R Incognito on Real Sports on HBO

[RaoulDuke79]

9 hours ago, Mark80 said:

Saying RI is going to mess up again, or saying he doesn't deserve to be in the NFL is like saying you want a cancer survivor just going to get cancer again or they don't belong in the NFL.  The guy has a diagnosed serious mental issue.  He got himself back from a dark, dark place.  Many never do.  People need to look at mental illness like the disease it is, not some funny joke.  Just my opinion.  I'm rooting for him.

This is a complete apples to oranges statement.  There have been numerous incidents now where Ritchie has not only been a threat himself, but also threatened or harmed others. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by RaoulDuke79

[Mr. WEO]

Same thread gets posted periodically.  RI goes crazy. RI disappears for a while.  RI comes back to NFL looking normal.  Threads start: "hoping for the best" and "pulling for this guy".

 

The NFL is the only company that would continuously rehire this guy---specifically because his mental illness and aggression factor into his actual job.  When he predictably decompensates, he gets dumped again and the cycle repeats.

[Tcali]

12 hours ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

As I said in another thread. Its amazing that he's allowed out in public,  let alone able to play for an NFL team. He should be under 24 hour supervision. 

interesting point.....a guy who needs drugs to be not absolutely nuts and dangerous(and a freakishly strong baby Huey type as well). --Couple of drinks in a bar...forgets to take meds.Thinks you looked at him the wrong way.Then the fun starts

[Helpmenow]

15 hours ago, Nanker said:

Lyle Alzado comes to mind. 

Dead too and raging lunatic 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 hours ago, Buffalo Barbarian said:

Bring Ritchie back!!

 

That Ship Has Sailed. 

No.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

50 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

Same thread gets posted periodically.  RI goes crazy. RI disappears for a while.  RI comes back to NFL looking normal.  Threads start: "hoping for the best" and "pulling for this guy".

 

The NFL is the only company that would continuously rehire this guy---specifically because his mental illness and aggression factor into his actual job.  When he predictably decompensates, he gets dumped again and the cycle repeats.

 

As Eric Wood said, "you can do things on the football field that are severely illegal anywhere else".

 

Football likely a double edged sword for Cog.  The excitement and adrenaline and endorphins and the chance to "play angry" and vent his aggression are probably helpful to him, as is the extreme structure during the season.  But the season is just 4 months, it doesn't help him figure out what to do with his head in the other 8.  Then the constant injuries and ready availability of medication for those, and the ready availability of illegal drugs to a guy with money and "pro athlete" aura.

 

But to your point, yes, we seem to have the "Cog Cycle" just as we have the "Fitz Cycle".

 

Did you catch the announcer on Thurs Nite saying that Gruden assigned Incognito to "mentor" their new LT? 

 

Because what could go wrong?

[leh-nerd skin-erd]

12 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Good call out.  For all the culture and family talk by McD(also faith), when Richie was struggling they said take a pay cut or leave.  

I’m with you.  No heads were actually thrown at that point. You pay the man until such time. 

 

[skibum]

It's interesting reading through this thread. You can pretty easily tell who among us has and has not had to deal with serious mental illness in their family, friends, or selves. 

[Jerome007]

LIke the majority I suppose, I at the same time wish him success but think he'll relapse. That I like the dude while knowing he also has been an A-hole to many people.

 

But one thing is sure: dude could play! He was the best offensive lineman since Ruben Brown

[Doc]

22 minutes ago, leh-nerd skin-erd said:

I’m with you.  No heads were actually thrown at that point. You pay the man until such time.

 

They had an idea it was coming.  Otherwise they wouldn't have approached him, their best OL, about a pay cut.  And you can't help someone who doesn't want to help him/herself.

 

[Rochesterfan]

14 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Good call out.  For all the culture and family talk by McD(also faith), when Richie was struggling they said take a pay cut or leave.  

 

This is straight BS.  
 

There was on field issues/off field issues - that RI has acknowledged that lead to some decisions.

 

The Bills worked on a pay cut and RI agreed to it.  The rest of the stuff happened because of RI own doings.

 

We do not know (nor should we know) what the Bills discussed with RI about his mental health struggles and/or if his decisions in that regard led to the pay cut. 

 

Just listen to the players and you know this sentiment is absolutely BS.  The players talk repeatedly about the environment and culture and how much everyone seems to care.  To even suggest they would just throw him out without trying to get him help is absurd.  The fact that it took RI over a year to realize the help he needed suggests exactly where the problem lies.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

20 hours ago, TroutDog said:

A really interesting piece on Richie on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. 
 

He appears to have his act together now and also shows how extremely low he was in multiple times during his career...including video from when he was in the police car after his most recent arrest. 
 

He does discuss being overweight and stoned during team functions with the Bills. Pretty clear he has a serious substance abuse issue...and has it beat for now, which is good. He has had some REALLY serious breakdowns which they share unfiltered. 
 

I’m always a sucker for comeback stories so it’s nice to see a guy who has had serious issues making a comeback. I hope it sticks. 

Isn't this his 2nd HBO Real Sports come back interview? Thought he did one after he was kicked out of the league.

Edited November 10, 2019 by Buffalo_Stampede

[TroutDog]

7 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Isn't this his 2nd HBO Real Sports come back interview? Thought he did one after he was kicked out of the league.

Not sure, to be honest. 

[EasternOHBillsFan]

13 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I dunno about scum, but he's reportedly had issues his whole life:

 

“His parents were definitely psychotic. You understand why Richie is the way Richie is,” said Jim Moore, 65, Bogota’s recreation director who coached youth football when Incognito was a boy.

.....

“The kid had anger issues … he destroyed all his toys,” said Bob Mühlhahn, 48, who lived across the street from the Incognitos and eventually bought their old Elm Avenue home. When he took down the wallpaper, he said, he found holes in the walls consistent with punching and kicking. "

.....

He was apparently bullied and beat up initially in football and baseball, in part because he was large and was put to play with older kids:

“If he struck out, he’d be upset. He’d cry. That led the other kids to make fun of him. Kids are pretty cruel at that age and Richie was pretty thin-skinned,” said Little League coach Kerry Deutsch. “If you’re the biggest kid on the team and you cry, for the other kids on the other team, you’re a mark.”  And then bullying came to an end.

“There was a smaller kid who was picking on Richie,” recalled Seth Bendian, a baseball coach in Englewood who knew both kids in 1993. “I found out there was a resolution. Richie did what he could do, which was kick this kid’s butt … I’m pretty sure the teasing stopped after that.”

....

(At U of Nebraska) He was First Team All Freshman in 2002, but was ejected in a game against Penn State for fighting, and was seen spitting on another player. In spring 2003 he was suspended — the team never said why— and sent to the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan., to be treated for anger management. [Hapless sez: there are stories about his relentlessly bullying players with less status on the team]

....

When he wasn’t suited up, he was still getting into brawls — found guilty of misdemeanor assault in after “one of those parties in a Van Wilder movie” in February 2004, a former student told The Post. (....) "The 6-foot-3, 320-pound lineman — who was punching holes in the walls when he couldn’t find a chin — finally left the party, but not before cold-cocking a poor sap who happened to be standing by the door. “He took his cell phone, threw it, and then punched him on his way out,” the former student said. "   Incognito was set to play his junior year for new coach Bill Callahan, but was unceremoniously suspended from the nationally ranked squad, a move thought to be precipitated by the February brawl.
....Callahan said at the time, “We have team rules. They’re very simple to follow. If they’re not followed, and they’re not complied to, then (you) suffer the consequences, unfortunately.” But a former student told The Post the reason he heard from “inside the locker room” was that Incognito “tried to charge Bill Callahan.”

....

Incognito left Nebraska for Oregon, but never played a game down there.

“He was talented, but came with issues. He claimed they were in the past,” head coach Mike Bellotti said at the time. “We set a code of conduct he had to meet. He failed that before fall camp.”

....

He soon cemented his claim as the NFL’s dirtiest player — with a league-high seven personal fouls while playing for the Rams.

St. Louis cut ties with him in 2009 after he head-butted two opponents in a blowout loss to the Titans. [Hapless sez: during one game Mike Martz was observed yelling "What the F### is wrong with that F###er?" about Incognito] That same year, Incognito — who has admitted to doing drugs during his time in St. Louis — was charged with misdemeanor attempted possession of drug paraphernalia in Arizona, according to court records.

So yeah.  There's a pretty documented track record there, from destroying toys and punching holes in the walls of his childhood home, to being sent for anger management counseling while at Nebraska and showing he "failed it" by committing assault at a party, bullying other players on the team, charging the HC, and finally getting kicked out of two college programs and cut from an NFL team for being too much of a liability for PF's.

 

And that's all before he got to Miami.

 

 

 

It still doesn't prove he was scum his entire life... does scum really go through all of that growing up? I still stand by what I said. 

[LSHMEAB]

3 hours ago, skibum said:

It's interesting reading through this thread. You can pretty easily tell who among us has and has not had to deal with serious mental illness in their family, friends, or selves. 

I fall in the former category; great deal of experience with it. But this is a situation in which it's perfectly acceptable to hold two seemingly contradictory views. A)The guy has some serious problems that are beyond his control and deserves some leeway and B) The guy shouldn't be on an NFL roster. It's not an either/or proposition.