Last fall, the NFL hired lawyer Ted Wells to investigate the Miami Dolphins in the wake of offensive tackle Jonathan Martin’s claims that he’d been bullied by teammate Richie Incognito. Martin, as you’ll recall, left the team in October, and details of the alleged bullying — including claims that Incognitio used racial slurs — trickled out over the following days and weeks. The Wells Report was released today, and it found that three Dolphins starters, including Incognito, John Jerry, and Mike Pouncey, “engaged in a pattern of harassment” of Martin, another young Dolphins lineman, and a member of the training staff. It also rejected claims by Incognito that Martin fabricated claims of harassment.
You can read the full 144-page report here, and there’s a lot of new information, including heartbreaking correspondence between Martin and his parents. Here are just some of Wells’s findings:
• On two occasions in 2013, Martin contemplated committing suicide.
• In a team “kangaroo court,” Incognito recorded a $200 fine for himself for “breaking Jmart,” (i.e., causing an emotional reaction to taunting), and he recorded a number of penalties for Martin for acting like a “pussy.” Another lineman who had been taunted was awarded $250 for “not cracking first.” After reports about alleged bullying became public, Incognito texted Pouncey and Nate Garner, another teammate, and told them to destroy the fine book. Neither did.
• Incognito, Jerry, and Pouncey made sexually explicit comments about Martin’s sister, a med student they’d never met. Examples include:
“We are going to run train on your sister. She loves me. I’m going to fuck her without a condom and cum in her cunt.”
“Hey, Jmart’s sister is in town. Get the plastic sheets ready, she’s a squirter.”
“I’m going to bang the shit out of her and spit on her and treat her like shit.”
“Hear your sister has a wolf-puss. A fat, hairy pussy.”
• Incognito also sent crude text messages to Martin and other linemen, such as “I flew jmarts sister into Indy. My dick is dry and needs some of her healing squirt juices.”
• Martin recalled that Incognito, Jerry, and Pouncey would simulate having sex with Martin’s sister during stretching exercises.
• Incognito subjected Martin to racial slurs, including this April 6, 2013 voice mail:
“Hey, wassup, you half-nigger piece of shit. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. I’ll shit in your fuckin’ mouth. I’m gonna slap your fuckin’ mouth, I’m gonna slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. Fuck you, you’ re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”
• Incognito also made jokes about slavery, and referred to Martin as “liberal mulatto bitch,” “stinky Pakistani,” “shine box,” and “darkness.” Jerry and Pouncey also taunted him by saying his wasn’t “black enough.”
• During the 2013 season, Incognito began referring to Martin as “my bitch” or “the O-line’s bitch.” During Martin’s rookie season in 2012, Incognito, Jerry, and Pouncey regularly called Martin a “cunt,” a “bitch,” a “pussy” and a “faggot.” Incognito said that the purpose of verbal taunts was to “get under the skin” of a teammate, and that “the statements in question were an accepted part of the everyday camaraderie of the Dolphins tight-knit offensive line.”
• Incognito, Jerry, and Pouncey also subjected another Dolphins lineman, referred to in the report as “Player A,” to hurtful treatment. Player A was called a “fag” or “faggot,” and Incognito reportedly accused him of “sucking dick” and asked him “Where’s your boyfriend?” Incognito and others said that Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey routinely touched Player A in what the report calls “a mockingly suggestive manner.”
• According to Martin, Pouncey once physically restrained Player A, and in front of his teammates, jokingly told Jerry to “come get some pussy.” Jerry responded by touching Player A’s buttocks in a way that simulated anal penetration. (Pouncey and Jerry denied that accusation. From the report: “Given the seriousness of this allegation and the conflicting recollections, we decline to make any findings about this particular alleged incident.”)
• Dolphins offensive line coach Jim Turner was aware of the running “joke” that Player A was gay and once participated in the taunting. For Christmas 2012, he gave female inflatable dolls to all of the offensive linemen as a gag gift, except for Player A, who received a male doll.
• Incognito, in an attempt to show that the treatment of Player A was light-hearted, pointed out that Martin joined in by coming up with the nickname “Loose Booty” for Player A. Incognito also pointed out that Martin sent him a joking text message, in which Martin said that he would give Player A “bath salts & lock him in your house with a tranquilizer gun & a box of sandpaper condoms.” (Martin admitted that he sent texts to Incognito alluding to the “joke” about Player A being gay, but says he never made such remarks to Player A’s face because it might hurt his feelings.)
• A member of the training staff who was born in Japan and is referred to in the report as “the Assistant Trainer” was the target of insults related to his race. Incognito, Jerry, and Pouncey admitted that they referred to him as “Jap” and “Chinaman,” and according to Martin, they also called him a “dirty communist” and a “North Korean.” They made demands like “give me some water you fucking chink,” and spoke in a mocking Asian accent, including asking for “rubby rubby sucky sucky.”
• On December 7, 2012, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Incognito, Jerry, and Pouncey wore traditional Japanese headbands and jokingly threatened to harm the assistant trainer in retaliation for the Pearl Harbor attack.
• Incognito and an former Dolphins lineman, who is referred to in the report as Player B and, like Incognito, is white, communicated via text about buying guns, apparently for recreational purposes. But the conversation “veered into jokes about shooting black people”:
Player B: Especially if u plan living in Arizona in the future, that’s exactly what you want
Incognito: Yea. For picking off zombies
Player B: Lol isn’t that why we own any weapons!?
Incognito: That and black people
Player B: Mmm def all black ppl
And then four days later, Incognito and Player texted about rifle scopes:
Player B: Yes. That’s a solid optic made specifically for a .308 battle rifle
Incognito: Perfect for shooting black people
Player B: Lol exactly
Player B: Or Jeff Ireland
• Incognito and other linemen told Martin he had to pay a $10,000 fine to the team’s “kangaroo court” for missing a group trip to Las Vegas in 2013. (Kangaroo court fines otherwise generally ranged from $10 to $500.) Incognito and others say they were joking when they told him to pay, but Martin did, by check, and said that he didn’t believe they were joking.
