Richie Incognito vowed the truth would “bury” Jonathan Martin, but that did not appear to be the case when the full Ted Wells investigation report was revealed Friday morning.
You can read the entire report here.
The report specified that Martin suffered “a pattern of harassment” that included racial slurs and vicious sexual taunts about his mother and sister.
We took a look at the 140-page report, and here are five things that stood out.
1) It wasn’t just Incognito
Richie Incognito was a clear player throughout the entire report, but it wasn’t just him involved. Other offensive linemen, including John Jerry and Mike Pouncey, had a major role in the Wells report.
“Richie Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey “engaged in a pattern of harassment directed not only at Martin but another young Dolphins OL (offensive lineman).”
There were a number of harsh examples listed in the report.
The Dolphins’ offensive linemen kept a fine book for offensive lineman’s kangaroo court, where Incognito recorded a $200 fine against himself for “breaking Jmart,” and awarded another player who had been verbally taunted a $250 bonus for “not cracking first.”
Incognito was caught sending a text message to a few of his teammates, including Pouncey, that said, “They’re going to suspend me Please destroy the fine book 4 first thing in the morning.”
According to Wells, the three Dolphins signed a workplace conduct policy agreement before the 2013 season in which harassment was defined as “unwelcome contact; jokes, comments and antics; generalizations and put-downs.”
2) Joe Philbin didn’t know what was going on
Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin did not participate in the problematic locker room activity, and the report made it clear that he was unaware of what was going on.
In fact one of the sections was titled “Coach Philbin and the Front Office Did Not Know About the Harassment”.
The report painted a lack of institutional control around the Dolphins.
As a comparison, Martin did not have any issues with bullying during his four years at Stanford under now-49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh.
Stanford coach David Shaw, Harbaugh, and a few unnamed Stanford players contributed to the investigation. Wells said the Stanford coaches said that Martin was “a talented athlete and a great teammate, with an admirable work ethic.”
Harbaugh also said that he “never doubted Martin’s tenacity, work ethic and dedication to the game, and that he had never seen Martin exhibit problems with social adjustment.”
3) Another coach, Jim Turner, did take part
It’s fair to question Philbin about what he knew about the harassment going on in his locker room—but the Wells investigation showed that one of his assistant coaches clearly knew all about it.
It appeared at times that offensive line coach Jim Turner was an active participant. Philbin asked Turner if there was bullying. Turner denied and said no one was being called “vulgar names”.
“Turner was aware of the running ‘joke’ that Player A was gay, and on at least one occasion, he participated in the taunting. Around Christmas 2012, Coach Turner gave the offensive linemen gift bags that included a variety of stocking stuffers. The gifts included inflatable female dolls for all of the offensive linemen except Player A, who received a male blow-up doll.
“[Jonathan] Martin and another player reported that they were surprised Coach Turner did this; Martin further said that he was offended that Turner had endorsed the humiliating treatment of Player A by participating in it. When interviewed, Turner was asked if he gave Player A a male blow-up doll. He replied, ‘I can’t remember.’”
The investigators did not appear to believe Turner.
4) Martin wasn’t the only one who was bullied
We mentioned an unidentified Player A earlier but there were others who were hurt by Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey. Player A was “taunted with homophobic insults.”
Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey routinely mocked and demeaned other Dolphins players and personnel.
“We find that the Assistant Trainer repeatedly was targeted with racial slurs and other racially derogatory language. Player A frequently was subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching. Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments.”
One of the Dolphins assistant trainers is of Japanese descent. Incognito, Pouncey and Jerry “called his mother a ‘rub and tug masseuse,’” per the report.
5) This was not the first time Martin dealt with bullying
The Dolphins players’ who were involved believed it was just a ‘big joke’ and part of locker room culture but this hit home to Martin, who claimed he had been bullied in middle school and high school.
Martin said he befriended the players who picked on him in an attempt to fit in and in an “effort to reduce their abuse, and that he sometimes participated in their vulgar banter in an effort to fit in.”
According to Martin, the bullying earlier in his life “diminished his self-confidence and self-esteem and contributed to what he self-diagnosed as periodic bouts of depression during his teenage years,” the report stated. “Martin claims that the depression he experienced in high school recurred as a result of mistreatment by his teammates on the Dolphins and that on two occasions in 2013 he even contemplated suicide.”
During an Twitter tirade earlier in the week, Incognito claimed that Martin considered “taking his life”. That did appear in the report when Martin told investigators he contemplated suicide twice in 2013.
Wells’ team consulted with a psychologist, who said that Martin’s response was consistent “with the behavior of a victim of abusive treatment.”
On May 5, Martin sent his mother a text message that said “I’m never going to change. I got punked again today. Like a little bitch. And I never do anything about it. I was sobbing in a rented yacht bathroom earlier.”