The Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin drama just won’t go away. And it picked up momentum Thursday when Incognito’s attorney, Mark Schamel, said Martin was equally vulgar in text messages to Incognito.
“The coarse and unacceptable comments and text messages that were sent to Jonathan Martin were of the same poor taste as those sent by him,” Schamel said. “All of these communications were provided to Ted Wells and the NFL investigation. What they show is banter between friends, not bullying.”
Incognito was suspended by the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 3 and remained on the NFL’s suspended list with pay for the rest of the season for “bullying” fellow offensive lineman Martin, who left the team. Incognito missed out on two game checks ($470,588) after agreeing to a compromise with the Dolphins in November when his suspension was extended with pay. He agreed to another extension in December.
Schamel alleges that Martin sent text messages to Incognito which “included threats to send someone over to Richie Incognito’s home with a ‘tranquilizer gun and sandpaper condoms’ to homosexually rape him” and “another that said he would ‘kill [Richie’s] whole family.'”
“Richie Incognito has owned his inappropriate comments, despite the fact that they were made in jest, and it is time for Jonathan Martin to do the same,” Schamel said.
The attorney claims that Martin didn’t raise accusations of bullying until his performance on the field had suffered to a point where his spot on the roster might be in jeopardy and he had already left the team in October.
According to Schamel, Martin had confided to Incognito his own concerns “that he was not playing well, about how upset he was at being ranked by Pro Football Focus as among the worst linemen in the NFL, about his poor performance on the field, his demotion to right tackle and how he was concerned about what the outcome might be for his missing team meetings and, about how he felt his job was at risk.”
“Rather than deal with his poor on-field performance and myriad other issues, Martin is now hiding behind false allegations. The result undermines the real problems of bullying and demeans what is a very real problem for many young people,” Schamel said.
Martin said earlier this week in an interview with NBC’s Tony Dungy that he felt “trapped” after alleged repeated bullying by Incognito. Dungy was part of a task force established by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross to improve the culture of the franchise.
Schamel, however, said that Martin’s claims ring hollow.
“Jonathan Martin was a full participant, who at times led some of the exact same pranks and gags and text and email exchanges he now claims, ‘crossed the line,'” he said.
