Richie Incognito, Dolphins Teammates, Victimized Jonathan Martin Says NFL Report
Richie Incognito, the suspended Miami Dolphins offensive lineman, systematically victimized teammate Jonathan Martin with racial and sexual taunts, a three-month investigation commissioned by the NFL released today has concluded.
The report by Ted Wells of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison says that not only Incognito but two teammates as well — John Jerry and Mike Pouncey, both offensive lineman — “engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only Jonathan Martin, but also another young Dolphins offensive lineman and an assistant trainer,” Wells’ 148-page report, which is available to the public on line, uncovered.
The report also implicates Dolphins Offensive Line Coach Jim Turner in the brutal hazing of Martin, who was a Dolphins 2nd-Round draft pick in 2012, out of Stanford University, as well as the other player who is not identified by name in the report.
The report gives a rare glimpse behind the door of an NFL locker room and the perverse world inhabited by some NFL players.
The report describes how Richie Incognito an his sidekicks repeatedly used anti-gay invective toward another young player, though they did not actually believe him to be gay. In one instance, Pouncey and Jerry restrained the young player and touched his buttocks in a way that simulated anal penetration. The report notes that the two players denied that allegation.
Among other examples of harassment by Richie Incognito and others, detailed in the Wells report:
Incognito and the other two lineman made repeated, sexually graphic comments about Martin’s sister, “a medical student whom they had never met.”
As one example, which the report called “fairly typical,” the report quotes one of the three players saying, “We are going to run train on your sister. She loves me. I’m going to f*** her without a condom and c** in her c***.”
In another instance, one of the trio said of Martin’s sister, “I’m going to bang the s*** out of her and spit on her and treat her like s***.”
In one voicemail message, Richie Incognito called Martin, who is African-American, “you half-n***** piece of shit.” Though the message also contained threats to “kill” Martin, which Martin did not take seriously, the report says that Martin was alarmed by the voicemail because even with all of his abuse, Incognito had “never before called him a n*****.”
The report also says that when Martin’s allegations became public, Richie Incognito tried to engineer a cover-up, asking teammates to destroy a “fine book” in which he acknowledge his own harassment of Martin and fined himself $200 for it.
The line coach Jim Turner also pressured Martin to recant his charges against Incognito, the report states.
As recently a two days ago, Richie Incognito denied victimizing Martin, apologizing only for his “poor language and rude remarks.” He has said that Martin participated willingly in their interactions, which Incognito characterized as jokes.
