“Done.”

That was the message Buffalo Bills guard Richie Incognito sent via Twitter, signaling the end of his 11-year career.

Go figure. Thrown off his college team, released by the St. Louis Rams and the Bills (in 2009), Incognito rebuilt his career with the Miami Dolphins, only to be suspended for the second half of the 2013 season for his party in a bullying scandal involving a teammate.

He sat out the following season, then joined the Bills and made the Pro Bowl in each of his three seasons.

Incognito was, as they say, no angel. A police report in 2013 said he harassed a female volunteer at a golf teammate and he once destroyed an expensive sports car and then sent out pictures of it. He fired his agent a week ago, announcing it on Twitter, after the Bills told him he’d have to take a pay cut to stick around. It was take it or leave it.

Ultimately, he left it. He said doctors had told him stress was destroying his kidneys and liver and “I’m done.”

If he’s serious about the damage to his health, then he’s making the right choice. He’ll be 35 in July and the rest of his life is ahead of him. You could also wonder if he’s not squeezing the Bills a bit. They’ve lost center Eric Wood to a neck injury that caused him to retire and traded left tackle Cordy Glenn.
They’ll now be going forward without three members of an offensive line that was the key to Buffalo leading the league in rushing each of the last two years.

What is Incognito really thinking and doing? That’s a question that has been asked since he got tossed from Nebraska’s team, endured his half-season suspension and subsequent year-long blackballing and the Bills’ demand to reduce his compensation after his third straight Pro Bowl.

We may not have heard the last of Incognito, who has never, ever, lived up that last name.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman