Former NFL player Jonathan Martin, who made headlines in 2013 when he alleged being bullied by Miami Dolphins teammates, admitted this week he was never bullied.
In an ESPN story published Wednesday, Martin came clean about his allegations, which came to be known as “Bullygate.”
“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.”
That saga dominated headlines and led to an independent investigation resulting in a 144-page report. Among other consequences, the Dolphins suspended offensive lineman Richie Incognito in early November 2013 for the remainder of the season, and he was essentially blackballed from the league in 2014, missing the entire season. The team also fired offensive line coach Jim Turner after that report.
Incognito expressed regret for sending racist and profane texts to Martin, but had long denied they constituted bullying.
Incognito expounded on his thoughts Sunday, blaming Martin’s mother, ESPN and ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter for creating the bullying narrative.
“Legacy media pushed this narrative long and far. Too bad it was all a lie!” Incognito posted.
Some had shared doubts about Martin’s claims through the years. The Miami Herald’s Omar Kelly, a longtime Dolphins beat reporter, weighed in on the matter Sunday. In an opinion piece entitled, “Jonathan Martin admitted he lied about being bullied,” Kelly said Incognito told him, “It took him 10 years to tell the truth!”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not asking you to feel sorry for Incognito,” Kelly wrote. “He’s not a victim. He’s no choir boy, He’s no saint. His behavior during his time in Miami, on-and-off the field, was embarrassing at times. But Incognito was a tortured individual doing what meathead football players do.”
But looking back at the players called out in Bullygate, Kelly said he thought they had good chemistry with Martin, and he didn’t see bullying.
“Incognito, fellow offensive linemen Mike Pouncey and John Jerry, and their position coach (Jim Turner), who was fired after the Ted Wells report was published, weren’t Martin’s abusers,” Kelly wrote. “They were his teammates and mentors. They were his friends, and at times his confidants. In fact, Incognito was Martin’s best friend on the team, a mentor, his protector.”
Martin has battled mental health issues through the years; he posted on Facebook in 2015 that he had made multiple suicide attempts. In recent years, he’s been working to change the image as a bullying victim.
He has hinted before the bullying story got blown out of proportion. Asked about that 144-page Wells Report, Martin told ESPN, “It’s my greatest regret of my life to this day is participating in that clown show.”
Martin told ESPN he hasn’t spoken to Incognito or any of the others cited in the report in years.
