Ex-Nebraska football star’s old scandal unfortunately resurfaces with new revelations

It’s safe to say that former Nebraska football offensive line standout Richie Incognito would rather not be back in the headlines for the reason that he’s back in the headlines.

Incognito had a fairly long (by offensive lineman standards especially) run in the NFL after his playing days in Lincoln were over. And for the most part, he stood out as one of the better interior offensive linemen in the game during that time. Unfortunately, injuries hampered his pro career a bit. Some off the field issues likely hampered his ability to get a longer shot in the NFL as well. Last week, the biggest scandal of Incognito’s career resurfaced, putting him back in the spotlight nearly a decade after the issue first arose.

The former Nebraska football lineman’s alleged bullying of an ex-Miami Dolphins teammate was back in the news thanks to that teammate, Jonathan Martin gave an interview to ESPN where he told the organization that he never felt bullied by Incognito. And Incognito has since pounced on that report to crow about his innocence. But there’s still a problem with all that happened back in Miami, 10 years ago.

Ex-Nebraska football star Richie Incognito is back in unfortunate spotlight

In the interview, Martin made it clear the bullying claims came from his parents more than they did from him. 

“I had a situation with my teammates that I wasn’t super happy about,” Martin told Anthony Olvieri of ESPN.com. “But my mother had her own read on the situation.”

“I didn’t believe any of the stances I was taking, right, where I’m this victim,” Martin added. “I wasn’t a victim, right? And, again, it’s been a point of consternation.”

While some might believe that Martin’s comments exhonerate Incognito (the former Husker certainly believes that, crowing on social media about the report since it came to prominence) there’s more to it than what Martin said back then and what he said earlier this month.

The same article included text of a voicemail from Incognito to Martin that was front and center when this whole thing first exploded around the ex-Nebraska football star.

“Hey, wassup, you half-n----- piece of s---. I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. I’ll s--- in your f---ing mouth. I’m going to slap your f---ing mouth, I’m going to slap your real mother across the face. F--- you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”

The message, in 2013 could be dismissed by some as nothing more than veteran hazing of a young player. There are no doubt, plenty of incidents like this around the NFL for decades. But it’s important to remember that there are at least a few pieces of evidence that Incognito did this kind of thing a lot, and not just to teammates.

Not long after the former Nebraska football lineman started celebrating the piece, ESPN contributor Pablo Torre surfaced some other tidbits from the era where the bullying was such a big story.

“I keep posting these excerpts b/c people keep forgetting the other human being,” Torre posted on X. “An Asian-American trainer, in the Richie Incognito story.”

The excerpt is … to say the least, offensive. It alleges that Incognito called the trainer just about every Asian ethnic slur in the book. And this is where things get hazy.

While the former Nebraska football star wants people to believe he’s been totally cleared from an interview by Martin that could be more about him being tired of thought of as a victim than actually refuting any of the things the former lineman did to him, there’s other stuff in his past that hasn’t been refuted.

It would serve Richie Incognito better if he stopped calling attention to any of it, because I don’t believe he should still want all of it out there. The Nebraska football program in general would likely prefer all of this to stay in the past as well.