Jonathan Martin, the offensive lineman at the center of the 2013 Miami Dolphins bullying scandal, retired earlier this summer. Martin offered up a few thoughts on his career and his time in football on Monday morning, including a quickly-deleted tweet that put a different spin on his decision to quit.
Martin, who was picked up by the San Francisco 49ers for a year after leaving Miami, was projected as a contributor for the Panthers this season. But Martin was facing back surgery to continue in the NFL, and ultimately decided to retire.
"Gonna miss football," Martin tweeted. "Was always my dream to play in the NFL. Proud to say I did it, the right way, even if for not as long as I wanted."
As Black and Blue Review, a Panthers news site, noted, Martin tweeted then quickly deleted a followup: "But, in the end, football was just a job, albeit a fun and well-paying one. Being in a wheelchair at 50 isn't worth any amount of money."
That tweet will bring plenty of criticism from the NFL-is-life tough-guy set, but it's impossible to ignore the larger implications: that Martin, like an ever-growing number of NFL players, is taking the long view of his life in connection with the damages that the game can inflict. The team shows an interest in the player during his viable playing time; it's up to the player to care for himself in the decades afterward.
Obviously Miami was not included in that gratitude. Martin clashed with then-teammate Richie Incognito on multiple occasions, and a later report (prepared by the same Ted Wells who helmed deflate-gate) did not exactly burnish Martin's reputation in the league. Incognito, meanwhile, after sitting out of the NFL for a year, is working for a second chance with Rex Ryan's Buffalo Bills.
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