Richie Incognito is in the news again, and not for anything good. Incognito was suspended for the final eight games of the 2013 NFL season over allegations he bullied teammate Jonathan Martin, and then didn’t play in 2014 after an independent report for the NFL found that Incognito and other teammates repeatedly harassed Martin, another anonymous teammate and a trainer.
But Incognito signed with the Buffalo Bills in 2015, and he’s made some news since then for refusing to respond to Martin, tweeting about making love to his car, and complaining about Thursday Night Football. Now, Incognito is making news again and for more troubling reasons, with Jacksonville Jaguars’ defensive end Yannick Ngakoue accusing Incognito of using racial slurs during the Jaguars’ playoff win over the Bills Sunday:
Great win to day! And 64, you goin have to come harder than some weak racist slurs. I’m proud of my African heritage, as are 70% of the other Black players in this league. #Iaintjonathanmartin!
— YANNICK NGAKOUE! (@YannGetSacks91) January 8, 2018
It’s interesting that Ngakoue directly references the Martin situation there, as the NFL-commissioned report from investigator Ted Wells found Martin and fellow players John Jerry and Mike Pouncey harassed the trainer with “racial slurs and other racially derogatory language,” subjected the anonymous teammate to “homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching.” It also found that “Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments.”
We’ll see if anything further comes from this, but allegations of racial slurs on the field need to be taken seriously. And it seems likely that Incognito could wind up in some hot water again.
