So what prompted Wednesday’s Twitter tirade from Richie Incognito?
Incognito, who stopped tweeting but didn’t stop talking, told Mike Silver of NFL Network that Incognito is frustrated by the ongoing delay in the issuance of Ted Wells’ report.
“I talked to Richie Incognito about an hour ago and he’s very angry at this point,” Silver said on Total Access. “He feels like four months of being in limbo has taken its toll on him personally. He strongly refutes Jonathan Martin’s allegations and he told me ‘I wanted to get my side out there before the Ted Wells report is issued.’”
If Incognito is so confident he’ll be exonerated, why did he feel the need to pre-empt the Wells report? It could be that Incognito is starting to sense, based on the ongoing delay, that he won’t like the findings and conclusions in the report.
Or it could be that Incognito simply can’t help himself. Apart from the possible connection between banging on Wells’ door for his report and the ultimate (and perhaps revised at the last minute) contents of it, Incognito needs to convince the other 31 teams to give him another chance. He needs to be on his best behavior.
And maybe some teams will wonder whether what we saw on Wednesday really was his best behavior.
Incognito eventually demonstrated better behavior by deleting the tweet in which he referred any further questions to his lawyer, Mark Schamel . . . and provided Schamel’s phone number. It seemed at the time that Schamel had told Richie to shut up, that Richie didn’t want to shut up, and that Richie posted Schamel’s phone number as a not-so-subtle protest to the advice Schamel had given.
Incognito, who supposedly was done talking with the tweet that disclosed his lawyer’s phone number, had more to say to Silver via text: “The facts clearly show the allegations are false and there was no bullying. Just banter both ways between two good friends. I intend to do as I always have: focus on doing the best job I can for my team and fans and helping my team win.’”
Incognito then said he’ll have no further comment until Wells’ report is issued. After that, count on Incognito to comment loudly, regardless of the outcome and any advice he receives on what he should and shouldn’t say.
Until then, Incognito’s final last word was the hashtag that has become his trademark: #FreeINCOGNITO.