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Bedard: Why Joe didn't know what was going on in locker room

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http://mmqb.si.com/2014/02/21/nfl-players-on-what-joe-philbin-didnt-know/

A CEO-type coach like the Dolphins’ Joe Philbin trusts in institutions such as the player development program and leadership councils to handle locker-room and other off-field issues. NFL players will tell you that approach will fail if those institutions aren’t strong

We’ll get to the surprising answer provided by a former Packers player, but when I talked to five players around the league about what Philbin may or may not have known, I heard a surprising question in return from nearly all of them: “Where was the player development guy?”

Each NFL team has at least one person whose responsibility is player development. It’s a wide-ranging job that involves educating players, especially rookies, on what they will encounter on and off the field, lining up continuing education programs or internships to prepare them up for life after football, providing financial education and informing them about the player assistance programs available to them.
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Kaleb Thornhill, the Dolphins’ director of player development, was hired in 2010 when Tony Sparano was coach, and was inherited by Philbin. Thornhill (who could not be reached for comment), was a three-year starter at Michigan State but did not play in the NFL. He worked for the Lions in both football operations and player development before being hired by the Dolphins.

While Thornhill was certainly qualified to organize and provide assistance for the players, his role inside the Dolphins’ locker room is less clear. The first time he is mentioned in the Wells report is when Philbin instructed him to call Martin’s father after the player left the team. If Thornhill wasn’t keenly aware of the exploding situation, why not?

“It’s his job to check in and monitor,” one player says of a player development person. “ ‘How are you doing? Are you really doing good.’ They failed at that down there [in Miami].”
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A former Packers player explained the leadership council dynamic with the CEO-style coach, and how it relates to Philbin and the Dolphins.

“McCarthy’s theory was, ‘You have your leaders in the locker room, and if it’s not that serious, then I don’t need to hear about it; you guys deal with it,” the player said. “Obviously if somebody really had a problem or things really got out of hand, you could bring it upstairs. But in the meantime if there’s an issue, we handled it, and [McCarthy] never had to address it because he never heard about it. For [Philbin] to not know about these things is very, very valid. The coach is on the field with you during practice, but you don’t really see them after practice. And guys aren’t going to let things get out of hand in front of the assistant coaches either. It’s up to the players to police themselves.

“McCarthy was hands on [in the locker room], until he and Charles [Woodson] resolved whatever issues they had and leaders were formed. Then it became [the leadership council]. I can see where [Philbin] didn’t know about it. Something goes on and you try to keep it away from your coach. It’s not a code, but nobody really [complains] to the coach if it’s not that serious. What’s worth telling? I can’t really imagine a player saying, ‘Jonathan Martin says he’s being picked on’ to the coach. If [Martin] comes to you about being picked on, then obviously we will handle it in the locker room. [McCarthy] always said conflict is good because it gives you a chance to handle some stuff and grow.”
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Just beat me to posting this article. Makes perfect sense, amazed that our local beat writers wouldn't look into this instead look to bash him immediately (especially Armando who has an agenda). I'm not saying he is perfect or justified for not knowing but it does seem to provide some perspective.
 
Makes it pretty important to have the right leaders on the Leadership Council. This is a recipe for disaster if you have a bipolar sociopath as your team leader, who happens to be a big part of the problem. This also tells me that what worked well in Green Bay may be good process but not appropriate because the leaders are different.
 
Regardless Philbin will still be labelled as clueless over this situation......mainly on this board.
 
Well since Joe got rid of the team leaders, and knew Incognito was a problem from the golf course incident, and also knew Martin had mental health issues, maybe he should have kept an eye, and ear out for trouble. There was plenty of smoke, before this fire.
 
Phantom said:
Well since Joe got rid of the team leaders, and knew Incognito was a problem from the golf course incident, and also knew Martin had mental health issues, maybe he should have kept an eye, and ear out for trouble. There was plenty of smoke, before this fire.
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Who did Joe get rid of besides Reggie?
 
Two comments on that.

One, the fact that we have a detached, CEO-style coach, who relies on things like the leadership counsel to handle the locker room and the players problems. Ok, but who did he let be top dog? Richie Incognito, the same guy he knew came with a one strike clause, the same guy who assaulted a woman on a golf course.

Two, this very last line is really what was going on: "[McCarthy] always said conflict is good because it gives you a chance to handle some stuff and grow.” It wasn't that Philbin was unaware Martin was struggling and that his mind wasn't right, or unaware that Incognito was psychopath, but he figured conflict is good and everything will sort itself out.

But imo, in any organization, football or not, if you set people up to succeed, it will be better for the entire organization. If you set them up to fail, they will fail and it will set the organization back. Some people wrongly have the view that failure is good, and darwinian environments are good, because it somehow lets the cream rise to the top. The problem with that is, survivors can be anything - a Lion, or a common rat, feeding off the young of other animals, and spreading disease. Both are highly successful animals. Which do you want to flourish around you?
 
Phantom said:
Well since Joe got rid of the team leaders, and knew Incognito was a problem from the golf course incident, and also knew Martin had mental health issues, maybe he should have kept an eye, and ear out for trouble. There was plenty of smoke, before this fire.
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:hsmash:
 
spiketex said:
Makes it pretty important to have the right leaders on the Leadership Council. This is a recipe for disaster if you have a bipolar sociopath as your team leader, who happens to be a big part of the problem. This also tells me that what worked well in Green Bay may be good process but not appropriate because the leaders are different.
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That's it in a nutshell, you can not be a good CEO if the guys you put in place to lead are not leaders......this goes back to whose idea was it to remove all veteran leadership off the team and then for Philbin to allow Richie to be voted on the leadership counsel is ridiculous....Richie off the field sexual assault gave Philbin the out he needed for removing Richie from the ballot....he didn't do it so that's on him and this is why he deserves the criticism he is getting.....
 
jvw said:
That's it in a nutshell, you can not be a good CEO if the guys you put in place to lead are not leaders......this goes back to whose idea was it to remove all veteran leadership off the team and then for Philbin to allow Richie to be voted on the leadership counsel is ridiculous....Richie off the field sexual assault gave Philbin the out he needed for removing Richie from the ballot....he didn't do it so that's on him and this is why he deserves the criticism he is getting.....
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:hsmash:
 
jvw said:
That's it in a nutshell, you can not be a good CEO if the guys you put in place to lead are not leaders......this goes back to whose idea was it to remove all veteran leadership off the team and then for Philbin to allow Richie to be voted on the leadership counsel is ridiculous....Richie off the field sexual assault gave Philbin the out he needed for removing Richie from the ballot....he didn't do it so that's on him and this is why he deserves the criticism he is getting.....
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I think that entire narrative is BS. Richie was going to do his thing whether he had some sort of title or not. An NFL locker room is full of grown ass men that should know right from wrong. If the harassment was as bad as JM portrayed it, someone should have stepped in or at least brought it to Philbin's attention. By all accounts this was not done.
 
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