HENDERSON, Nev. — Richie Incognito, who mentioned he discovered acceptance with the Las Vegas Raiders after a star-crossed and controversy-filled profession as one of many extra bodily offensive linemen of his period, introduced his retirement on Friday.
Incognito, 39, signed with the Raiders in 2019 and performed in simply 14 video games with them due to accidents. He final appeared in Week 2 of the 2020 season.
“It felt like dwelling the minute I acquired right here,” Incognito mentioned in letter posted on the Raiders’ web site, “and I would gotten this ‘unhealthy boy’ repute, nevertheless it simply match with the Raiders. They trusted who I used to be, and so they let me play. And I performed my ass off simply to repay them for the chance.
“I like the Raiders group, and Mr. [Mark] Davis means the world to me. It is why after 4 groups and 15 years, I am retiring a Raider.”
Incognito was a third-round draft decide of the then-St. Louis Rams in 2005 and likewise frolicked with the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Payments. He earned the primary of his 4 Professional Bowl choices with the Dolphins in 2012, however his involvement in a bullying scandal with fellow offensive lineman Jonathan Martin led to Incognito being suspended for half of the 2013 season and he didn’t play in 2014.
He signed with the Payments in 2015 and went to a few straight Professional Bowls earlier than first retiring after the 2017 season, saying his liver and kidneys have been “shutting down.”
In 2018, Incognito was positioned on an involuntary psychiatric maintain after he allegedly threw a dumbbell at an individual in a fitness center and was additionally arrested for threatening to shoot workers at a funeral dwelling the place his late father was being held.
He additionally pleaded responsible to 2 misdemeanors after an incident involving his 90-year-old grandmother.
The Raiders signed him within the spring of 2019 with then-general supervisor Mike Mayock saying on the time, “You possibly can’t have all boy scouts.”
Incognito stayed out of hassle with the Raiders, even when he had a tough time staying on the sphere. He performed 12 video games that first 12 months — he needed to serve an NFL-mandated two-game suspension for the funeral dwelling incident — and earned a two-year, $14 million extension.
However Incognito suffered a season-ending Achilles damage in Week 2 of the 2020 season, and after struggling a calf damage in a joint follow final August, he by no means performed once more. Nonetheless, he was seen as a optimistic affect within the Raiders’ offensive line room as a number of offensive linemen attended Incognito’s retirement media convention.
“He created such a fierce management mentality amongst these younger guys, that he is educating them easy methods to change into soccer gamers and easy methods to change into Raiders,” proprietor Mark Davis mentioned Friday. “That is the factor about being a Raider, they’re badasses on the sphere, however they’re kittens off the sphere.”
Incognito additionally turned a vocal advocate for psychological well being.
“I’ve handled accidents the final two years I by no means had earlier than in my profession,” Incognito mentioned. “My physique informed me it was time, and I knew I used to be prepared to hold them up. And although some in my inside circle may not consider me — I am prepared. There is not any turning again.
“I got here again. I set my mission. I completed my objective.”