Jonathan Martin 'Had Problems Accepting Rigors Of NFL', Says Source

Jonathan Martin, the Miami Dolphins football player, who abruptly left the team after accusing teammate Richie Incognito of bullying him, was a product of a privileged private school education including Stanford University, and was unaccustomed the rigors and grind of football of the NFL, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting.

The offensive lineman played high and played football at an elite private school in southern California, Harvard Westlake, and Martin then continued to play and continue his education at Stanford.

"It's no secret that Stanford absolutely coddles their athletes, and Jon was a product of that environment, no question. It was an absolute shock for Jon when he got to the NFL,"  a source tells RadarOnline.com exclusively.

"Most of his football career Jon had been told what an extraordinary athlete he was, and there wasn't a lot of criticism of his playing technique. So when Jon starts his NFL career with the Miami Dolphins, it's now the real world, The offensive line coach for the Dolphins is in his players' faces, telling them to work harder, and at times, in terms that he has never heard before," the source says. "For the first time in his football career, he lost his starting job with the team. It had never happened to Jon before, he suffered a setback in the real world, and clearly had problems accepting it."

RadarOnline.com broke the story: Incognito — indefinitely suspended by his team for allegedly bullying Martin — has suggested the Stanford graduate had privately expressed concerns he was going to be cut from the team before he made the sensational allegations.

It's now been reported that the 30-year-old has turned over information to the National Football League that his legal team believes shows Martin to be a troubled player both on and off the field.

Incognito’s lawyer, Mark Shamel, previously told RadarOnline.com that Martin “raised concerns with Richie Incognito that he was not playing well, about how upset he was at being ranked by Pro Football Focus, as among the worst lineman in the NFL, about his poor performance on the field, his demotion to right tackle and how he was concerned about what the outcome might be for his missing team meetings and, about how he felt his job was at risk. It was only after sharing these concerns and Martin’s abandonment of the team, that the bullying allegations were raised. Rather than deal with his poor performance on field performance and myriad other issues, Martin is now hiding behind false allegations. The result undermines the real problems of bullying and demeans what is a very real problem for many young people.”

He also apologized for his behavior, RadarOnline.com has been told.

However, according to Shamel, Martin also sent inflammatory text messages to Incognito.

“The coarse and unacceptable comments and text messages that were sent to Jonathan Martin were of the same poor taste as those sent by him,” the lawyer, from the firm Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, said.

“All of these communications were provided to Ted Wells and the NFL investigation. What they show is banter between friends, not bullying. Jonathan Martin sent text messages to Richie Incognito which included threats to send someone over to Richie Incognito’s home with a ‘tranquilizer gun and sandpaper condoms’ to homosexually rape him. Jonathan Martin sent another that said he would ‘kill (Richies’s) whole family.’ There was another where Jonathan Martin indicated he would ejaculate in Richie’s face.