Former Dolphins executive Bill Parcells defended signing controversial left guard Richie Incognito in 2010, saying this week, “He was a model citizen for the year that I was there with him.”
Parcells, the club’s head of football operations from 2008 through September 2010, said that he knew Incognito had troubles in St. Louis and Buffalo but that he believed his career could be salvaged.
“I thought the kid was kind of at a crossroad where you might, could save him,” Parcells told the New York Daily News. “It turned out (our personnel people) were pretty much right about that. I believe he’s played pretty well for them.”
Incognito was suspended by the Dolphins on Sunday after being accused of harassment by teammate Jonathan Martin, an offensive tackle.
The NFL is investigating whether Martin was bullied. He is expected to meet with investigators late next week in Los Angeles, where he is staying with family members.
The Dolphins meanwhile are preparing for Monday night’s game at Tampa Bay. A team source told the Palm Beach Post on Friday that Miami’s embattled offensive line is rallying around position coach Jim Turner. At a team meeting Thursday the offensive linemen stood up and told Turner they had his back and that they love him.
Under Incognito’s leadership, the offensive linemen had meetings at a strip club, according to a report Friday in the National Football Post, which cited two anonymous sources.
The Incognito-Martin case has stirred national debate over the NFL’s locker-room culture, which critics call rowdy and raunchy.
“I take strong exception to people intimating they know what goes on in those rooms,” said Parcells, 72. “I was in those rooms for 52 years. I know what goes on in there. The players have their own justice system. They don’t write the rules and regulations down, but everybody knows what they are. Some things you don’t do.”
Unger out
with concussion
RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks are getting used to the kind of news they got Friday about their offensive line, when they learned that center Max Unger will not be able to play at Atlanta on Sunday with a concussion.
Seattle has not played with its expected starting offensive line since the first half of the second game of the season against San Francisco, and the loss of Unger means that for the third time this season it will play with four of five positions held by someone other than who lined up there on opening day.
The Seahawks aren’t quite as accustomed to getting similar news about the defensive line. Friday, though, they learned that end Red Bryant will miss the game with a concussion.
Broncos’ Fox released from hospital
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — John Fox is out of the hospital, and the rest of the Denver Broncos are feeling better as well.
“Great news today,” interim coach Jack Del Rio said Friday in announcing Fox’s release from the hospital four days after undergoing heart surgery in Charlotte, N.C. “I know that he’s excited to get out, is one step closer to getting back with us.”
Fox had his aortic value replaced at the Carolinas HealthCare System’s Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute in Charlotte on Monday, two days after becoming dizzy while playing golf during the Broncos’ bye.
