- If Martin bypassed and just left the team without telling anyone, probably not the right thing to do.
why not?
I keep seeing this sentiment pop up and to de-contextualize it this way seems to miss the importance of power and its structure in the situation. The nature of the abuse/harassment takes place with a lot of other complicit bodies and a power structure in a locker room. The clout that Incognito (allegedly) had speaks volumes about how that power dynamic played out.
All of this armchair quarterbacking, er.... offensive tackling (?) after the fact about what he should or should not have done seems beside that point.
Martin inverted the power dynamic.
All of the "He shoulda wooped that guy" is about one thing, right? Turning the tables on the bully. Challenging that power hierarchy.
You know what else does that? And does it even better? Doing what Martin did. Let's say he stands up to him - he risks getting his butt kicked and the same thing just continues in perpetuity. Or until Incognito is gone or wears out his welcome. Again.
Let's say Martin wins. Does that stop Incognito? Doubtful. Maybe I'm psychoanalyzing here, but going with his history, I think it's a reasonable conclusion.
Doing it this way, the power dynamic is completely changed in a more effective and permanent way. It's shifted. I know Martin is a well read dude. Maybe he was reading Sun Tzu or Mind**** Your Enemies For Dummies. I don't know.
BUt I do know that the cretin that occupied the top of the power structure is now having to (in his words) "weather the storm." That doesn't happen if Martin fights him, win, lose, or draw.
And Martin risked a lot by taking the tact he did. I think calling him a "coward" or trying to depict this as "walking away" is an oversimplification and ignores the gravity in the choice that he made. (edit: this is a general comment, silvr - not directed at you. Actually, that goes for a bit of this post, using yours as a sort of launching point rather than a direct response/contradiction)
So far it looks to me like he did the "right" thing in a lot of ways. Incognito loses power in more than an interim basis. We have a broader social discussion of this type of issue - the discussion has transcended the NFL and has even been mentioned in the context of schools. Martin challenges and complicates (and potentially reverses, in some ways) his portrayal as simply victim and becomes partly advocate.
I have trouble faulting Martin for any of his decisions and his choice has changed the dynamics of the power relationship in a way that wouldn't have been remotely possible in the locker room itself.