Former Dolphins offensive lineman at center of 'bullygate' says he 'never believed for a second I was being bullied'

12 years after the allegation that former Dolphins teammate Richie Incognito bullied him, leading to Incognito being suspended, former NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin is walking back his statements.

Speaking with ESPN about life a decade after retiring from the sport, Martin said, "I never believed for a second I was being bullied." He said what became known as "bullygate" is a "story that I’ve been trying to fix for 10 years."

Martin missed multiple days of practice in October 2013 during his second season with the Dolphins as an offensive tackle. In the days following, reports emerged that Martin had stormed out of the team cafeteria after slamming a tray of food to the ground, and that he had been the "subject of some ribbing" in the cafeteria. "O-line made fun of him, and he snapped." The day after that report, another report stated that teammates had bullied Martin and that there had been "persistent bullying and teasing" of Martin. Days later, Incognito was indefinitely suspended for "conduct detrimental to the team."

One week after the initial news reports, the NFL retained a trial lawyer to investigate and write a report on what had happened, which was released in February 2014 and found that Incognito and two other offensive linemen, Mike Pouncey and John Jerry, had engaged in a pattern of harassment of Martin. The report also noted that Martin checked himself into a hospital and his mother had flown across the country to be with him.

Marin is now blaming his parents for escalating the situation.

"I had a situation with my teammates that I wasn’t super happy about," Martin said. "But my mother had her own read on the situation." He added, "I hadn’t even told my coaches, hadn’t told anyone. And suddenly it’s on ESPN, right? I didn’t believe any of the stances I was taking, right, where I’m this victim. I wasn’t a victim, right? And, again, it’s been a point of consternation."

"My mother maybe in her mind — I can’t read her mind — she thought she was doing the right thing."

In the offseason after the allegations, Martin was traded to the 49ers. He played 15 games for the team but retired after an offseason training camp with the Panthers, citing a back injury. Incognito missed the rest of the 2013-14 season and the entirety of the 2014-15 season and went on to play three seasons for the Bills and two seasons with the Raiders.

In a series of X posts on Sunday, Incognito wrote, "well… well… well…" and "Made up by Johnathan Martin’s mother and father!" He wrote in another post, "He couldn’t cut it in the NFL so he quit and his mom blamed me. Legacy media pushed this narrative long and far. Too bad it was all a lie! They lied to protect his money. He quit… the team had every right to claw back that money. His mom started the bullying narrative with ESPN’s Adam Schefter so that Miami Dolphins wouldn’t go after his signing bonus!"

While Martin’s mother, Jane, declined to speak with ESPN, Martin’s father, Gus did. "His mom and I did strongly intervene. To make sure he was protected." Defending the decision to intervene, Gus MArtin played a voicemail that had been left for Martin allegedly by Incognito at the time."

“Hey, wassup, you half-n—r piece of sh*t,” Incognito allegedly said in the message. “I saw you on Twitter, you been training 10 weeks. I’ll sh*t in your f*cking mouth. I’m going to slap your f*cking mouth, I’m going to slap your real mother across the face [laughter]. F*ck you, you’re still a rookie. I’ll kill you.”