The Miami Dolphins lifted a three-month suspension on Richie Incognito Tuesday as the investigation into charges he bullied teammate Jonathan Martin begins to wind down.
The headlining NFL story some dubbed "bullygate" saw an update this week as more than 1,000 text messages from Oct. 2012-Nov. 2013 became public. (Via Fox Sports)
The text messages, published by USA Today, show what the paper calls, "what you'd expect from wealthy, young athletes: Incessant talk about partying, drinking, and chasing women."
But a good portion of the texts show the two basically giving each other a hard time. Like this one from Incognito to Martin.
And the "murder your family" text Martin sent to Incognito? This is apparently how it showed up... in meme form.
New York Daily News says the messages suggest the two had a "complicated, vulgar friendship."
A writer for Bleacher Report says the texts show that Incognito isn't a bully and Martin might not be an angel, but warns that his could only be a snippet of the texts sent between the two.
"We're lacking some context here. How many total texts are there? What are the key omitted ones, if any? Did the leaker of the texts use snippets that purposefully make Incognito look better?"
In his first sit-down interview since leaving the Dolphins in Oct., Martin told former NFL coach Tony Dungy he felt trapped by the locker-room bullying and decided to remove himself from the situation. (Via NBC)
Sporting News notes that in the week Martin left, "the two exchanged uncharacteristically civil — and deep — messages regarding the situation, and neither player seemed to have a real problem with the other." The transcript ended Nov. 3.
After his suspension was lifted, Incognito expressed his gratitude for family and friends and his support for Martin's return to football over Twitter.
Incognito will be a free agent in March and it is uncertain if he'll return to the Dolphins. Meanwhile, independent investigator Ted Wells, who the NFL hired, is expected to release his review of the Dolphins workplace conduct Thursday.
