The story of Richie Incognito has taken yet another interesting turn.
Drafted in the third round by the then-St. Louis Rams in 2005, Incognito enjoyed a long and successful career in the NFL. He played 13 seasons in the NFL, earning Pro Bowl honors four times. This included a stint with the Raiders, joining the team in their final season in Oakland in 2019 and their first in Las Vegas in 2020.
However, Incognito never gets mentioned without the ‘Bullygate’ scandal that changed the trajectory of his entire career.
In 2013, while Incognito was playing for the Miami Dolphins, offensive tackle Johnathan Martin suddenly left the team days before a Thursday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals. After accusations of bullying were made, the NFL hired lawyer Ted Wells to investigate the issue. Wells compiled a 144-page report implicating Incognito and other Dolphins offensive linemen of bullying Martin, and the report and subsequent media backlash left a permanent scar on Incognito’s reputation around the league.
However, a new problem arose regarding the scandal: the issue never existed in the first place.
Incognito was absolved of the scandal as a result of comments made by Martin during an interview.
Sitting down with ESPN’s Anthony Olivieri, Martin came clean about the alleged incident.
“I never believed for a second I was being bullied,” Martin said. “It’s a story that I’ve been trying to fix for 10 years.”
The news enraged Incognito, who proceeded to call out ESPN, NFL insider Adam Schefter and other prominent sports media outlets and personalities for their role in furthering the scandal.
“He couldn’t cut it in the NFL so he quit and his mom blamed me,” wrote Incognito on his X account. “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 the Miami Dolphins wouldn’t go after his signing bonus.”
He couldn’t cut it in the NFL so he quit and his mom blamed me. 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… https://t.co/ifFFJPG1H7
— Richie Incognito (@68INCOGNITO) February 16, 2025
With Martin’s comments just starting to make the rounds, the main point of interest now is the fallout of this revelation. Incognito is clearly not backing down, as his constant attempts of clearing his name have finally become validated. As more information comes out, there exists a serious possibility of Incognito taking legal action, although against who or what is unclear.
Incognito waited for this moment for over a decade, and the sports world can only hold its breath to see how far the retribution will go.
Analyst predicts Raiders make surprising move to help rebuilding effort
Draft expert believes conference rival could cut Raiders for Shedeur Sanders
