Dolphins owner Stephen Ross today confirmed the NFL report on the Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin workplace harrasment scandal will come out after the Super Bowl and he believes he knows some of the contents of the report.
"The report will be released after the Super Bowl," Ross said. "I have an idea what will be in it. I've been in communication with the NFL. I've spoken with [NFL investigator} Ted Wells who is handling the investigation.
"I haven't seen the report. I don't know exactly it's conclusions. I believe based on my conversations that ... well, let's put it this way, I don' want to really speculate. When it comes out, we'll do what has to be done but we've already ... in my mind I know what direction we're going. Stay tuned."
The Dolphins seem aware of what direction they will have to go to answer the report and that raises the following possibilities:
Incognito will not return to the team. He is a free agent and will not be re-signed by the Dolphins. It's also unlikely Martin will return to the Dolphins.
"I don't believe so," Ross said about the return of the players. Then he changed course.
"Well, I can't say that. I retract that statement so therefore I can't say that. I never said that," he said.
Too late, he soon learned.
"It's been tweeted?" he asked. "One is a free agent by the way and the other is on our roster, we claim right to him."
The reason Ross doesn't want to say publicly Martin won't return to the Dolphins is because the Dolphins will try to trade him. If the Dolphins say he's not coming back, Martin's value will be lessened. Of course, the entire NFL knows Martin isn't going to return to a locker room full of players who didn't show any fondness for him for leaving them during the season.
It is possible Dolphins offensive line coach Jim Turner could be implicated in the report. Turner obviously had direct interaction with Martin and Incognito on a daily basis. And the Dolphins seem to be guarding against a Turner suspension or loss of some kind by the recent hiring of former Houston Texans OL coach John Benton.
As you may recall, Ross said he would visit Martin during his press conference first addressing the scandal. That visit has not happened.
Ross also named a hurrily assembled committee to make recommendations on setting up guidelines on the locker room and workplace culture for the Dolphins. That committee has not met nor scheduled a meeting.
Interestingly, Martin has done a sitdown interview with Tony Dungy on the matter and it will air tonight. The timing is not what the NFL wants. And Dungy is part of the Dolphins committee.
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