My thoughts: Jonathan Martin's agent is the bad guy

[Brian Fein]

Bear with me, this is a lot but I have been thinking about this and I want to put it all together.  Consider, for a second, that despite all media speculation, Richie Incognito isn't the villain here.

1) Martin left camp Monday for undisclosed reasons.  Later it was reported by Martin's agent that he felt harassed.  The circus ensues.

2) Martin's agent releases a voice mail message from April with incendiary language meant to rally public outrage towards a bully, and sympathy for his client.  No recording, just a transcript.  No vocal tone is presented.  Conveniently left out the end of the message where Richie said "OK, call me back." You don't threaten to kill someone and then calmly say "call me back."  Also to note, Brian Hartline stated that he clearly remembered Martin playing the message for everyone in the locker room and laughing about it.  Martin's agent released this out of the context of the relationship of the players to incite outrage from the public and protect his client.  No other voice mails or text messages have been presented as evidence of "persistent harassment."

3) The story about the Vegas trip has details released today that the $15,000 payment was to cover Martin's share of the trip after he backed out from going.  It was NOT to pay for anyone else, but to cover the private jet and luxurious hotels that were already booked and paid for when Martin backed out. 

4) Today, Martin's agent releases a statement that Jeff Ireland told Martin to punch Richie in the face for the harassment.  Remember, these are grown adults, not 2nd graders.  Why did Martin's agent release this information now, today, weeks after the comment was allegedly made?  Is it because the sentiment towards Incognito has been shifting after yesterday's player comments?  Why did this conversation between the agent and Ireland take place only AFTER Martin already left camp?

5) Martin has been unavailable for comment to the media, presumably being protected under the shroud of his agent.  No one knows his whereabouts, no one has talked to him through all this?  Even his last Facebook post said "Don't believe everything you read..."

6) If you are an agent and had a player inexplicably leave camp for no apparent reason, you stand to lose a lot of money.  It is imperative to the agent to protect his client (aka his paycheck), and unleash a barrage of speculation and investigation upon the team to remove focus from his player.

7) Murtha's article pointed out that the "get up from the lunch table" trick was used regularly towards anyone who appeared on the injury report.  Tannehill mentioned in his press conference that they had done it to him.  Other sources reported that Martin had previously been one of the guys at the table who got up.  This is not abnormal behavior, its guys having fun at lunchtime.

8 ) No other rookies or players have come forward and said "yeah Richie's mean to me too!"  I'd think if Richie was really the bad guy in this story, Martin wouldn't be his only target.

9) Jonathan Martin's last tweet from his own Twitter account was posted on Monday at 2:28 PM (right around the time of the supposed freak out): "Gonna attack this Monday with EUTM."  A quick Google search reveals that EUTM is either European Union Training Mission, or "Everything Under The Moon."  Everything Under The Moon happens to also be a internet forum for witchcraft and Wiccan spirituality.  This all happening right before Halloween might make this relevant.  I've never seen the "EUTM" acronym used elsewhere.  Wonder what he's referring to in his tweet...

In all, my opinion is that Martin's agent is grasping at straws to make the Dolphins organization look bad to protect his client.  It is unfortunate that Richie Incognito has been vilified by the media to be this big racist bully, when in fact, it appears that he is just taking the fall for an unfortunate circumstance.

I hope the truth comes out, and we can all get past this.

[Pappy13]

There's only 4 maybe 5 questions left to be answered in my opinion.

1) Does the NFL suspend Incognito and for how long?
2) Does Miami cut him or bring him back?
3) Does Miami cut Martin or bring him back?
4) If 2 happens, does any other team sign him?
5) If 3 happens, does any other team sign him?
 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Martin's agent is looking out for interests of his client. 

[Brian Fein]

I find the response to this thread to be interesting:

http://www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com/forums/index.php?topic=22166.msg298796#new

What if Martin also "just wanted out of football" but his agent wasn't ready to let this go?  It would be interesting to know if Martin is this agent's only client, or perhaps his biggest?

[MikeO]

Here is what I know.....the guy the NFL hired to look into this is very good. Ted Wells is his name. Remember a year or so ago and ESPN ran the Bernie Fine story with Syracuse and how he was a predator and attacking young boys and essentially Sandusky 2.0. ESPN and the media had Fine dead to rights and guilty as the day as long. This Ted Wells guy did a full investigation and found nothing. Well he found out lots of people lied and how the media made a story where there wasn't any. No criminal charges against Fine, all lawsuits vs the school, Fine, and Boehiem were dropped. Story went away quietly. Because there was nothing to the story.

So this Ted Wells guy is very good and I will go by his report when he is done. His track record speaks for itself. If he finds wrong-doing then heads will roll in Miami as they should. But im gonna let him do a full investigation before I call for firings and such

[Spider-Dan]

I agree with you that Incognito isn't the villain.  He was trying to be a good player and follow the directions of his management; he simply has no sense of boundaries.  For lack of a better term, he just doesn't know any better.

I think the villains here are Dolphins management (the specific person is still in the air).  When faced with a player who was having problems adjusting to the (according to other NFL players) unusual team culture, they reacted with incompetence and unprofessionalism, followed by denial and feigned ignorance as they threw a well-intentioned player (Incognito) under the bus.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I find the response to this thread to be interesting:

http://www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com/forums/index.php?topic=22166.msg298796#new

What if Martin also "just wanted out of football" but his agent wasn't ready to let this go?  It would be interesting to know if Martin is this agent's only client, or perhaps his biggest?

His other clients include:

ARIAN FOSTER
HALOTI NGATA
AJ HAWK
PAUL POSLUSZNY
BARRY COFIELD
MICHAEL KOENEN
TYSON ALUALU

http://www.prioritysports.biz/football/contracts

[Spider-Dan]

There's only 4 maybe 5 questions left to be answered in my opinion.

1) Does the NFL suspend Incognito and for how long?
2) Does Miami cut him or bring him back?
3) Does Miami cut Martin or bring him back?
4) If 2 happens, does any other team sign him?
5) If 3 happens, does any other team sign him?

1) I say no.  Incognito was trying to help (as ordered by management) in his own misguided way.
2) Bring him back
3) Miami will need to either cash out his contract or trade him to another team (ideally, IND or SF).  This is really their only way out of this without a huge lawsuit.

[Brian Fein]

The more I think about this, I think this is not a "Martin vs Incognito" issue.  I think it is a "Martin vs football" issue, and Martin's agent has to make it look like Martin has a "good reason" to leave, so he doesn't suffer the same fate as Ricky Williams did when he "left the team" mid-contract.

I don't know if Martin even wants to come back to football, let alone the Miami Dolphins.

[hordman]

Brian well thought out and written. You make some great valid points.

[MaineDolFan]

Here is what I know.....the guy the NFL hired to look into this is very good. Ted Wells is his name. Remember a year or so ago and ESPN ran the Bernie Fine story with Syracuse and how he was a predator and attacking young boys and essentially Sandusky 2.0. ESPN and the media had Fine dead to rights and guilty as the day as long. This Ted Wells guy did a full investigation and found nothing. Well he found out lots of people lied and how the media made a story where there wasn't any. No criminal charges against Fine, all lawsuits vs the school, Fine, and Boehiem were dropped. Story went away quietly. Because there was nothing to the story.

The initial accuser actually ended up going to jail.

[MaineDolFan]

Excellent post, Brian. 

[MikeO]

The initial accuser actually ended up going to jail.

That was the 3rd accuser actually. He was arrested for sexual abuse vs a minor and he made his whole story up out of thin air against Fine and Syracuse to try and get a reduced sentence. Of course ESPN ran with it and tried to make the guy legit, didn't work. The first 2 accusers (Davis and Lang) aren't in jail but they keep trying to sue the school, Boehiem, and Fine but the courts keeps throwing there cases out time and time again. Because they have no case and well are liars essentially.

[Dave Gray]

I tend to agree with Spider and am not blaming this all on Incognito.  Like the Joker, he's a dog chasing cars.  But I think the Dolphins (or at least one person, perhaps acting alone) let him off the leash, which was very unwise.

I'm trying not to jump to conclusions, especially considering more news comes out about this every day.

[AZ Fins Fan 55]

This is a great post Brian and much of the same stuff I have been arguing with my friends that here locally that know I am a Dolphins fan and have Richie pegged as the bad guy.

I hope if nothing comes out of this report that Richie is brought back as his teammates seem to love him and he is good lineman.

Martin I think they have to trade as he has lost the respect of many in the locker room.