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Richie Incognito Suspended 2 Games


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On 7/14/2019 at 7:14 AM, BuffaloMatt said:

I loved him as a player. He's a masher on the line. As a person he certainly as shown his true colors. As a person with mental illness he needs to be monitored, treated and helped.

Me too. He solidified our line. The man could play. I feel sorry for him and his mental state. And Oakland is not the type of city for rehabbing these types of players. I still wish him the best. 

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On 7/15/2019 at 11:02 AM, Doc said:

Maybe the new coaching staff made him crazy?  He was fine under Wrex.

 

I think it's more likely to be "scared straight" than a difference in coaching staffs.  RI had just spent the better part of two seasons out of football.  Even after his suspension was lifted, no team in the league even gave him a shot.  I think that was a "wake up call" that led him to seek significant counseling and say all the "right things" to indicate real change: " The 31-year-old also spent about six weeks in in-patient care at McClean Institute in Boston over the summer" and "  Incognito's first public comments regarding what he said to make the Bills comfortable with his signing: "I told them what I had learned from the whole situation," Incognito wrote in a text. "That I needed to respect those around me more and that I needed to realize I may find things funny that other find offensive. This whole learning process was about becoming self-aware. About becoming a better person/teammate/leader."

Incognito loves playing football and after every team passed on him in the 2014 off-season and season, he was afraid his football career was done.  So he made changes, and he was able to maintain those changes for a while.  Having Wood as a teammate may also have helped a lot - apparently Wood set a good tone.

But like many people who struggle with mental illness and substance abuse, after a while they feel "cured" and start to wonder if they really need all those meds that have side effects they dislike.  Or, they slip back into substance abuse.  Or in the case of elite athletes, maybe they take a "natural" supplement that reacts badly.  And we're off.


Though, based upon some of RI's comments (to the effect that Castillo was a stickler for technique and for using "his" technique) I don't think RI enjoyed playing for Castillo, and I think after Wood retired RI may have felt he'd enjoy it less.

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On 7/13/2019 at 6:38 AM, simpleman said:

i don't get the logic. The man was obviously mentally ill at the time. He is being suspended for being mentally ill. That is different from choosing to beat your wife,  or choosing to drink and drive. If he is still mentally ill,  then don't let him play the game. That makes sense. Judge him medically unfit and don't let him play. You don't punish someone for being ill. What a message the NFL is sending about dealing with mental illness. A suspension is a punishment. Punishing someone for a mental illness does not provide a deterrent, you don't choose to get ill. You declare him still ill and get him help. Punishment is inappropriate, and is it even legal?

 

Couldn't you make that same argument exculpating any player who threatens people with violence or who operates a vehicule "under the influence"? 

 

I don't think the NFL is punishing Ritchie for being mentally ill.  They are punishing him for terrorizing a group of people with credible threats (he had multiple guns in his vehicle when he became angry and violent and threatened to shoot them).    Why he did that impacts what treatment his family and physicians recommend him to seek, but it doesn't change what he did and whether it deserves consequences.

 

It's similar to punishing someone who drives drunk or drug impaired.  You might say "he's mentally ill, it's the mental illness that is causing the alcohol use or the drug use".  Society says "Whatevs: you threaten lives by driving drunk, doesn't matter why you're doing it, you're a danger to others and you need to face consequences"

In my opinion, of course

 

 

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