Jonathan Martin bullying: All the details inside Dolphins’ Bullygate scandal

The Bullygate scandal has dominated the life of former Dolphins player Jonathan Martin. People took sides in an event that divided NFL fans. More than a decade ago, Miami's locker room culture shone a light on what goes into professional football. Richie Incognito, a Pro Bowl offensive lineman, faced an eight-game suspension because of his conduct.

Jonathan Martin has since resurrected his career outside of football and spoke to ESPN, adding some nuance about what went down. This has reopened the debate about what happened during that time. Here, we explore what occurred in the Bullygate scandal and since.

Dolphins Bullygate scandal involving Jonathan Martin: from then until now

This saga began on October 28, 2013. Jonathan Martin missed a practice after a Dolphins loss and ESPN reported that the second-year NFL tackle had reacted to some comments by his offensive line colleagues. Fox Sports followed that up with how he was being bullied and it opened up a Pandora's box.

By the end of that league year, on February 14, 2014, Ted Wells' report gave details into the scandal that became known as Bullygate. Richie Incognito, Mike Pouncey and John Jerry were found to have engaged in a pattern of harassment.

A month later, the Dolphins traded Jonathan Martin to the San Francisco 49ers, and he retired in 2015 after a stint with the Carolina Panthers. Just when it looked like the whole issue was a thing of the past, it blew open again in 2018.

The former NFL player posted on Instagram, writing,

"When you're a bully victim & a coward, your options are suicide, or revenge."

Beyond the caption, the social media offering included images of a shotgun and ammunition. Even more worryingly, it tagged Richie Incognito and Mike Pouncey, two of the players who were accused of creating the environment that led to the bullying culture with the Miami Dolphins. James Dunleavy, son of NBA coach Mike, was also tagged having gone to Harvard-Westlake with Jonathan Martin.

He faced four counts of making criminal threats and one count of carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle in a separate incident.

And now, he has delved further into the details of what transpired. He told Anthony Olivieri of ESPN in a story posted on Wednesday,

"I never believed for a second I was being bullied. It's a story that I've been trying to fix for 10 years."

That changed the narrative completely about what transpired in 2013. However, there's more nuance to the story than that. For once, there's the voice message from Richie Incognito that says,

"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 [laughter]. F--- you, you're still a rookie. I'll kill you."

His father, Gus Martin, has still held onto the tape. It includes apparent racist tropes followed by reported threats of actual violence. However, Jonathan Martin now says that the issue was something more than bullying and that it was down to his mother for using that term. He said,

"My mother maybe in her mind -- I can't read her mind -- she thought she was doing the right thing,"

It reportedly stems more from historical experiences that she had faced, as narrated by the former Dolphins' offensive lineman's friend. She reportedly wanted,

"... to create a safe space for [him] to not have to encounter the same things that they did."

Ultimately, Jonathan Martin feels that what went down during his time with the Miami Dolphins was much more than bullying because that is not the experience that he had. Instead, the whole incident is steeped in historical perspectives of racism that his mother and his parents might have faced and part of a wider perspective that might have been missed from the initial reporting.