In the wake of a bullying scandal that rocked the Miami Dolphins last season, the team has gone and hired an ex-FBI agent who worked in a joint terrorism task force to head its locker-room security.
According to NFL.com, the Fins have signed 23-year FBI veteran Joe Cicini as their locker-room security chief, apparently to make sure no one bullies anyone within the organization.
No word on how the hiring of an ex-terrorism task force agent will affect Stephen Ross' Code of Conduct team made up of Dan Marino and Curtis Martin that he assembled in November.
See also: The 17 Worst Things to Happen to the Miami Dolphins
"We are all committed at this organization to providing a productive and respectful work environment, as well as ensuring the safety and security of all of our employees and fans," Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel said in a statement.
According to the Associated Press, Cicini worked in the Miami division of the FBI for two decades. He's also provided crisis management training to the NFL, MLB, and NBA as well as colleges and universities.
And there is no bigger crisis than two dudes texting mean things to each other, so Cicini is PERFECT.
The Cicini hiring is yet another move in a long line of ideas from the team to try to fix its public image after Richie Incognito was accused of bullying teammate Jonathan Martin and another team staffer.
In November, team owner Stephen Ross formed a five-man Code of Conduct Committee made up of Marino, ex-New York Jet Martin, Don Shula, Tony Dungy, and Jason Taylor. The committee was formed as a sort of Voltron of Public Relations to help the Dolphins in their efforts to make sure bullying doesn't happen again.
Since its formation, the committee has yet to put together an actual code of conduct. Meanwhile, Marino was let go from his CBS Sports gig, Dungy lobbed softballs at Martin, and Shula has opened a couple of more burger joints.
All of this in the wake of independent investigator Ted Wells' findings that Incognito and at least two other players bullied Martin and another staffer.
The 148-page report says Incognito, along with teammates John Jerry and Mike Pouncey, were involved in not only bullying Martin but also another offensive lineman as well as an assistant trainer. There were homophobic slurs, name-calling, improper physical contact, and taunting, according to the report.
"The Report finds that the assistant trainer repeatedly was the object of racial slurs and other racially derogatory language," Wells said in the report.
Wells went on to write that "the other offensive lineman was subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching; and that Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments."
Wells also wrote that Incognito "engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only Jonathan Martin but also another young Dolphins offensive lineman."
Obviously if an FBI agent was around to monitor things, these kinds of shenanigans wouldn't have gone down.
Or, you know, maybe a coach to yell at the players.
Coach. FBI agent. Same diff.
Also in Dolphins hiring news: The team hired former Toys 'R' Us executive Dan Caspersen to run its human resources department.
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