Richie Incognito feud with Jonathan Martin turns ugly

Incognito turned an ugly spat with Martin even uglier Wednesday afternoon.

By Louis Bien@louisbien Feb 12, 2014, 4:27pm EST

There is no clear reason why Richie Incognito picked the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday, Feb. 12, a day as innocuous as any on the calendar, to take to Twitter and send out a string of tweets against Jonathan Martin. Incognito is unhappy with his former teammate, that we knew. Whatever precipitated the tirade -- bad news, restlessness or anything -- led to this ...

FACT: Jonathan Martin told me he thought about taking his own life in MAY 2013 b/c he wasn't playing well. Told me he felt worthless.
— Richie Incognito (@68INCOGNITO) February 12, 2014

... which was up for at least a half hour if it isn't still.

Incognito, in case you missed it, stands accused of bullying Martin while the two were playing together for the Miami Dolphins, and is awaiting the forthcoming results of an ongoing NFL investigation. In the time since both players left the Dolphins -- Martin by defection, Incognito by suspension -- a one-sided feud has ensued. While Martin has largely kept quiet, Incognito has taken to whatever media forms he can, social and traditional, and described what he said was a strong friendship. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill even described Incognito as Martin's "best friend" on the team.

That congeniality has since been smashed to bits. And if Incognito has been right in saying that Martin has mischaracterized claims of harassment, and that Martin was a willful participant in offensive, jocular text message exchanges, then his final tweet before he opened up questions to his lawyer doesn't suddenly make him wrong. It hurts any goodwill he may have had coming his way, certainly, but it doesn't change the events of the past.

It stands on its own, and so we take it for what it is: A reminder that ugly things exist, everywhere, at all times and for whatever reason or none at all.