<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Your teams on the go or at home. Personalize SI with our new App. Install on &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;iOS&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;nbsp;or &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;Android&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the semi-privacy afforded by a glass-walled room within a busy downtown Buffalo sports bar/restaurant, Richie Incognito sat with 15 hungry Bills teammates one recent evening and proceeded to lay waste to the menu. Copious amounts of wings, rings, burgers, nachos and the locally famous beef on weck arrived in steady intervals and were quickly dispatched by the group, made up mostly of sizable offensive linemen. In fact, the food and drink rarely stopped coming\u2014not to mention the banter\u2014and through it all the smile hardly ever left Incognito\u2019s round, cherubic face. The Bills\u2019 veteran guard was in his element here, hanging with his guys and never missing an opportunity to lighten the mood. Even being a bit on display in this public setting didn\u2019t seem to inhibit his repertoire.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By now, Incognito is used to the need for transparency, so perhaps in organizing these near-weekly dinners, he picked this particular room and this particular spot for partly that reason. He actually &lt;em&gt;wants&lt;/em&gt; to be seen and heard from these days, if only to show, at least to those willing to give him a fresh look, that he\u2019s not the twisted, misguided monster his texts to second-year offensive tackle Jonathan Martin made him look like when the Dolphins bullying scandal broke in the fall of 2013. (Attempts to reach Martin for this story were unsuccessful.)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incognito was rendered essentially unemployable for almost a year and a half, and though he is now in the midst of a major career rehabilitation in Buffalo, he knows that going from being painted a total pariah in Miami to a respected pillar in the Bills locker room remains an impossibly tough sell for some.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m very cognizant of the fact this is a second chance, an opportunity to rewrite the narrative, even understanding that some people won\u2019t get past 2013 when it comes to me,\u201D Incognito says while taking in an afternoon Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball game in the Bills\u2019 private box at Coca-Cola Field. \u201CThat\u2019ll be in their head forever and there\u2019s nothing I can do to change that. I can only control what I do from here on out, and that is show up each day, work hard, and be a good person and a good teammate. I\u2019m aware of the fact that everything I say and do is being watched and everything I say and do could be a national headline.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He\u2019s been in national headlines before, like this one, from the &lt;em&gt;The New York Times&lt;/em&gt; in February of 2014: \u201C\u2018A Classic Case of Bullying\u2019 on the Dolphins, Report Finds.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incognito\u2019s career began its descent in late October 2013, when Martin left the team after alleging Incognito harassed and bullied him into paying $15,000 for a trip to Vegas and made racial slurs and sexual taunts about Martin\u2019s mother and sister.&amp;nbsp;After a review by the NFL and NFLPA, Incognito was suspended for the final eight games of the season by the Dolphins.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incognito called the reports \u201Cfalse speculation\u201D and \u201Cslander\u201D and a subsequent report suggested a Miami coach called upon Incognito and other Dolphins linemen to \u201Ctoughen up\u201D Martin, who was thought to be particularly sensitive by NFL standards.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The league launched a deeper investigation, hiring prominent attorney and NFL report maker Ted Wells to examine the Incognito-Martin relations, and the Dolphins\u2019 locker room culture as a whole. Three months and 144 pages later, Wells found a consistent pattern of harassment that was spearheaded by Incognito but included other members of the Dolphins organization. Wells\u2019s report led to a broader discussion of the bullying culture in and out of the NFL. While Incognito\u2019s suspension was lifted that February 2014, once the Dolphins released him, he was deemed radioactive and went unsigned that year.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u2022 QBs with the most to prove in 2016 | 10 head coaches under pressure\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It wasn\u2019t always pretty, but he endured his purgatory-like existence from early November 2013, when he was suspended by the Dolphins and later released, to February 2015, when the Bills threw him a lifeline, signing him to a one-year, $1.1-million prove-it deal.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He proved it on the field all right. Last season, Incognito was a superb left guard for Rex Ryan\u2019s Bills, who led the league in rushing with 2,432 yards and a 4.8-yard average gain, capping his year with a trip to the Pro Bowl after being named an AFC alternate. The performance grading website Pro Football Focus gave Incognito an overall mark of 90.0 in 2015, the second-best among NFL guards.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In March, the Bills decided they wanted the once-banished Incognito to be a part of their future and signed him to a three-year, $15.75 million contract that he could have easily topped had he been willing to relocate. Which he categorically wasn\u2019t. After being in career limbo in Miami, Incognito decided Buffalo was nirvana.\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;\u201CThis is bigger than me ... this is bigger than the NFL\u201D&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incognito\u2019s career resurrection didn\u2019t look particularly likely in the days just after the Dolphins bullying story broke. His confusing relationship with Martin, and all those raunchy details of their text exchanges and phone conversations, were exposed to a public that was appalled by the fact that seemingly no subjects or insults were deemed off limits by Incognito. His reputation for pushing the envelope crossed big bold lines that left him in an almost indefensible position, and it did not take too long for him to grasp the enormity of the firestorm he was engulfed in.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI remember being at my place [in South Florida] when I got suspended on a Sunday night, and by Monday, that\u2019s when the s--- really hit the fan,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CI was like, \u2018All right, I\u2019m not going to read anything on the internet, because I\u2019m just getting killed, and I\u2019m not going to listen to anything on the air.\u2019\u201D &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By mid-week, with his mother in town to keep him company, Incognito turned his TV back on to watch &lt;em&gt;The Today Show&lt;/em&gt;.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CLiterally within a minute, my face pops up on screen and they start going off on me and the story,\u201D he says. \u201CThat\u2019s when I said, this is bigger than me, this is bigger than the Miami Dolphins, this is bigger than the NFL. This is big news and I was really shocked it got to that level.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over the coming months, Incognito said he started to understand the outcry the story set in motion and the nerve it hit. He didn\u2019t believe himself to have bullied Martin, but he knows he gave plenty of people reason to be convinced he absolutely did.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CLooking back on it now, it was a hot-button topic, and kind of like the perfect media storm, and it had a lot of elements to it,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CYou looked at me and my history, and thought, \u2018That makes sense. I can go with that.\u2019 It was real easy for people to assume that all this was true and exactly how it was portrayed.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWith everything I went through and everyone I talked to, doctors, family and friends, it was the wrapping my head around the entire situation that was very difficult. Not the why as much as just the what, and where I was at in it. The biggest thing was accepting, \u2018O.K., it happened. You can\u2019t control anything from here on out.\u2019 That took months, and that took hours and hours of sessions.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which is not to say Incognito today doesn\u2019t acknowledge making a bevy of mistakes in word and deed in his working relationship with Martin.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThere\u2019s no doubt things were said and things were texted and things were done where I clearly crossed the line,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CThat\u2019s part of the learning process I went through, and just growing up and maturing and being aware of your surroundings and who your audience is. I may find some things acceptable that other people don\u2019t, and maybe I should just keep those things to myself. Not everyone has the same sense of humor as me, so you better be aware of what comes out of your mouth and what you say and text.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That self-discovery did not come without setbacks. He experienced mental stress after the NFL\u2019s investigation concluded that he was mostly to blame for the Dolphins\u2019 \u201Ctoxic locker room environment,\u201D and he was on medication for anxiety while undergoing counseling for a good bit of that year. He has battled anger management issues in the past, particularly in his years spent with the St. Louis Rams (2005\u201309), and admits he\u2019s still not anger-free when it comes to the controversial way his Dolphins tenure ended and the impact it had on his career and reputation.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CWhat\u2019s today? So, it\u2019s May 18, 2016?\u201D Incognito asks. \u201CYeah, it\u2019s still there.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But so too is the recognition that the saga showed him that there was much-needed work to be done on himself, even though it was difficult to confront his penchant for mood swings and self-destructive behavior.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During his absence from the game, Incognito came to grips with the reality that he had been his own worst enemy at times, that he lacked steadiness and the ability to be the same guy every day.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CAs you go through the grind of the season, you have these ups and downs and you feel a bunch of different ways,\u201D he says. \u201CIn years past, I would allow myself to go down in a dark place and bring some guys down into a dark place to bitch and moan with me. What\u2019s good about me now is I notice it as it\u2019s happening and I have the tools to make the adjustment.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For a guy who so clearly feeds off being around his teammates and the camaraderie of the locker room, Incognito\u2019s forced sabbatical from the game included plenty of solitude and separation. First, out of embarrassment with his predicament, and secondly out of a desire to start fresh and learn how to get beyond the mistakes of his past.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI went away,\u201D he says. \u201CI went to Arizona [where he lives] and put myself in timeout. I didn\u2019t talk to friends. I didn\u2019t talk to family for a while. I was off Twitter. I was off everything. But being locked away, that instilled the drive to find a new beginning and a humble beginning, where I knew I had to come back and establish myself and kind of resurrect myself.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Bills bought into the idea&amp;nbsp;that Incognito had learned and grown, and gave him that new beginning.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CIt was clear to us not only did he recognize his mistakes, he understood how he got to that place to make that mistake,\u201D&amp;nbsp;Bills general manager Doug Whaley says. \u201CAdded to the fact that he now has fail-safes, to say if I start going down this road, I can alert myself and have ways to combat that.\u2019\u2019\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Says Bills center Eric Wood, Incognito\u2019s best friend on the team: \u201CHe could have gone one of two ways. He could have stayed in the dumps, stayed in that really low time in his life, and kept up the self-destruction. Or you can go the exact opposite way, which is what he did.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;\u201CA locker room favorite\u201D&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Watching Incognito work a room filled with teammates is like watching a bee pollinate an entire patch of flowers, one by one, over the course of several hours. The start of training camp is still more than two months away, and the mood in the room is light. He teases a fellow offensive lineman for his choice of a summery white shirt, white jeans, white sneakers ensemble for dinner, and later a rookie arrives for the meal wearing some team-issued Bills gear, a clear violation of the veteran code. It does not go unnoticed by Incognito or other Buffalo vets, and the rookie quickly removes the offending sweatshirt/hoodie, acknowledging the lesson learned&lt;strong&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With an assist from Wood, Incognito beckons a Bills p.r. official to come forward and try a particularly spicy bite of something as penance for supposedly not telling players that on-camera interviews might be part of their relaxed evening. He dutifully complies as the room dissolves into laughter.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The back and forth among the players continues between bites and drinks. All the while, Incognito seems to be that guy in the room who sets the tone and makes it his mission to pay everyone a little one-on-one attention, and it\u2019s a role he revels in.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CEven when things were at their darkest and bleakest, nobody\u2019s ever come up to me and had a negative thing to say,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CI expected somebody to come up to me and be like, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re an asshole.\u2019 Something like that. But no one\u2019s ever said that, and it\u2019s just such a good positive flow right now here in Buffalo.&amp;nbsp;\u200B\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI think when people spend more than five minutes with me and have a conversation, they get it. I think they say maybe there\u2019s a little more to this guy than the headlines we\u2019ve seen. It\u2019s been very interesting to see how people perceive me. Be it guys who have played in the game or just fans, they\u2019re like, \u2018Holy crap, you\u2019re a lot different than I expected.\u2019 And I always say, hopefully for the better, right?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bills players and officials all acknowledge that Incognito didn\u2019t walk in the door last year talking loud and giving anyone and everyone the full Richie. He was damaged goods, he knew it, and he took time to learn his surroundings, learn his new teammates and learn from his past mistakes.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m sure Richie\u2019s a lot more careful with what he says and what he texts, and what he tells people on the phone,\u201D Wood says. \u201CI do think he\u2019s a little more reserved now. But guys kind of understood his situation. Still, from the moment he came in, he was a locker room favorite.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Says Ryan: \u201CHe was looked at as a bully, and that\u2019s almost as bad a thing as you can be in today\u2019s culture. But I didn\u2019t believe he was that person and now I know he\u2019s not. He got a second chance and the guy\u2019s making the most of it. I wish I had a whole bunch of Richie Incognitos, and I can tell you I\u2019m super happy I have one.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;h3&gt;\u201CThe ultimate professional\u201D&lt;/h3&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In his St. Louis incarnation, Incognito was known as a bit of an animal. He was labeled a dirty player who went out of his way to inflict punishment, and often seemed to be intent on drawing personal fouls and playing a style of game that bordered on out of control.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI had a reputation in St. Louis and deservedly so,\u201D he says. \u201CI was out to get people, and I was going after people. I was frustrated with losing and being in that whole culture. I even had coaches who were scared of me, just flat-out scared of me.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ironically, his reputation improved with the move to Miami\u2014after a brief three-week stay in Buffalo in late season 2009\u2014and Incognito seemed to have fully harnessed his talents with a Pro Bowl season in 2012 as a Dolphin. Then came the disaster of 2013.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CThe biggest thing that hurt me was, I\u2019ve already done this, I\u2019ve already been through a phase where I had to rebuild my career,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CNow I\u2019m going through it again? But it was kind of unknown territory when the thing was at its hottest. I was like like, wait, what\u2019s going on here?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bills tight end Charles Clay played with Incognito and Martin in Miami, and has a unique vantage point in this saga. He was Incognito\u2019s teammate before the storm of 2013 and all through his comeback season.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI knew both guys and I know what it was like in that locker room,\u201D says Clay early on in the Bills\u2019 sports bar dinner. \u201CFrom the start of the whole deal I kind of felt like things were blown out of proportion, honestly. But the one thing I do know is it humbled [Incognito]. He\u2019s learned from it, and you can tell by the way he deals with everybody on a daily basis. He lost something he loved, and he has a much greater appreciation for the game now. But I tell the young guys on this team, if there\u2019s one guy to emulate, to look at to see how it should be done? You look at that guy. He\u2019s the ultimate professional.\u201D&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incognito\u2019s low point through the whole ordeal, the moment when he faced the reality that his NFL career might never be re-started, came after he spent two days visiting Denver in November 2014 but couldn\u2019t elicit an offer from the still-wary Broncos.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI went up there and I sat there and we talked, and we talked, and we talked, and they decided not to move on it,\u201D he says. \u201CAnd I thought, man, this may be it, you know. This might be my last opportunity. I had pushed all my chips in on it happening in Denver, and then it didn\u2019t happen, and that sense of rejection was massive. I was in a funk for a while, and it was like throwing logs on the fire and the fire just kept burning hotter and hotter. I had no choice but to turn it into motivation.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor, his future Buffalo teammate, saw what fueled that motivation every day as the pair worked out at the same Phoenix-area facility, sharing a trainer in the off-season of 2015. He only knew the caricature of Incognito from media reports, and was pleasantly surprised with what he discovered first-hand.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI never saw anything that stuck out as a red flag in how he treated people at the facility and his fellow players,\u201D says Taylor, who actually signed with Buffalo during free agency about a month after Incognito joined the Bills. \u201CI was pleased with the guy I met, because I had only heard the stories. I didn\u2019t know the Richie before the incident, but I\u2019m pretty sure he learned from the situation and I think that\u2019s made him who he is today. Would you look back and say that needed to happen for him to be the player and the person he is? I think he knows he\u2019s definitely blessed with a second opportunity.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wood likes to tell a story about his friend and fellow lineman that involves an image that just doesn\u2019t fit the persona that got attached to Incognito in the depths of the bullying scandal, when his text messages were filled with coarse and sexually explicit language involving Martin\u2019s mother and sister.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI know that situation made him look to be this terrible person, but he\u2019s not,\u201D said Wood, who along with Incognito has been dubbed \u201CThe Bash Brothers\u201D by some Bills fans. \u201CWe did a birthday dinner for my wife up here last year, and here he is a single guy, and yet he brought a wrapped present. I mean, that\u2019s pretty considerate. I don\u2019t know if I would have done that. We go places and I ask my wife, \u2018What did we get them?\u2019 And Richie brought something wrapped. That\u2019s a really cool gesture.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As much as the blue-collar mentality of Buffalo seems to be the perfect fit for Incognito\u2019s relentless, hard-working approach to the game, it didn\u2019t take him long to learn that he\u2019s still a lightning rod of a figure nationally owing to the bullying saga. He\u2019s back on Twitter these days, and feeling brave enough to send out a pro-Donald Trump tweet earlier this year and attend a Trump rally in Buffalo, which did not go unnoticed.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m a conservative and a Republican supporter, and I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that I\u2019d be a Trump supporter,\u201D Incognito said. \u201CBut I sent the tweet out and, oh, I got crushed. Absolutely crushed. But I\u2019ve got as thick a skin as they come, and I thought it was hilarious.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Incognito admits part of his fascination with Trump is how much he relates to the politician\u2019s gift for surviving in the presidential race despite his glaring lack of political correctness, a clear connection he feels with the candidate given his past.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CTrump\u2019s all over the map and he\u2019s boisterous, he\u2019s everything he shouldn\u2019t be, but it seems like he keeps going and going and going, and when he misspeaks, he gets even more attention and momentum,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CI don\u2019t buy the whole package, and there are some things I don\u2019t agree with him on. But as a whole, I\u2019m a supporter and I believe in him.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As does the Bills\u2019 outspoken head coach, who took the stage this spring to introduce Trump at his Buffalo rally, earning Incognito\u2019s ever-lasting respect.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI think Rex has a huge pair,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CI think Rex is in the same boat as me in that our give-a-s--- factor is very low. I think we\u2019re passionate people and if we believe in something, we\u2019re mentally tough enough that we\u2019ll throw our support behind a guy like that. But there\u2019s definitely some debate in the locker room during an election year. That\u2019s when all the locker room politicians come out. It\u2019s give and take, and me and [fullback] Jerome Felton, we go back and forth. He\u2019s a liberal and he\u2019s got some great points, and it\u2019s fun to sit there at lunch and debate.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Even if it\u2019s for a political debate, Incognito is happy to be back in his favorite place\u2014an NFL locker room. He realizes his actions and his words will forever be on display, picked apart and parsed for any sign of the bully label he has worn since 2013.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CGoing through all that and coming out on the other end, after learning a lot about myself and owning up to my actions, it made me a better person and a better teammate,\u201D Incognito says. \u201CI know this, this is the most solid, most stable ground I\u2019ve been on in my entire life. That\u2019s in life. It\u2019s been a long process of just being comfortable in my own skin again.\u201D&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wherever his teammates are gathered, you can usually find Incognito in the middle of the group. Even his daily ping-pong battles in the locker room are now moments he cherishes.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CI\u2019m like, this is awesome,\u201D Incognito says, catching himself amid a recent game. \u201CThis is it. This is what I missed big time. I missed being around the guys. I\u2019m a guy\u2019s guy. I love hearing all the crazy stories, and telling my stories. That\u2019s the fun part, and I\u2019m going to just relish it all.\u201D\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/06/02/richie-incognito-buffalo-bills-dolphins-bullying-scandal>