A year and a half removed from the “bullygate” incident in Miami, Richie Incognito has landed back on his feet in Buffalo, where he was recently named the starting left guard this season for the Bills by Rex Ryan.
Incognito spoke with Newsday’s Bob Glauber in a recent profile, and says that he has “definitely made some changes” and that he realizes that “you’ve got to be conscious in the locker room.” One would imagine Incognito has probably toned down the hazing and name calling considering how thin of ice he is on going forward.
But the really juicy part of the profile came when Incognito was asked about Roger Goodell and the “independent” investigations brought about by the NFL including his own, and Tom Brady’s:
“I just think it’s bogus, the whole system in how it’s set up with Roger and the complete, absolute power he has,” Incognito said. “He has so much power and he hires independent investigators who come in and are obviously not independent. They come in with an agenda and they come in looking to find facts to back up their argument. All the facts are slanted in their favor.
“Ted Wells came in with a mission against me,” he said. “Ted Wells came in slanted against me and everything in his report was slanted against me. There were some things in there that would have helped my cause that were left out.”
Later, Incognito said he believes another problem is that Goodell has the ultimate power to make decisions, even upon appeals:
“Roger can’t be the judge, jury and executioner on this thing. I understand league discipline. You have to get after guys who are being dumb. But you can’t appeal back to the person who handed down your punishment. You have to get a little power out of [Goodell’s] hands and get [an independent arbitrator] to take a look at it.”
Incognito certainly has his faults, but he’s not wrong about what he’s saying. Having Roger Goodell not only hand out the punishments but also be the one who gets to hear appeals is backwards, and unfair to the players.
His comments about Ted Wells and his bias are a little more open for discussion, but it’s likely that even if he is right about that, the league is not going to give even a second thought to what Incognito (0r anyone else outside of a federal judge) thinks about their system of punishment any time soon.
(Via Newsday)
