Report: Martin Depressed, Contemplated Suicide Due to 'Bullying'

The independent investigator the NFL hired to investigate the Jonathan Martin-Richie Incognito incident released his report on Friday, and it found that Martin admitted to having a history of depression and mental issues since high school and contemplated suicide on two occasions because of the harassment that he dealt with with the Dolphins.

According to the report: 

Martin came to view his failure to stand up to his teammates as a personal shortcoming. According to Martin, the mistreatment by his teammates and his inability to make them stop the insults drove him into depression and led him to contemplate suicide on two occasions in 2013. Martin noted that in his four preceding years at Stanford, before he arrived at the Dolphins, he had no significant issues with depression and experienced no suicidal thoughts.

Martin, according to the report, even confided in Richie Incognito, his alleged tormentor, about his suicidal thoughts and blamed it on his poor performance. He sought counseling, and he told his coaches and parents. His mother visited him in Florida and told him to get a dog. Martin also did not feel comfortable with his doctor because, according to the report, he was unsure about whether the doctor would tell the Dolphins about how Martin felt about his teammates. Martin did not want to be labeled as a “snitch.” 

The investigators concluded that though there was a temporal connection between the “bullying” and the suicidal thoughts, they could not determined whether Martin’s assertion that the “abusive conduct” was at the root of his suicidal thoughts:

We are not, however, in a position to evaluate Martin’s assertion that the abusive conduct of his teammates was, in fact, the exclusive triggering cause of his depression and contemplation of suicide. We lack the factual information necessary to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Martin’s mental health issues and their root causes. In addition, we advised Martin’s counsel that, given Martin’s ongoing mental health counseling and the NFL’s intention to make this Report public within a few months, it was not practical for us to try to unravel the specific triggering causes of Martin’s onset of depression and suicidal thoughts.