Over the weekend, NFL Network reported that the Ted Wells investigation would be released on Thursday. Thereafter, Ted Wells said the report’s not coming until late next week, or early the following week.
That’s apparently not good enough for Dolphins guard Richie Incognito. He has taken to Twitter to complain about the delayed resolution of the case.
“Paul, Weiss, Rifkind -- Really taking your time on this one,” Incognito said, in reference to the firm for which Wells works. “Not like my career and life have been in the balance for 3 months.”
It’s probably not wise for Incognito to complain before the report has been finalized. If Wells is on the fence about any of the key issues, why risk saying anything that would potentially nudge him in the wrong direction?
Wells isn’t the only guy who has had a Twitter bomb hurled his way by Incognito. Per a league source, Incognito tweeted -- then deleted -- a direct shot at agent Kenny Zuckerman, who represents Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin.
“Jon martin’s agent is Kenny Zuckerman at priority sports,” Incognito tweeted, per the source. “Let’s just say he’s not very ‘trustworthy.’ He screwed [Martin].”
That could be (emphasis on the “could”) a reference to the theory/hypothesis that Martin wanted out of Miami and the whole “bullying” angle was developed to allow him to keep the balance of his signing bonus, given the team’s reputation for being very aggressive about financial issues. As the theory/hypothesis goes, what started as leverage to keep more than $1 million in paid but unearned bonus money unexpectedly spiraled out of everyone’s control.
Incognito’s timeline contains other interesting nuggets, including the revelation that he met with coach Joe Philbin and executive V.P. of football administration Dawn Aponte the day after G.M. Jeff Ireland was fired. Incognito also expresses embarrassment for the manner in which he talks about women in the text messages exchanged with Martin.
While entertaining, Incognito’s best move at this point would be to stay silent and wait for the report. Even after the report comes out, he needs to think carefully about the potential connection between the things he says (on Twitter and elsewhere) and the willingness of another team to welcome what could be an unwanted distraction to the organization.