Locker Room Culture Throughout Sports

There are just a few weeks left in football at all levels. The NFL, and the Miami Dolphins has a locker room hazing and bullying scandal so extreme it would take Olivia Pope to fix.

Many out there are familiar with this Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin saga that continues to develop and unfold daily.  There are many schools of thought, suggestions, excuses, and remedies.

My question is this: why are we not looking at the locker room of the Miami Dolphins?

Often when something like this happens on a sports team, especially a professional one, there's a lot of dysfunction and a lack of leadership in the locker room.

I have played sports, and I will tell you the locker room encompasses a variety of things.  Confidentiality.  Teamwork. Unity. Fun. Game planning. Harmless playing around and bantering occurs at every level in every team sport. Usually when it gets out of hand, it's up to the team leaders and captains to settle it on site.  The objective is not to let anyone outside of the team find out what is going on: no coaches, no family members, and definitely no media.  The unwritten rule is to go to the coaches only when it is at such a dangerous and harmful magnitude.

It appears the Miami Dolphins failed on all of these counts.

Now the coaches I had were in tune with their locker rooms. That was mostly because of careful observation and good leadership.  The Phins are going to have to develop these traits in order to repair this mess.

I saw a nearby high school team become ruined recently due to extreme hazing in the locker room. It leaked to parents and the outside media and the fallout equaled that of an earthquake. Nearly a dozen guys were thrown off the team, and the jayvee squad was dissolved and promoted to varsity.  A year later, the head coach left. Up until late this football season, this team had a losing streak dating before that debacle. 

Will the Dolphins have something similar happen? Yes many can agree that Martin could and should have handled it better. Incognito should never been allowed on the team again. However, it starts from the bottom up. The proper leadership must be developed to prevent this behavior going forward.  Incognito has had a horrible disciplinary record since his college days. He would not survive in a stable, functional locker room.

Many athletes know how locker rooms can and should be. The consensus is you want peace, comfort and tranquility. This is how you build a winner, and keep the media from reporting on you, night and day.

Let's hope sports teams everywhere learn from the Dolphins, especially in this anti-bullying era.