The story is being presented in black-and-white terms — Incognito is a racist bully, Martin a helpless victim — but I wonder whether the key color in this is green.
Martin left the Dolphins on Oct. 28, a day after they lost to the Patriots, and went home to California to be with family and seek counseling. Later in the week, it was reported that the Dolphins would put Martin on the “non-football illness” list so they could free up his roster spot.
When a player is placed on the NFI list — and this is important — his team doesn’t have to pay his weekly salary. Martin, making a little more than $607,000 this year in base salary, would have forfeited $35,733 for every week he was on the NFI list.
So yes, it’s fair to ask: Did Martin go AWOL without realizing the financial consequences, and now his people — most likely his agents — are trying to clean up the mess?