Nov 6, 2013 4 min read

The seamy underbelly of the National Football League has been exposed again over the past few days as details emerged about Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Richie Incognito’s alleged vile and predatory behavior against fellow lineman Jonathan Martin, who bolted from the squad last week after enduring what has been described as a vicious program of intimidation.

It is with relentless regularity that we see reports of an NFL player being arrested for driving under the influence, getting suspended for drug use, fighting at a nightclub or engaging in violence against women, among other misdeeds. But the Incognito case, in some ways, is even more reprehensible, because it was not an isolated incident but apparently a carefully calculated reign of terror against a teammate.

According to various reports, Martin was repeatedly subjected to racial epithets, other slurs, financial extortion and threats of physical harm – even a death threat – by Incognito, whose reputation as a violent, out-of-control goon dates to his college days.

Incognito, widely considered the dirtiest player in the league, reportedly delivered his threats and verbal assaults in a series of text and voicemail messages, and at least one of those voice messages, the content of which is too vulgar to publish here, has been provided to the Dolphins and is in the hands of league officials, who are reviewing not only the behavior of Incognito, who has been suspended by the team, but also the actions, or lack of action, by Dolphins coaches and officials.

One would expect that other players, coaches and officials around the league would rally around Martin and universally condemn Incognito. That hasn’t been the case.

One NFL personnel official, too craven to have his name attached to his comments, told Sports Illustrated, “Instead of being a man and confronting (Incognito), he acted like a coward and told like a kid.”

Another “NFL source” told the magazine, “I think Jonathan Martin is a weak person. If Incognito did offend him racially, that’s something you have to handle like a man.” Translation: Violence is the answer.

Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace, formerly of the Steelers, proved once again that his brain doesn’t operate at the same speed as his mouth, telling reporters, “I love Richie. I personally think he’s a great guy. I don’t think he was out of hand. I think he was just being Richie. … As far as him as a person, I’ve got a lot of respect for Richie. I wish he was here right now.”

So, Martin’s options apparently were to either engage in a fistfight with Incognito or take his concerns to people who might well have a mindset like those quoted above. Either way, he’d have every reason to fear that Incognito might react with an even greater level of unpredictable, sociopathic violence. He had to figure that reporting Incognito to veteran players on the squad, to coaches or to front-office types would lead to his being labeled a crybaby and a tattletale. Based on the above comments, that seems very reasonable.

The NFL has long been a haven for frat boy-level foolishness and borderline hazing, especially toward rookies, but it’s easy to see how that sort of behavior can get out of hand, especially if it is condoned, or even encouraged, from above. Omar Kelly of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Incognito set his sights on Martin earlier this year after he was asked by coaches to “toughen up” his teammate. Sure, send a guy with a reputation as a violent, hair-trigger thug to give a struggling fellow player some “motivation.” What could possibly go wrong?

The NFL needs to react swiftly and strongly against any and all people who played a role in this sick and sorry affair.

For his part, Incognito, in his only remarks since the story broke, told a reporter Tuesday that he is trying to “weather the storm” and that “this will pass.”

If the allegations are true, does Incognito think he might play in the NFL again? Well, more than once teams have employed players who had actually killed people while driving drunk, so we guess anything is possible.