The Dolphins have a mess on their hands with the Jonathan Martin situation.
And that may not be the only thing they need to clean up before things return to normal.
Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald said there have been multiple issues, that if not exactly like the reported bullying and/or harrassment of Martin, are creating problems in the locker room.
He describes a culture of older players forcing younger teammates to pick up the tab, with one player being handed a bill for a $30,000 team dinner. “The veterans are using the younger players as an ATM, I’m told,” he reported.
He then retweeted a message from defensive tackle Jared Odrick which had a picture of a large dinner, with the message: “Everything tastes better when rookies pay for it.”
That dovetails with reports that Martin was somehow coerced into paying $15,000 toward a trip to Las Vegas that he didn’t attend.
To some degree, this kind of behavior is normal. Rookies have been buying doughnuts on Saturday mornings or lunch on Fridays or an end-of-year dinner for their position groups as long as there have been teams and rookies.
But if some players are getting carried away with the South Beach lifestyle, as Beasley suggests, then it’s clearly an issue the Dolphins need to address.
