We all were the new guy/gal at some point. You know what that means, hazing. Hazing is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as the action of hazing; especially : an initiation process involving harassment. Fairly accurate. We all have stories of our first day/month/year on the job, at school, or on team where we get the “rookie treatment.” You take grief now then become one of the group later. Some groups haze better than others, namely, football players. 

(Photo H/T bleacherreport)Need I say more, haha. In what other profession can you hack someone’s hair like this? In a month everyone is going to forget about this when season starts and hair grows back.  Certainly the cycle will repeated next year with incoming rookies. No real harm, no foul.

Of course, everyone made a big deal about Dez Bryant not taking part in the more conventional/known hazing ritual of carrying pads for Roy E.Williams. Blah, it is what it is. He didn’t want to be part of tradition and the football God’s might have punished him with injury. There are many opinions on whether Dez is right or wrong. MJD doesn’t even think carrying pads are even hazing, rather a way to humble yourself as new. He says:

“I think carrying someone’s pads is a humbling gesture. Hazing would be if someone puts their hands on you and leaving marks. The whole Dez Bryant thing is he has to pay his dues. When you first get a job, you have to work your way up.”

The debate rages on. Of course, not all hazing is okay. Google “hazing” and we see many cases in which hazing has gone wrong and severe bodily harm or even death occurs. Just yesterday a teen was sentenced to two years in juvi after pleading guilty in May to two counts of criminal sexual penetration, three counts of attempted criminal sexual penetration, and one count of conspiracy stemming from an incident where this individual as well as other members of team sodomized younger members of the football team. Stuff like this has no place in this world. I’m all for cutting hair, carrying pads, giving funny nicknames, letting kid pay for dinner, ice water bath, etc for fun. No one gets hurt. But some people for whatever reason just take it too far and should thus be prosecuted. If your interested in getting involved in anti-hazing there is a site with some info.

Camp just started, certainly there will be many more examples of hazing before season starts. Can’t wait to see what athletes come up with. Also, highly interested in what ways Tebow will be hazed besides carrying pads. Now I leave you with a few hazing vids. The Ray Lewis is my fav….

Should’ve wrapped his mouth with permanent tape, snitch…

Written by Jovan. You can follow him on twitter.