Richie Incognito was suspended Sunday for allegedly bullying Dolphins teammate Jonathan Martin with repeated profane and threatening harassment. And one Giant who knows Incognito well isn’t surprised at all, but is worried for and saddened by a friend whom he called “a tortured soul” fighting his own “demons.”
“None of it shocks me,’’ said kicker Josh Brown, who played with Incognito at Nebraska and again with the Rams in 2008 and ’09. “Richie is … this seems to be a person with a tortured soul. He’s had his issues for quite a while. Recently an article came out that proclaimed things were going to be different for him. It’s sad to see. He was a friend of mine and still is.
“I played with him through college and he had a lot of problems in college. I played with him with the Rams. No severe issues there that were out in the public. I’m busy with my own family to really pay attention with everything that everybody is doing, but actions speak louder than words and the article means nothing … This seems to be something that has been haunting him for a decade.’’
Incognito, born in Englewood, N.J., was convinced of assault and suspended at Nebraska, dismissed from Oregon and voted the NFL’s dirtiest player. He got cut by the Rams after arguing with then-coach Steve Spagnuolo, but his low point came Sunday.
The 30-year-old Incognito, part of Miami’s player leadership committee, was suspended for sending Martin multiple texts that include sexual orientation and derogatory terms referring to the female anatomy, and leaving him an April voice message calling him a “half n—– piece of s—,’’ threatening to “s— in your f—ing mouth” and to slap Martin’s mother and ending with “I’ll kill you.’’
Brown doesn’t know all the details of what happened at Nebraska, but has assumptions. He lost track of Incognito when the latter went to the Dolphins in 2010.
“This seems to be someone who really has some demons that aren’t out of the building,’’ Brown said. “It’s unfortunate. It’s sad. He has always been a sweetheart of a guy to me. Eventually, your problems catch up with you.
“We knew Richie and his girlfriend quite well at the time and there was concern when they moved. There were rumors that he’d barricaded himself in the room, signs of depression, things like that.”
“Somebody has something going on in their head they can’t get past and it’s unfortunate. At this point it may cost him his career for sure.’’
Additional reporting by Paul Schwartz.