Psychopath (noun) –
a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and
antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal
relationships, extreme egocentricity, and failure to learn from experience
I have watched with great interest as the Jonathan
Martin/Richie Incognito hazing and harassment scandal has unfolded over the
last several days. Hazing in
professional sports is nothing new – every year, there are numerous news
reports making light of rookie hazing.
From silly haircuts to locker room pranks, hazing in the NFL is on
public display.
But the Martin/Incognito story is different – the behavior
being reported in Miami goes beyond rookie hazing and into the realm of
workplace harassment. One player has
left the team, and the alleged perpetrator has been indefinitely suspended.
The person at the center of this story, Richie Incognito, is
a character worthy of examination. His history of abuse has been well-documented. After
being suspended twice at the University of Nebraska, he was eventually
dismissed from the team. He transferred
to the University of Oregon, but was booted from the team before ever playing a
game. He was eventually drafted in the
third round by the St. Louis Rams. He was
let go by the Rams after head-butting two players in 2009, landed with the
Buffalo Bills, was let go after three games, and landed in Miami. He has led the league in personal fouls,
penalties, and in 2009 was voted by his peers as the “Dirtiest Player in the
NFL.” Some resume’.
I’m no psychologist, but I have spent a significant amount
of time in the last few years studying the psychological elements of
hazing. Most of what I read, write and
talk about deals with the group dynamics of hazing – how individuals disengage
from their moral selves and engage in behavior that they think benefits the
group, and how group dynamics encourage this sort of behavior. But there is no theory in social psychology
to explain Richie Incognito’s behavior.
Nothing he is alleged to have done could be described as having any
benefit to any individual or to the Miami Dolphins as an organization. Taking the facts of the current case into
consideration with his long history of violence, anti-social behavior and
egotism, I cannot escape the thought that Richie Incognito must be a
psychopath.
All of the warning signs are there. Violent behavior? Check.
Huge ego? Check (check out his twitter page if you don’t believe me). Anti-social? Check. Failure to learn from
experience? Check. Lack of ability to love or establish meaningful
relationships? Not a lot of friends or loved ones coming to his defense right
now, are there? You get the idea.
Here’s the problem with psychopaths – they are everywhere.
They could be anyone. They are hiding in
plain sight. Some have suggested that “successful psychopaths” may attain
prominent positions in society, and are well-represented in fields like
business and politics. In fact, the odds are pretty good that you have a
sociopath in your life, maybe one in your organization. If you are in a fraternity, there is a very
high chance that you have a psychopath in your chapter.
You probably know who it is after only a second of
thought. A lot of people may participate
in hazing, feeling it a needed “rite of passage,” but the psychopath is the guy
who actually seems to enjoy abusing the pledges. His hazing isn’t limited to fun,
games and pranks – he is the guy who screams at pledges, throws things, curses,
and does everything in his power to make their lives miserable. He is the guy that can be funny at times, and
people seem to tolerate him, some people may even like him and think he’s a
great guy, but he doesn’t actually have close friends. He may occasionally hook up with girls, but
he has never been in an intimate and loving relationship. You've been waiting since his freshman year
for him to “grow out of it,” but he doesn’t seem to be changing his behavior.
In fact, it may have become worse. Chances are, you have your very own Richie
Incognito in your chapter. It might be
that you have more than one.
The Miami Dolphins are learning, in an embarrassing public
spectacle, the lesson of what happens when you allow a psychopath to run amok in
your organization. The extent to which team leadership knew of the specifics of
Incognito’s abuse of other players remains to be seen, but they knew that he
was a psychopath long before they offered him a job. He was allowed to abuse rookies with little
to no regard for any rules or consequences.
And now a player has suffered what appears to be an emotional breakdown.
Some Miami Dolphin players are coming to Incognito’s defense, but their effort
seems more of a shallow defense of the system rather than a heart-felt defense
of the man.
What can we learn from the Dolphin's mistakes?
If you have a Richie Incognito in your chapter, I have one
piece of very simple advice for you – get rid of him. By all means
necessary. If your chapter cannot muster
the will to expel him, then ask your advisors or national volunteers for help.
At the very least, get him placed on involuntary alumni status and get him away
from your new members. If you allow a psychopath to have unfettered access to
the new members of your fraternity, then you are playing with fire. A college fraternity is one of the most
dangerous environments in which a psychopath can live. There, he runs the risk of not only hazing,
but sexual violence, vandalism, and all manner of physical abuse and fighting.
Keeping a Richie Incognito around in your organization is asking for trouble.
I suspect that the Richie Incognito story will be a
watershed moment for the NFL. Their “head in the sand” approach to hazing has
finally met its logical end. Someone has been hurt. An NFL locker room is a
work place. Jonathan Martin and Richie
Incognito were/are employees of a company. Workplace harassment in the form of
hazing is still workplace harassment, and it is illegal. The hypocrisy of NFL brass, including
coaches and owners, is on full display in justifying rookie hazing. Miami
Dolphins coach Joe Philbin publicly denied any knowledge of rookie hazing,
despite the fact that hazing in the Dolphin’s locker room was on national
display in last year’s season of HBO’s Hard Knocks. How’s that for keeping your head in the sand?
Football analysts on ESPN, who have
frequently made light of rookie hazing, are now indignant. Why? Because someone was finally hurt? We all knew this was coming. So many people – NFL officials, owners,
coaches, other players, analysts - have had an opportunity to keep this from
happening, and all of them have ignored the problem. Now it is a problem that
can no longer be ignored. The NFL must adopt a hazing policy, and it must do so immediately.
The NFL will act, and so should you. No more Richie
Incognitos. It’s time to take a stand.
