Jonathan Martin harassment may have had racial undertones from Richie Incognito

We are venturing into dangerous ground tonight, as a report has come out saying that Miami Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin, who left the team on Monday, has turned over texts and voicemails as part of his allegations of player misconduct within the team's locker room.  The majority of the speculation has centered around guard Richie Incognito, with the team suspending the 2012 Pro Bowler earlier tonight.

NBC6 in South Florida's Courtney Fallon tweeted this a little while ago:

Via @MikeGarafolo on @FOXSportsLive: Martin's people shared w/Dolphins texts and voicemails from Incognito that are racially charged threats

— Courtney Fallon (@CourtneyNBC6) November 4, 2013

And, that's where it gets dangerous.  If Incognito did make racially charged text messages and voicemails to Martin, it's reprehensible, and completely inexcusable.  There's no reason for it, and Incognito is simply and totally wrong to do it.

But, we have to remember these are reports based on "sources" and rumors of what may or may not be on texts and in voicemails we have not heard.  Everything is an allegation, not fact.  So, maybe this is not a racial issue - in which case just throwing the possibility out there could spin the investigation into a direction it never needed to go, and it could cause a reputation that may not be deserved.

I've done an investigation before where two people got into a fight.  As I finished the report, everything seemed fairly straight forward, with both parties having partial responsibility, though one was more wrong than the other.  As I submitted the report, I got asked, but someone not at all involved in the situation, if I had, "looked into whether the fact that one person was black and one was white, because this could be a racial thing."  Now, I had to go through basically another entire investigation to prove that the racial allegation had nothing to do with a case where two people, one who happened to be African-American and the other Caucasian, got into an argument over something stupid, and is escalated beyond where it should.

So,  I am reticent to charge that there is a racial undertone to this situation.  However, if the texts and voicemails do support that claim, Incognito deserves to be slammed for it.

Yet another twist and turn in this crazy story.

Miami Dolphins Coverage:

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