Channing Crowder: ‘Jonathan Martin will get everyone’s best’
By Brian Miller
Richie Incognito is still unemployed despite the fact he is more talented than John Jerry and Jonathan Martin, who both have jobs. The Jonathan Martin bullying case can’t quite fade away, granted it’s only been about four months since the Ted Wells report was released, but that hasn’t stopped people from bringing the investigation up. Such is the case with former Miami Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder.
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Crowder is no longer in the NFL but he does have a loud voice and he has the stage to use it as he is radio host on Miami’s 560AM. Crowder isn’t afraid to voice his opinion and frankly when he was playing in the NFL he wasn’t afraid to voice it then either. This time Crowder takes a poke at Jonathan Martin who was traded to the San Francisco 49’ers for a conditional 2015 7th round draft pick.
"“You cannot let Jonathan Martin dominate you as an NFL player now,” Crowder said, per David Jones of Florida Today. “With him quitting on the team, with him being — perception is reality — with him being as soft as he is and . . . how another grown man’s words could make you quit on your team, there is not going to be anybody that is going to let him dominate them. If anybody goes against Jonathan Martin, they have no respect for him.”“Everybody is going to bring their best”."
In some respects Crowder is correct. Players learn their opponents weaknesses and then try and exploit it whether that weakness is physical, mental, or in this case emotional. In Martin’s case it could be a matter of all three. Martin struggled in his one and a half seasons with Miami both at left tackle and right tackle. When he quit the team many felt it was over his demotion to the right side. The Dolphins have moved on from Martin and will sport an opening day offensive line with five new starters after the injury to center Mike Pouncey.
While Crowder may be right in his assessment of players not wanting to get upstaged by Martin, the reality is that once a game starts, players are not as concerned about who they are facing as much as trying to win the game and the individual match-ups regardless of what problems the other players may have. They may use some of that knowledge to their advantage but they won’t be losing sleep over the prospect of playing against them.