Recent days have seen the opening of an 11-year old time capsule. Which is fine. As long as its full contents are given fair consideration.
In an article that landed last week on ESPN.com, former Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin said of the 2013 scandal that took the league by storm, “I never believed for a second I was being bullied. . . . It’s a story that I’ve been trying to fix for 10 years.”
The man at the center of the harassment Martin experienced, Richie Incognito, has responded to the comment by, frankly, bullying media members on the cesspool known as X to apologize for the whole thing. It has prompted a small army of social media justice warriors to insist that Richie get his full and complete redemption, preferably through litigation.
But there’s much more to the story. There are, you know, facts. Those stubborn things that tend to disrupt narratives, unless they can be properly excluded from the algorhythmic echo chamber that feeds on the transmogrification of opinion into truth.
Let’s start with the thing that led to widespread reporting about the things Incognito (and others) said and did to Martin (and others). The Ted Wells report. All 140 pages of it. Before anyone can take Martin’s recent comments and twist them into the full and complete exoneration that Incognito currently demands, the report should be read.
Or at least skimmed. You’ll get the gist.
But if consumption of content at 280 characters has impaired you willingness or ability to digest 140 pages, just read the first five. That’s the introduction to what follows.
Here’s some of it.
- “On Monday, October 28, 2013, midway through the season, Martin abruptly walked out of the Dolphins’ practice facility and checked himself into a nearby hospital, requesting psychological treatment.”
- “After a thorough examination of the facts, we conclude that three starters on the Dolphins offensive line, Richie Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey, engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only Martin, but also another young Dolphins offensive lineman, whom we refer to as Player A for confidentiality reasons, and a member of the training staff, whom we refer to as the Assistant Trainer.”
- “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.”
- “In 2013, the Dolphins distributed a workplace conduct policy to all players, and Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey each signed an acknowledgement form stating that he understood the policy and agreed to be bound by it. The policy defines harassment to include ‘unwelcome contact; jokes, comments and antics; generalizations and put-downs.’ Guided by this policy, it was not difficult to conclude that the Assistant Trainer and Player A were harassed, but the questions raised in Martin’s case were more complex, nuanced and difficult.”
- “As an initial matter, Martin developed an odd but seemingly close friendship with Incognito. Not only did both linemen report that they enjoyed socializing together, the evidence also shows that they often communicated in a vulgar manner. Incognito contends that the conduct about which Martin complains was part of locker room banter meant in good fun and that Martin was a willing and active participant in verbal sparring, never letting on that he was hurt by it. Martin claims that at times he participated in off-color joking with Incognito and others in an attempt to fit in, with the hope of reducing the treatment he found offensive. According to our consulting expert, a psychologist who focuses on matters of workplace conduct, such a reaction is consistent with the behavior of a victim of abusive treatment.”
- “[W]e ultimately concluded that Martin was indeed harassed by Incognito, who can fairly be described as the main instigator, and by Jerry and Pouncey, who tended to follow Incognito’s lead.”
- “[S]hortly after Martin left the team, Incognito made a number of telling entries in a notebook used to keep track of ‘fines’ the offensive linemen imposed on each other in their ‘kangaroo court’ (typically for trivial infractions such as arriving late to meetings). Incognito recorded a $200 fine against himself for ‘breaking Jmart,’ awarded another lineman who had been verbally taunted a $250 bonus for ‘not cracking first,’ and wrote down a number of penalties against Martin for acting like a ‘pussy.’”
- “The evidence shows, and Incognito did not dispute, that ‘breaking Jmart’ meant causing Martin to have an emotional reaction in response to taunting.”
- “Approximately one week after Martin left the team, on November 3, 2013, Incognito wrote nearly identical text messages to Pouncey and another lineman ‘They’re going to suspend me. Please destroy the fine book first thing in the morning.’” (Emphasis added.)
- “We view Incognito’s entries in the fine book about ‘breaking Jmart’ and his attempt to destroy the fine book — which was unsuccessful — as evidence demonstrating his awareness that he had engaged in improper conduct toward Martin.”
- “We reject the assertion by Incognito that Martin has fabricated claims of harassment after the fact. Contemporaneous text messages that Martin sent to his parents and others months before he left the Dolphins — which have never before been made public — corroborate Martin’s account that he was distressed by insults from his teammates and experiencing emotional turmoil because he believed he was a ‘push over’ who was unable to stop the verbal assaults.”
- “Further, Martin’s vulnerabilities do not excuse the harassment that was directed at him. That the same taunts might have bounced off a different person is beside the point. Bullies often pick vulnerable victims, but this makes their conduct more, not less, objectionable.”
- “The evidence establishes that persistent harassment by Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey contributed to Martin’s decision to leave the team. The facts we uncovered do not support the view of Incognito and his teammates that this conduct was all good-natured fun among friends. Nevertheless, although Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey verbally harassed Martin, we find that they did not intend to drive Martin from the team or cause him lasting emotional injury.”
- “In short, the treatment of Martin and others in the Miami Dolphins organization at times was offensive and unacceptable in any environment, including the world professional football players inhabit. A young football player who has the skills to play at the highest level, and who also happens to be quiet and reserved, should have the opportunity to pursue a career in the NFL without being subjected to harassment from his teammates.”
Beyond the introduction, take a peek at the comments made about Martin’s sister (pages 9-10), the unedited text of the voice message that Martin’s father still has to this day (pages 10-11), the text messages Martin exchanged with his parents as he tried to handle the harassment (pages 13-14), the harassment directed to the Assistant Trainer (page 22), and the physical harassment to which Martin was subjected (pages 85-88).
Then there’s this, from page 12: “For the most part, Incognito does not dispute saying or writing any of the statements that Martin claimed offended him. Further, Incognito admitted that at times the very purpose of the verbal taunts was to ‘get under the skin’ of another person. From Incognito’s perspective, however, the statements in question were an accepted part of the everyday camaraderie of the Dolphins tight-knit offensive line. Incognito told us that Martin (and other offensive linemen) all recognized, accepted and, indeed, actively participated in ‘go-for-the-jugular’ teasing, and that vulgarity and graphic sexual comments were not only a staple of their locker-room culture but also helped them bond.” (Emphasis added.)
Martin’s comment — 11 years later — that he never believed he was “bullied” doesn’t erase any of the content from the Wells report. And to the extent Incognito takes issue with any, some, or all of it, he has had more than 11 years to correct the record.
In a statement issued to PFT on the same day the Wells report was released, Incognito’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, said this: “Mr. Wells’ NFL report is replete with errors. . . . It is disappointing that Mr. Wells would have gotten it so wrong, but not surprising. The truth, as reported by the Dolphins players and as shown by the evidence, is that Jonathan Martin was never bullied by Richie Incognito or any member of the Dolphins Offensive line. We are analyzing the entire report and will release a thorough analysis as soon as it is ready.”
Eleven years and four days later, we’re still waiting for the “thorough analysis” that Schamel promised.
Martin’s comments to ESPN.com aren’t it. If Incognito disputes any portion of the 140-page Wells report, Incognito has had more than a decade to make his case.
These facts surely won’t change a thing. Incognito prefers to focus on Martin’s more recent words and to ignore the many pages prepared by Wells and his team, after more than 100 people were interviewed and “thousands of voluntarily produced text messages” were reviewed.
The members of the blue-check-with-less-than-100-followers hive that insists on justice for Incognito won’t change their minds, either. Because none of them has the attention span, or the inclination, to make it to the bottom of this article.
Read the full article here
