Jonathan Martin retired from the NFL after a 2015 back injury. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
Former Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin has been detained by Los Angeles police Friday, Feb. 23 after posting an image of a shotgun on Instagram.
The footballer had previously been the subject of a bullying investigation after he said former teammates Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey hurled racial epithets at him back in 2013 according to the New York Post. As a result, Incognito was suspended and Martin was traded to the San Franciso 49ers. This despite the teammates saying they were simply hazing the star, TMZ reported.
Both ex-teammates names were included in Martin’s Instagram story. His account is privatized and lacks a profile photo but it is verified.
“When you’re a bully victim and a coward, your options are suicide or revenge,” Martin wrote on the shotgun and pellet image, complete with the hashtags #MiamiDolphins and #HarvardWestlake, the name of the high school the 28-year-old attended.
Former Dolphins OL Jonathan Martin with some seriously disturbing stuff on his IG story… pic.twitter.com/NaJ8a0BXze
— Nick Brown (@NickyBeaster) February 23, 2018
The high school had been closed today “out of an abundance of caution,” according to a statement obtained by The Post. The former NFLer, who retired in 2015 after a back injury, has said in old social media posts he never fit in while he attended the prep school.
Martin, who admitted he tried to take his own life during his time in the NFL in Twitter and Facebook posts three years ago, had been open about his struggle with his biracial identity.
“You learn to tone down your size and blackness by becoming shy, introverted, friendly, so you won’t scare the little rich white kids or their parents,” he said in a 2015 social media post per the Los Angeles Times. “Neither Black nor white people accept you because they don’t understand you. It takes away from your self-confidence, your self-worth, your sanity.”
