As the story of Jonathan Martin leaving the Dolphins was followed by stories that bullying from teammate Richie Incognito led Martin to leave, many past and present football players have said that Martin should have stood up, been a man and settled things with Incognito physically.
But Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor has a different take: Pryor says that by refusing to allow himself to be bullied — but also refusing to allow things to escalate into a physical fight — Martin was standing up and being a man.
“I hope that we see Martin playing again soon – I’ve watched some tape of him, he’s a good player,” Pryor said. “Hats off to him for standing up and being a man.”
Although Pryor is only 24 years old and in his first year as a starter, he said he wants to be the kind of leader who stops situations from escalating into the kind of problem the Dolphins are dealing with. Pryor said he’s not afraid to step in and tell teammates if what they’re doing is wrong.
“There are some situations where sometimes you have to do that, it’s minor things, but you want to cut things off,” Pryor said. “There are so many situations that pop up – your teammate has one drink or something like that and you want to say, ‘Hey, maybe you should take a cab, come take a cab with me,’ something small like that you just get so much respect from your teammate that you stopped and helped him. It’s just little things like that, it matters and that definitely comes in on a leadership role.”
Pryor sounds like a leader the Raiders are lucky to have in their locker room.