Hazing in the NFL

It took only one practice for Dallas Cowboys Rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant out of Oklahoma State to refuse to carry the shoulder pads of veteran wide out, Roy Williams. By not carrying Williams’ shoulder pads he has caused a big stir at the Cowboys training camp. Before the NFL Draft, Bryant was criticized for being too immature to play in the NFL.

Hazing the rookies in the NFL is a time-honored tradition that all rookies should respect. This has caused a major distraction in the Cowboy’s locker room. All rookies whether in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and college athletics need to understand by doing something so simple like carry your teammates shoulder pads, says something about you as a person.

If Bryant were to carry Williams’ pads, it would have showed Williams the respect he thinks he deserves due to the fact he is a veteran and had to do the same thing if not more when he came into the league in 2004. Not only would it show Williams respect but other veteran’s that Bryant is a class act.

Bryant said he refused to carry Williams’ pads because he was drafted to play football and help the cowboys win championships. Chemistry within a team is the biggest part of a team in order to win championships. We learned this from Bill Simmons conversation with Isaiah Thomas in Las Vegas in his recent book about the NBA, Thomas called it “The Secret.” Chemistry of a team is the key ingredient of any formula to winning. Bryant is a rookie -- he hasn’t earned his teammates respect yet. He also doesn’t know his teammates they way some do after playing with each other for a full year or more.

Miami Dolphins General Manager Bill Parcells, coached the New York Giants, New England Patriots, New York Jets and the Dallas Cowboys, there he would make his rookies bring him water during timeouts at practice.

Bryant could argue that hazing is a ridiculous way to bond with one another and some veterans have gone too far in the past. Rumors have it, that players have gone into each others locker and took their credit cards to run up their credit. This is hazing gone too far. In my opinion, carrying someone’s shoulder pads is not hazing. This is why coaches let this tradition to carry on year after year.

“Picking up some bills, having a few pranks pulled on you and doing some off jobs for the vets is a small price to pay to gain respect,” via Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers twitter account.

Rogers is exactly right. It’s not like Bryant is dressed in a Dallas Cowboys skimpy outfit dancing outside the stadium in front of thousand of fans, he only asked to carry his sweaty shoulder pads.

I did some research to find out the best pranks pulled on rookies in the NFL, here are the Top 5:

5. Last summer, not long after head of the NFL Players Association DeMaurice Smith begged his constituents to start saving 25 percent of their money in preparation for a potential looming lockout, the San Diego Chargers treated themselves to a $14,508.67 dinner at the expense of first-round pick Larry English. If English was upset about this development, his teammate Shawne Merriman offered comfort by claiming to have picked up a $32,000 tab run up by fellow Chargers in his rookie season. The Chargers, properly bonded as a team by English’s generosity, lost three of their first five games but went on to a 13-3 record. – Les Carpenter of Yahoo! Sports

4. Even some of the best NFL players need a laugh here and there. Joe Montana was known to put rookie’s bikes in different trees. It seems harmless, but considering that the practice field was only about a quarter-mile from the housing facility, bikes were the main source of transportation. After a tough day on the field a player would have to fetch his bike from a tree, only to discover that he just got someone else’s bike down. – watchmojo.com

3. "[In Detroit], we had a guy from Mexico who was playing for the national team, and we were trying to cut his hair because he had real long hair and we wanted to shave his head. So we were chasing him, and he took off, ran through a door, broke the door and knocked himself out silly. So the next day, when he came back, we had outlined the door in chalk where he had fallen through. It was the funniest thing." – Shaun Cody, Houston Texans

2. There’s a rule that even non-NFL players know – do what the Vets tell you. I guess OT Chris Colmer didn’t get that message. In 2005, FB Mike Alstott asked the rookie to get him a Gatorade. Colmer decided to be a wise guy and drew a map to the fridge for Alstott instead. As redemption, Alstott took the wheels off of Colmer’s car and left a map on the windshield to where the tires were. – amog.com

1. "With the GQ magazine thing, [my teammates] put a slide show of those pictures on every TV in the facility, and then they wrote like, 'David Hasselhoff?' We'd be installing plays on a PowerPoint presentation, and every once in a while, a PowerPoint would show up with one of the big pictures, and everyone's like, 'Ohhh!' And they'd dissect for like 10 minutes, and then we'd move on. It was pretty funny." – Mark Sanchez, QB, New York Jets

The worst prank ever pulled:

When Mike Ditka coached the Saints back in 1998 he may have let some pranks go a little too far. Not one, but two players were injured during a hazing incident. On the final night of camp the Vets forced the rookies to run the gauntlet. They were kicked, elbowed and hit with bags filled of coins as they made their way through.

Rookie Tight End Cam Cleeland got smacked in the left eye and had to go to get a CAT scan. He even had to go to an eye specialist to make sure everything was alright. During the same night, rookie DT Jeff Danish put his hand through a window after the gauntlet. Danish went on to sue the Saints, six players and an assistant coach for assault, which was settled out of court.