Excerpts from the “Report to the National Football League concerning issues of workplace conduct at the Miami Dolphins” that was released Friday with details of the allegations Miami Dolphins lineman Jonathan Martin made against teammate Richie Incognito:
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SOCIAL BOUNDARIES BROKEN: The report said that nearly all the players interviewed had a strong reaction to Incognito, some calling him a great teammate and a hard worker. At the same time, he was described as aggressive with “little sense of social boundaries.” An unnamed player quoted in the report calls Incognito “a good player, but he is kind of a disease; he divides a locker room.”
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SISTER TARGETED: Many of the taunts directed at Martin involved his sister, a medical student whom none of the players had ever met. The comments about Martin’s sister were both vulgar and graphic in nature, and the taunts were ongoing. “Martin reported that he heard the insults about his sister throughout the Dolphins training facility - in the locker room, on the practice field, in the showers, in the offensive line room (often before meetings got started), even sometimes in the cafeteria.”
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INAPPROPRIATE GIFTS: “Dolphins’ Offensive Line Coach Jim 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.” Turner told the report’s authors he did not recall the incident.
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INSULTS WITH A PURPOSE: “For the most part, Incognito does not dispute saying or writing any of the statements that Martin claimed offended him. Further, Incognito admitted that at times the very purpose of the verbal taunts was to “get under the skin” of another person. From Incognito’s perspective, however, the statements in question were an accepted part of the everyday camaraderie of the Dolphins tight-knit offensive line.”
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SUICIDEAL THOUGHTS: “Martin came to view his failure to stand up to his teammates as a personal shortcoming. According to Martin, the mistreatment by his teammates and his inability to make them stop the insults drove him into depression and led him to contemplate suicide on two occasions in 2013.”
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RACIST TAUNTS: On the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Incognito, Jerry and Pouncey “jokingly threatened to harm the Assistant Trainer physically in retaliation for the Pearl Harbor attack.” “According to Martin, the Assistant Trainer confided in him that he was upset about the Pearl Harbor comments, finding them derogatory toward his heritage.”
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BOOK OF FINES: Incognito kept a book of “fines” meted out to players. One $200 fine was to himself for “breaking Jmart,” and another was for $250 issued to another player for “not cracking first.” About a week after Martin left the team, “Incognito wrote nearly identical text messages to Pouncey and another lineman: ’They’re going to suspend me Please destroy the fine book first thing in the morning.’” A page from the fine book was reproduced in the report.
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FRONT OFFICE UNWARE: The report found that coach Joe Philbin and the Dolphins front office were not aware of any of the mistreatment. “Nor did we find any support for the allegation that Dolphins management directed Incognito to engage in the behavior that is the subject of Martin’s complaints,” it said.
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EMBARRASSING ADMISSION: While the report contains embarrassing incidents and personal information about Martin, including his mental health issues, Martin and his family gave their express permission for the information to be used in the report, which they were aware would be made public.
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