Jennifer Hoffer – Sports Editor
For the past few weeks Miami Dolphins players Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin have been in the news because of a “hazing” incident that had happened not only in the locker-room but had extended into Martin’s personal life. This caused Martin to leave the team. This posed questions about what Incognito’s intentions really were, and left people looking in to Incognito’s “violent” background.
In a time right now, the people are enthralled in the world of sports, which makes the hazing or in other terms bullying, as Associate Director of Student Life Sal Rizza puts it, is setting a bad example and trend.
For Rizza, he doesn’t like the term hazing.
“Hazing is such a difficult and sprawling term that the Ingocnito/Martin situation certainly has hazing overtomes but it is also a case of bully and just terrible, terrible leadership,” Rizza said. “Ingocnito has been enabled to act this way throughout his career because he is above average lineman. His antics, beyond this incident, are completely unacceptable. More specifically, in this situation, how does his treatment of Martin strengthen him as an athlete?”
One of the issues hazing, Rizza said, is the belief that breaking someone down, demoralizing them, and belittling their confidence will pay of. And then spontaneously, Rizza said, their confidence is built back up.
“As a result this will make them a better team member that will respect the team more,” Rizza said. “Incognito was not helping Martin become a better offensive tackle. Instead, he was ostracizing him and creating an environment where Martin couldn’t possibly succeed.
This raises the question- does this go on in other sports? As an avid sports fan, Rizza said he believes it does.
“Some forms of hazing take an ugly, violent and malicious form,” Rizza said. “Most hazing begins more subtly and is seen as “tradition.” One of my favorite teams is the New York Yankees. They have an annual tradition, which I despise.”
The tradition involves rookie players to dress up based on the theme the Yankees have set up for them. This past year the rookies were expected to dress up as musical artists; something Rizza said wasn’t rational to him.
“What does this have to do with baseball and how does this make the athletes perform better?,”Rizza said. “I believe in tradition but these traditions aren’t designed to increase on-field results or build team morale. It is simply an antiquated way to establish power structures and dynamic. The same goes for the idea of rookies not being allowed to eat in a dining hall before the rest of the team, being forced to carry the equipment or paying for large group dinners.”
Rizza said that one of the primary facets of hazing is the idea of new teams, new organizations, and new group members “earning” their right to be part of a group.
“They accomplish this by performing certain tasks or responsibilities in order to be accepted,” Rizza said. “By creating these conditions of acceptance, a hostile unsafe and explosive dynamic can be created. In fact, conditions of acceptance are backwards. Ideally, it should be the veterans that set examples for new members by exemplifying how a successful and respected team or group member should behave.”
Rizza is the coordinater at Greek Life here at Southern. He has also been studying hazing for ten years.
He said Southern has established a culture that does not embrace hazing.
“We reject it completely,” Rizza said.
The groups at Southern including the faculty of Greek Life work hard, Rizza said, to educate themselves and everybody else on the issue.
“We evaluate our practices annually to ensure that we are creating safe, welcoming and hazing-free environments,” Rizza said. “Our policies are clear as are our expectations. However, nationally, while universities and most organizations have strong anti-hazing policies, some chapters still haze.”
There are alternatives to hazing. Rizza said that the best managers, bosses and leaders will lead by example and treat their co-workers with respect.
“I compare everything to the practices of education,” Rizza said. “Good teachers don’t humiliate their students. They work with them to help them become better students. They teach them by working side by side and modeling.”
As for the future of Southern and continued prevention of hazing, Rizza said he thinks that they are doing a tremendous job.
“As our society has grown more litigious, organizations are paying closer attention to their training and educational practices,” Rizza said. “The bottom line is that people are getting smarter and realizing that hazing isn’t the best approach.”
