Even in the offseason – and a dozen years later – the Buffalo Bills–Miami Dolphins lives on.
For years, Dolphins’ offensive lineman Johnathan Martin has attempted to downplay, even debunk, the 2013 story that he was bullied by then-teammate Richie Incognito.
“I never believed for a second I was being bullied,” Martin recently told ESPN. “It’s a story that I’ve been trying to fix for 10 years.”
With new information being released on that supposed scandal, Incognito took the opportunity to jump in and react. After sitting out the 2014 season in the wake of the bullying allegations, he made three Pro Bowls for the Bills.
His 17-year career remains best known, however, for the supposed bullying.
Incognito says that the story was fabricated by Martin’s parents. He believes that they pushed this narrative to take away from their son’s shortcomings as a player.
“He couldn’t cut it in the NFL so he quit and his mom blamed me,” Incognito wrote during a social media rant. “Legacy media pushed this narrative long and far. Too bad it was all a lie! They lied to protect his money. He quit… the team had every right to claw back that money. His mom started the bullying narrative with [ESPN and Adam Schefter] so that [Miami] wouldn’t go after his signing bonus!”
Many NFL pundits and outlets were at the end of Incognito’s wrath from there, including Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio and several members of the Barstool Sports team. He also added a mix of pictures of himself and Martin together, joking that he was “bullying” him when they appeared to be having fun hanging out.
Incognito did not clarify the voicemail he allegedly left Martin in 2013 that is verbally abusive and includes racist remarks.