Richie Incognito was a very controversial player throughout his NFL career. While he was involved in a number of scandals during his 13 years in the league, none were more impactful than the bullying scandal that happened with the Miami Dolphins in 2013.
Fox Sports reported at the time that Incognito allegedly harassed fellow offensive lineman Jonathan Martin in a way that went far beyond typical rookie hazing. The allegations included claims that Incognito made racial slurs toward Martin and even threatened his family.
This led to Incognito being suspended for most of the 2013 season and no team signed him in 2014.
Former Raiders OL Richie Incognito.
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Incognito was able to get back into the NFL and finished up his career with the Las Vegas Raiders but the bullying scandal continued to hang over him. Incognito had always maintained his innocence and over a decade later, he's finally getting cleared.
In a recent interview with ESPN, Martin admitted that he fabricated the bullying scandal.
“I never believed for a second I was being bullied,” Martin told ESPN in a recent profile.
Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald covered the Dolphins closely at the time of the scandal and witnessed what he believed was a close friendship between Incognito and Martin. He wrote a column detailing this, which led to Incognito having a simple response on X.
Incognito also gave Kelly a quote for his column.
“It took him 10 years to tell the truth!” Incognito told Kelly.
Due to this scandal, Incognito potentially lost millions of dollars in NFL salary. He did have his own set of controversies throughout his career that had nothing to do with Martin but none were as impactful. According to Kelly, the former offensive lineman doesn't want anything to do with the controversy going forward. His NFL career is already over as he retired in 2022 but perhaps other opportunities could open up now that he's been cleared of the bullying scandal.
