MMQB Review: Richie Incognito Just Loves Jonathan Martin So Much, That's Why He Treats Him So Bad Edition

Peter King talked about hazing as it relates to Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin last week in MMQB and he did so without passing judgment on Incognito. He got some shit for this in his weekly mailbag and rightfully so. Not that Peter had a ton of information on what exactly occurred between Martin and Incognito when he wrote MMQB last week, but he should have at least had enough information to remain non-neutral when discussing the topic. That's how it felt, that Peter was being neutral on the topic of bullying in the NFL and didn't feel like coming down hard on Incognito. Peter also celebrated the Red Sox World Series title and marveled at how the pitching carried the Red Sox team this year for the first time ever, which is nice, except it's not entirely accurate. The Red Sox were one of the best hitting teams in the majors this year and the pitching staff wasn't any better than the 2004 or 2007 version of the Red Sox that won the World Series. This week Peter is very eager to talk about Tavon Austin (he caught 2 passes!...for a lot of yardage), talks about Richie Incognito, discusses the NFC playoff picture, and then tells us a story about having to euthanize his dog...with a cameo phone call from Brett Favre of course during the course of the story.

One non-Incognito point to ponder this morning, prompted by non-stat-geek Mike Florio and based on 2013 NFL history: If Indianapolis is 20 points better than San Francisco, and San Francisco 24 points better than St. Louis, and Indianapolis plays St. Louis, then Indianapolis obviously should beat St. Louis by 44.
St. Louis beat Indianapolis by 30 Sunday, which apparently was any given Sunday.

(Peter's phone rings and Peter is crying) "Hel---Hello? It's me and I'm sad."

(Marvin Demoff) "What the fuck are you sad about? Starbucks run out of coffee or something?"

(Peter King) "We had to put my dog to slee---"

(Marvin Demoff) "It was rhetorical. I don't care why you are sad. The Rams won. Mention it in MMQB. They beat a really good team too. The Colts are a good team. Mention that."

(Peter King still sobbing) "I will. I promise, just leave me alone for a bit. It's been a tough week."

(Marvin Demoff) "Oh, it's been a tough week. Boo-fucking-hoo! I have to deal with dipshit clients like you. Mention it in MMQB and no matter how many other interesting or more relevant games too place yesterday, mention the Rams winning first. I wish I could bully you like you are Jonathan Martin."

(Peter King) "Okay---" (Marvin Demoff hangs up)

I’ll give you Gus Bradley, Luke Kuechly and Steve Smith, and lots of playoff speculation fodder, soon.

I bet Steve Smith is just happy he isn't referred to as Steve Smith (Panthers) anymore, now that Steve Smith (Giants) isn't catching passes in the NFL anymore.

But we have to start with the Incognito in the room.

SEE WHAT PETER DID THERE? CREATIVITY AT ITS FINEST!

Most of what Incognito told Glazer was predictable: I am not a racist, I had no idea I was offending Jonathan Martin, he gave the rough stuff back to me. He said Martin’s departure from the team stunned him. “I never saw it,” he said. “I never saw it coming.” But the three most interesting parts of the interview were tangential to it.

I like Jay Glazer. I follow him on the Tweeters and think he is probably the best scoop-guy in the business of the NFL right now. Having said that, I didn't watch this interview, but everything I have heard about it suggests what I expected. Glazer wasn't going to hit Incognito too hard with questions because he's a very pro-player guy, has business relationships with NFL athletes and that's just not his thing to go tough on a player. I'm fine with that because I know that's Jay Glazer. It does bring to mind why Glazer would choose to do an interview that so strongly feels like a PR mission to make Incognito more likeable. I'm also fine with not caring what Incognito told Glazer because I know it is a part of a public relations push and Glazer played that game (intentionally or unintentionally) with Incognito.

1. To prove his point about their close friendship, Incognito showed Glazer what Glazer said were 1,142 text messages the two men had exchanged in the 19 months they’ve known each other. One from Martin to Incognito, sent last week after Martin bolted from the team, went this way: “It’s insane bro but just know I don’t blame you guys at all. It’s just the culture around football and the locker room got to me a little.”

It's clear Martin felt bullied. So this response isn't out of the norm for a player who felt bullied and didn't want further repercussions from his teammates for telling on them.

2. Glazer said Incognito wouldn’t answer whether Miami coaches ordered he or anyone on the team to “toughen up” Martin because he was playing soft. By not answering, of course, Incognito said plenty.

From what I've read about the interview, Glazer didn't push after receiving a non-answer to this question. That's what makes this a PR interview and not a "real" interview that gives answers, at least in my opinion. If Incognito is going to sit down and do an interview then he needs to provide answers. The answer to his use of a racial slur with "I'm not a racist" isn't an answer.

What is real? What is exaggeration? Did Incognito torment Martin to the point of near-mental breakdown? That’s up to Ted Wells to determine. Martin and Incognito need to tell the whole truth when they meet with him.

I don't think Incognito will ever tell the truth because it doesn't look good for him. It's clear from the interview transcript I read that Incognito tried to spin some of his comments a certain way and Glazer didn't call him on it or ask him to clarify.

So on to an actual discussion of this past week's NFL games. The title of this MMQB is "NFC is about to Get Real," which I love because I would love to hear Peter King actually say this phrase out loud.

Carolina isn’t home free … yet. The Panthers play New England next Monday night at home. They’ve got a tough three-game stretch in 15 December days: at New Orleans, Jets at home, Saints at home. The best sign for the Panthers is a 6-2 conference record. That’s more NFC wins than any team in the conference except Seattle, which also has six.

What? You mean Carolina can't stop winning games after they have six wins? That's crazy to hear. Somebody better tell the Panthers fan base because after one quality win they certainly think their team has made the playoffs.

It’s always dangerous to draw conclusions on playoffs with seven games left (particularly in a league in which the Rams beat the Colts by 30), but if you’re a Lions’ fan, you’ve got to be very optimistic this morning. Not only do you have a one-game lead in your division and a sweep of the Bears this year, but your schedule looks like it was drawn up by the ghost of Bobby Layne.

It's always dangerous to draw conclusions on playoffs with seven games left, but Peter has been drawing conclusions on the playoffs since there were 14 games left, so why stop now? 

Carolina is relevant … finally.

The standards have been lowered apparently. Being relevant is a cause for dramatic celebration. The Panthers can still end the year 6-10 and I wouldn't put it past them.

In the second half, six drives netted 45 yards. This was no fluky win. The Panthers used the smothering presence of outside rushers Charles Johnson and Greg Hardy to neutralize Colin Kaepernick, who was sacked six times. Middle linebacker Luke Kuechly and defensive tackle Dwan Edwards shut off the run for much of the day.

Just a note, but Marty Hurney (he of the Bill Barnwell article describing what a bad job Hurney had done before Hurney was fired last year) drafted or signed all four of these players. The Panthers defense played great, but the 49ers defense was equally as great. I really enjoyed watching the game...once it was over.

And Carooina left San Francisco 

Is "Carooina" a planet that is near Tatooine?

“We have a chance to be as good as we want to be,” said Kuechly. “There’s no doubt in our minds we can play with these teams, and we proved it today.”

And the best part is, despite playing pretty poorly, Cam Newton is a winner now! Funny how that works. Newton plays worse and the Panthers win more games. It's almost like his career record wasn't entirely his fault. Oh, and Newton played terribly. He was muy malo. Peter King should be very pleased because Newton wasn't an icon and didn't entertain against the 49ers.

“You know me,” coach Gus Bradley was saying over the phone from Nashville, where his formerly 0-8 Jags hung on to beat Tennessee 29-27. “We don’t talk about wins. We talk about steady improvement every week.”

I would say winning a game not having won a game prior can be considered improvement. Even if that win came against the Titans.

Bradley gave every player a game ball after the game, and he said it was because of the improvement of so many players in so many little things. “We came back from the bye this week,” he said, “and the attitude at practice was unbelievable. It wasn’t like an attitude you’d see around the NFL very much. I had a couple of people in to watch practice this week and they told me, ‘Gus, it’s like a high school.’

Is Gus Bradley sure these people weren't talking about the talent level of the Jaguars team during practice being like it's a high school practice?

Four takeaways after a week of the Richie Incognito/Jonathan Martin story:

Oh, we are still talking about this? I guess the games during this past week weren't interesting enough for Peter to spend more than a few paragraphs on. I guess not every week can be interesting to Peter. If the AFC and NFC Championship Games are Bengals-Chiefs and Lions-Seahawks then Peter may just choose not to cover the games at all without interesting enough teams in these games.

I don’t understand how African-American players look on passively or encouragingly while a white player calls a fellow African-American a “half-n—–.” Neither, apparently, does Shannon Sharpe, who is black and who said this on The NFL Today Sunday: “The Miami Dolphins locker room probably consists of 75 to 80 percent blacks. If you allow Richie Incognito to walk around in an open locker room and to use a racial epithet that most black Americans, all black Americans, know the … hate and the vitriol that comes with that word,

Yeah, but in his interview with Jay Glazer, Richie Incognito said he isn't a racist so that clears this matter up entirely.

I hope Incognito is telling the truth when he says (as he did with Jay Glazer on FOX Sunday), “I’m embarrassed by my actions.” As I reported Sunday on NBC, I believe if Incognito is released by the Dolphins he has a good chance to find a home down the stretch with a playoff contender. Now, for that to happen, the team would have to have executives and a head coach with thick skins, a locker room that could see past the controversy and a team with eyes on the Super Bowl that could withstand the distraction Incognito would bring. I see a few of those teams that could tune out the outside world if they felt a good guard was worth it: New Orleans. Seattle. Denver. Detroit.

The Panthers desperately need a quality guard. They have a guy who was a defensive tackle last year starting at right guard, backup by a guy they released in training camp, who is backed up by a defensive tackle who was switched to guard just last week. In fact, I would like to see the Panthers sign Incognito just to see Steve Smith's reaction. I have a feeling we could add another notch to Steve Smith's bedpost as it relates to "beating a teammate senseless."

I can’t see Martin ever walking back into the Miami locker room...But if he does choose to play, and the Dolphins let him go, the Colts are probably the most likely landing spot. There he’d work under his senior-year offensive coordinator at Stanford, Pep Hamilton. He’d work with his Stanford quarterback and tight end, Andrew Luck and Coby Fleener. And a GM not afraid of the bold move, Ryan Grigson, would make it fit.

Hey, maybe Grigson can trade a first round pick for Martin and then no one will criticize him for that after the fact because the Colts are still winning football games. Grigson is bold though, so maybe he would go after Martin if he were released by the Colts. The drawback to this move is that Jonathan Martin hasn't shown himself to be a great tackle in the NFL as of yet, so while he could fit in the Colts locker room, is he a big upgrade on what they currently have?

Would anyone give anything substantive for the former second-rounder? No way. A smart deal would be a low 2015 pick that could rise based on Martin’s performance or number of starts in 2014. If Grigson wants Martin (and, given his track record with project-type players, I bet he’d look into it), he’d find a way to get it done.

The Colts already don't have a 1st or 4th round pick in this year's upcoming draft, so why not trade another draft pick for Martin? It's not like draft picks are important or anything like that.

So why does this story have such legs? Because it has subject matter everyone in America, and not just football fans, can grasp. Race relations. Bullying. (And Incognito’s kidding himself when he says this has nothing to do with bullying.) Workplace harassment. Locker room politics. The culture of tough-guy sports. If you’re Incognitoed-out this morning, just wait. There’s another month of this coming. At least.

I always enjoy it when Peter talks about a story the media is talking about as if the media has no choice but to talk about that story, because we are all SO interested in hearing about it. Sure, Peter wanted to quit talking about Brett Favre, but other media outlets were talking about Favre and we as a public were so interested, so Peter had no choice but to keep discussing Favre's retirement/non-retirement issues.

Then for some reason Peter includes an excerpt of his article in this past week's "Sports Illustrated" about the Chiefs. I'm not sure why he did this, but on the bright side it killed space and made MMQB six pages instead of just being five pages.

Now Peter tells a story about putting his dog, Bailey, to sleep. I'm a sucker for animals so I feel bad for him, but of course he has to drag Brett Favre into the discussion about Bailey's death.

On Friday morning, my wife Ann and I woke up in our Manhattan apartment. I put my feet on the floor and looked around. No Bailey. We’d put our 14-year-old golden retriever to sleep the day before.

I like animals more than humans. I'm on record as feeling strongly that humans can go fuck themselves, but animals are awesome. There are bad feelings to wake up to, but very few things match the emptiness of waking up and not having your pet around anymore.

So many thoughts. So many reverential thoughts about a great dog. But a little history first:

Did you know Daniel Snyder was responsible for the King family owning Bailey?

I mean, sympathies aside, how the hell would we know that? Did you know my cat's original name from his owner was Shadow? What? You didn't?

Did you know if the King family hesitated in the adoption process for just a single day 13 years ago, Bailey would have been Darrell Green’s family dog? That’s the Darrell Green, the famous Washington cornerback.

Again, we have no way of knowing this. The question is a little absurd.

That was our great fortune. Bailey fell right into the suburban family life with two high school daughters. Field hockey, ball-chasing, softball (she was the mascot for three different teams I coached), and learning the ropes from Woody. One day, a sliver in the front door allowed her to escape, and she sprinted onto busy Bellevue Avenue in Montclair … and I thought, This dog is dead. She leaped into the side of an Astro Van. BANG! The poor minivan driver stopped and jumped from the car. “I am SO SORRY!” the distraught (and faultless) woman said. How did Bailey survive? Who knows.

I see how it goes. Peter berates innocent people who are on their iPhone too much in public, berates people who don't behave the way he wants them to behave on the train, and isn't afraid to confront a man for trying to jump in front of him on the elevator...but a lady hits his dog with a car and NO BIG DEAL THERE!

By the way, the woman was driving an Astro Van. When did this take place, the mid-1980's?

I was traveling one time when we lived in Jersey, and Ann was home alone with Bailey. She went to bed, and after about 10 minutes she heard a loud crash downstairs, jumped up and turned on the lamp. Bailey jumped up too. Ann went into the hallway and turned on all the hallway lights in the house, and she looked at Bailey in the doorway of the bedroom and said, “Come.” Bailey didn’t move. Again Ann said: “Come!” Bailey turned around and went back to her dog bed, leaving Ann to investigate by herself. Turns out a framed photograph had fallen from a wall and crashed to the floor. But the chicken dog couldn’t bear to go see.

Man, animals are awesome. Bailey knows if it is something really serious then she prefers to be hiding somewhere in the house where she can't get got by the mysterious sound too.

I used to wash Bailey in our front driveway, because the hose was convenient. On one May day in 2008, in mid-lather, my phone rang. It was Brett Favre...Not loving retirement. Having second thoughts. I was trying to talk to him and wash the dog at the same time, and finally I had to tell Bailey to lay down and wait

Wait for 10 hours while Peter talked to Favre on the phone about retirement and promised to not tell anyone what Favre was saying on the phone because friendsies comes before the job. Meanwhile, Bailey is soaped up and starves to death from the lack of food. That's the price Peter would pay to talk to Brett Favre.

We walk back into the apartment, and we look down in our foyer; no Bailey. What an empty feeling. I assume we’ll have that empty feeling for a long time. A month, two months … I don’t know. I wish I didn’t have to feel that pain in my heart for the next month or two or three.

More snark aside, then comes the tough part. Get a new dog? You do that, you feel like you are easily replacing the old dog. Don't get a new dog, then you are sad inside. I feel like Peter is listening to a lot of Coldplay right now.

First thing Thursday morning, when I approached her to tell her it was time to go outside, she wagged her tail so hard it hit the wooden floor like it was a drum. This dog was still into life. But the limp … just too painful to watch. We went to the vet a couple hours later. I had to carry her more than half of the three-and-a-half-block walk. We told the vet, Keith Manning, about her trouble, and he was nice and avoided our beseeching looks about the next treatment, and said her longstanding bulging disk was pushing on her spine and preventing her leg from working and, well, there wasn’t much he could do, and …

“Give us five minutes,’’ I asked him. He left the room, and Ann and I said our goodbyes.

Jesus, did Peter have a dinner reservation or something? The vet says Bailey may not recover and Peter immediately starts the process of saying goodbye. Sounds like he was pretty prepared to put Bailey to sleep. Perhaps TOO prepared...

The whole "quality of life" thing always doesn't make sense to the emotional part of me. Yeah, the animal doesn't have a great quality of life, but he/she is alive and that's great! What's a little pain? This coming from a guy who begs someone to murder him when he has a stomach bug.

Ann gave Bailey her last milk bone. “Good girl!’’ she said one last time, through her tears.

Ann and I held Bailey as Dr. Manning shaved her left forepaw. He took the long silver needle with the red poison, found the vein and pushed it in. 

I whispered into Bailey’s ear: “Go play with Woody.”

Oh, I just realized I have something to do. I'll be back in a minute. I feel like my allergies are acting up right now.

Fine Fifteen

1. Denver (8-1). If Kansas City’s offense was just a little better, I wouldn’t put Denver here; I’d have kept K.C. No. 1. But in the last 11 quarters, Denver has 12 offensive touchdowns and the Chiefs three. Now, if Peyton Manning’s MRI comes back bad today, I’ll change my tune.

I give up. Peter has had the Chiefs as #1 in his rankings for the past couple of weeks, the Chiefs have a bye this week and Peter gives the #1 spot to the Broncos. Because of course he does. The fact the Chiefs didn't play at all didn't impress Peter. Poor Alex Smith. He gets a concussion and loses his starting quarterback job for the 49ers last season and now his new team takes a bye week and Peter King moves the Chiefs from the #1 overall spot in his Fine Fifteen to #2 overall. I bet Alex Smith is afraid to leave home in the morning for fear he will come home and his wife will be married to another man.

2. Kansas City (9-0). K.C., idle Sunday, has to play better on offense than three offensive touchdowns in its last 30 possessions. It’s going to be very close Sunday in Denver because of the stingy K.C. defense. I just need to see the offense score more.

I smell a conspiracy of one here. Peter has the Chiefs #1 in his Fine Fifteen for the past couple of weeks and then the week before the Chiefs and the Broncos play, he puts the Broncos #1 in his Fine Fifteen. What do you want to bet Peter's pick to win the game on Sunday is the Broncos and he just wants his Fine Fifteen to match up with his prediction? That way it doesn't look like his Fine Fifteen contradicts his game pick between the #1 and #2 teams in his Fine Fifteen. I'm betting that's why Peter had a sudden change of heart about the #1 overall team in his Fine Fifteen.

4. New England (7-2). Seven weeks left in the season. Two-game lead in the AFC East. Anyone surprised?

I don't know Peter, are you surprised? You had the Patriots as the 9th best team in the NFL on October 28 and the AFC East really isn't that strong.

7. Indianapolis (6-3). Enough of the fourth-quarter magic wand stuff. The Colts are falling behind too much and looking to get bailed out by Andrew Luck too much. In the last two weeks Indy’s fallen behind two teams that won’t make the playoffs, by 21-3 and 28-0 at halftime.

IT SOUNDS LIKE THEIR LUCK RUNS OUT FROM TIME-TO-TIME!

8. San Francisco (6-3). I don’t know who Colin Kaepernick is anymore.

He's the guy who you had pizza with this summer and Ron Jaworski said could be one of the greatest quarterbacks in history before Kaepernick had completed a full season as a starter. He's the guy whose team almost won the Super Bowl last year. He hasn't changed, NFL defenses have adjusted and the media acts like this was unforeseen.

13. Green Bay (5-4). In the last seven days, by not playing, Aaron Rodgers has made a heck of a case for being the NFL’s MVP.

Or he's made a great case the Packers need to find a better backup quarterback.

Offensive Players of the Week

Mark Ingram, running back, New Orleans. Is it possible that was the first 100-yard game of the former first-round pick’s NFL life? Let’s check. Going into Sunday night against Dallas, he’d had a 91-yard game and a 90- in his 29-game NFL career, but never 100. And against Dallas, in a beatdown of 2009 proportions, Ingram ran 14 times for 145 yards and you thought: So that’s why they picked him in the first round in 2011.

Actually, I thought that one good game doesn't make up for the fact they picked Ingram and the Saints have had better running backs on the roster over the past three years they didn't have to spend a first round pick to acquire.

Special Teams Players of the Week

Tavon Austin, punt-returner/wide receiver, St. Louis. I could have given him Offensive Player of the Week, too. In a 12-minute span on the game clock, Austin high-wired a 98-yard sprint down the right sideline with a Pat McAfee punt for a touchdown, caught a 57-yard strike from Kellen Clemens for another touchdown, and then made an 81-yard catch-and-run of a short Clemens pass for a third TD. When the Rams traded up to get Austin in the draft last April, they did so with performances like this in mind. For the day, Austin caught two balls for those 138 yards, and returned four punts for 145 yards and one kickoff for 27 yards. Not bad: 310 yards for the rookie.

I knew this was coming though. There's no way that Tavon Austin has a big day and Peter King doesn't mention it in MMQB. Austin caught two passes and finally produced like a Top-10 receiver/special teams player should produce from time-to-time. Austin had a great day and he will be a good NFL player, but after all the hype Peter was feeding us from Rams training camp about how hard it is to cover Austin I can't help but have been a little underwhelmed by him during the other nine games the Rams have played this year.

“I may … have taken stuff too far. I did not intend to hurt him … My actions were coming from a place of love.”

—Richie Incognito, interviewed by Jay Glazer on the FOX pregame show Sunday, on his relationship with Jonathan Martin.

I think this is a similar quote given by a man who physically abuses his wife. He didn't mean to hurt her and his actions are from a place of love. That's all it is.

Remember way back when—around Labor Day—when everyone associated with football was quite sure that we had seen the last of the running back?

I sort of remember this, but I also remember thinking it was kind of stupid to just assume the running back position is going to go the way of the punter. NFL teams still have to run the football and so a running back will still be somewhat valuable. So I sort of think Peter is overstating the case that "everyone associated with football" thought they had seen the last of the running back.

Factoids of the Week That May Interest Only Me

Of the 559 rushing/receiving/punt-return/kick-return yards produced by the Rams Sunday at Indianapolis, 540 came from rookies and second-year players.

Peter isn't giving up, is he? 310 yards came from one player. Regardless, Peter King is going to do his damned best to let us know the Rams are a team with a clear direction that does an excellent job of drafting players who are developed by Jeff "8-8" Fisher and his coaching staff. The Rams are on their way up. Marvin Demo---I mean, Peter King wants us to know that and in no way does his relationship with Jeff Fisher or either Demoff family member impact how he covers the team. But Peter isn't going to just stop talking about how good the Rams did in the 2013 draft. Gotta buy Jeff Fisher some time before Rams fans and management start to think he may not be worth $7 million per year to deliver an 11-15 record as the Rams coach.

“The NFL-NFLPA CBA has 127,112 words. Bully, bullying, haze, hazing, harassment, steal, extort are none of them. #JonathanMartin #Incognito”

—@McCannSportsLaw, Michael McCann, SI legal analyst, Massachusetts lawyer and University of New Hampshire professor.

It seems both the NFL and NFLPA assumed that NFL players were adults who could leave the high school bullshit behind. It seems they were both wrong.

1. I think this is what I liked about Week 10:

d. I love the instincts of Eddie Lacy. Did you see the lunging, desperate, successful dive for a first-quarter first down, with third-string quarterback Scott Tolzien in the lineup?

I'm not sure this was instinct or because a third-string quarterback was in the lineup, but due to Eddie Lacy knowing where the first down marker was and trying to get the first down.

e. The St. Louis pass rush. Robert Quinn and Chris Long are just killing it the last few weeks, and they punished Andrew Luck at Indy.

Peter has already said the Rams have the best defensive ends in the NFL, but you guys, he really wants you to know how good the Rams pass rush is too. The Rams are really building something special there in St. Louis. All indications point upwards.

m. The Arizona pass rush. The Cards really have some good building blocks.

Said someone commenting on the Cardinals defensive line in the year 2011.

2. I think this is what I didn’t like about Week 10:

f. A ridiculous interception thrown by Joe Flacco. You’ve got a 10-point lead, and you take a risk that that, throwing a wounded duck under heavy pressure?

Anquan Boldin would have caught that pass though.

l. What a stupid personal foul by Nick Fairley, flinging Josh McCown to the ground near the game’s end, keeping Chicago in it a while longer. Good thing he made up for it with a great stop of Matt Forte on the Bears’ last offensive snap.

So basically Fairley made a really good play and a really stupid play. That seems to sum up Fairley's career pretty well at this point.

3. I think Jay Glazer handled the interview with Richie Incognito well. That’s not an easy interview, people.

Of course Peter thinks Glazer handled it well. I would be shocked if Peter didn't like the way Glazer approached the interview. Whether it is an easy interview or not doesn't matter, because Glazer chose to interview Incognito. If he chooses to interview Incognito then I'm not going to give him bonus points for trying such a difficult interview, as if Glazer is a 14 year old interviewing his first pro athlete.

“How do you expect anyone in America to believe you’re not a racist?” Glazer asked Incognito, and it was a good question, one that had to be asked. We haven’t seen the whole Q&A, nor how it was edited for TV, but from what I saw, Glazer asked what needed to be asked, with the proper gravitas.

Others didn't seem to like the interview as much and it appears the answer to "How do you expect anyone in America to believe you're not a racist?" was "because I'm not," which isn't a terribly persuasive answer. If Glazer didn't ask Incognito a follow-up here, then he should have.

4. I think the one question I’d have for Incognito is this: “Do you think there’s something wrong with a locker-room culture that has a white man talking derisively to a black man and calling him a half-n—–, and the other black men in the locker room chuckling instead of being outraged?”

This is a good question. If this question wasn't asked (the interview was edited so parts were left out) then why wasn't this question asked?

6. I think it’s stunning how awful Atlanta is.

This happens to good teams when those teams have rookie cornerbacks, two of their best receivers injured and no running game.

7. I think the Saints’ performance Sunday night reminded me of one of those road-grading performances in 2009, 

6. I think there’s not an NFL coach who knows Gus Bradley who isn’t very happy for the relentlessly optimistic teacher of football this morning.

7. I think no one in Colorado will exhale today until they hear these words out of Broncos headquarters: “The MRI on Peyton Manning’s knee and ankle shows no structural damage.”

Just to recap, Peter's "Ten Things He Thinks He Thinks" is actually 12 things he thinks and they are numbered from 6 to 7 back to 6 and then back to 7. Is there an editor in the house?

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. This is the best video I’ve seen in a while. It’s Minnesota coach Jerry Kill—who has had to miss time due to bouts of epilepsy—with his team following the 24-10 win over Penn State Saturday.

I'm not sure this is a non-football thought. 

g. Penny for Their Thoughts Dept.: Chris Berman and Dan Patrick together in the dressing room of the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, Friday night at Madison Square Garden, at the Eagles concert.

Was Chris Berman eating Applebee's? I'm guessing Berman made a few bad puns, including he can't wait until the Eagles come back, back, back to New York.

h. Wishing you the best after your little heart procedure last week, Bill Keenist. Get well soon.

i. Good luck in your little procedure Thursday, Ken Fost. (Ever notice it’s “a little procedure” to others, but not when you’re having it?)

There are these things called "text messages" and they are much more personal than sending a vague message out through the Internet so that thousands of people can read it.

k. Beernerdness: Happiness is finding Allagash White in the local Whole Foods. I am a simple man, except when it comes to expensive beer and coffee.

And except for when it comes to when someone does something in public that inconveniences Peter in the slightest or when someone doesn't act the way Peter believes that person should act in public. At that point, Peter is going to mention what an asshole you are in MMQB.

The Adieu Haiku
A heaven for dogs?
If there’s one, Bailey’s there now.
She was a good dog.

I'm sure she would be non-honored by the use of a haiku to mourn her loss.