquiry points to a longstanding practice in sports of razzing rookie players.

Young athletes are often forced to carry teammates’ equipment, sing or otherwise entertain teammates on demand, left helplessly taped to goal posts or asked to regularly deliver food to teammates. They are often called names – Incognito referred to Martin, privately and publicly, as the Big Weirdo, the Times said – and the pranks get costly when rookies are left to pick up dinner and drink tabs in the thousands of dollars.

The question now becomes: How much is too much? NFL officials will decide.

Read more from the New York Times.