I think the RI saga has been beaten to death and unfortunately small aspects of it are what people will hold on to to "justify" their indignation and or lack thereof.
As we continue to get new and exculpatory information this issue clearly becomes more and more about whether people in cloistered populations are allowed by the outside world to set their own set of mores and whether they can extend extraordinary dispensation. I say they can BTW and FWIW if they can't in another persons expectation a far more egregious offense than insensitivity that resembles forceful domain is being perpetrated.
The greatest focus has become on a racial reference that has become taboo to the extent that is referred to as "the N word" ( as if referring to it that way somehow sanitized or inoculated the user from summary judgement in the effort to prove a negative).
It occurs to me that Martin and Incognito had a racial "understanding" reportedly Martin laughed about the fateful voice mail ,so if true the question becomes : IF it is OK for people of color to refer to one another with the N-word ,DO THEY also have the "right " to allow someone else to call them that and conversely to playfully use racially insensitive terms toward the other persons race as a sign they DON'T hold animosity toward the other because of their ethnic differences? Cuz see it becomes more apparent to me that could have been part of their relationship.
I find it curious that Riley Cooper was pilloried for his use but the outrage faded quickly even though he clearly wasn't using it in any way someone might construe as intimate interaction ,but here where someone who was the direct target of the word did not recoil ,reportedly laughed,the black players ON THAT team, who are closer to the situation, know far more than others and may well be extending those extra ordinary dispensations are being "called out" for their lack of outrage (happened last night on Inside the NFL).
In the end I think what went down between these guys really isn't OUR business,we will never know enough to make completely defensible judgement .
I hear they are arranging a summit twixt Richie and Johnathan's "camps" so we might be treated to a kiss and make up here,dunno.
Just saw Ryan Tannehill claim Richie was Martin's best friend on the team in an interview on NFL network.
Once again , not our /my business.