The Raiders signed veteran guard Richie Incognito on Tuesday and General Manager Mike Mayock fielded questions from reporters about the move later in the day.
Incognito was out of the league last year after being released by the Bills in the wake of a brief retirement, but he remained in the headlines due to a pair of off-field incidents. He was placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold in May after allegedly throwing a dumbbell at another person during an incident at a gym and he was arrested in August for threatening to shoot employees at the funeral home handling his father’s service.
Those weren’t the first times that Incognito made waves for the wrong reasons off the football field and he was at the center of the investigation into bullying with the Dolphins in 2013. Mayock was asked about signing Incognito after making character a major talking point in regard to the players the Raiders drafted.
“You can’t have all boy scouts,” Mayock said.
Mayock said, via Scott Bair of NBCSportsBayArea.com, that Incognito has been fine whenever he’s been focused solely on on-field activities and called the deal a “prove-it” one that will force Incognito to prove himself on and off the field. He added that the team will help Incognito “help himself” in terms of staying out of trouble off the field and that the team doesn’t know if Incognito will face league discipline as a result of last year’s incidents.