The Oakland Raiders were primed and ready for the backlash when they made the decision to announce the signing of controversial guard Richie Incognito on Tuesday.
General manager Mike Mayock was certainly ready as he defended the decision.
“You can’t have all Boy Scouts,” general manager Mike Mayock told reporters Tuesday upon signing the 35-year-old lineman, according to Vic Tafur of The Athletic.
Incognito sat out the year in 2018 and has had a multitude of problems that included him throwing weights at somebody at a gym, threatening to shoot up a funeral home, one arrest that resulted in him needing a psychiatric evaluation.
“We’ve done a one-year ‘prove-it’ deal with him,” Mayock said. “‘Prove it’ means both on and off the field. There’s some expectations he’s got to meet in both areas. He turns 36 in July. We think he’s gonna be a good football player and allow himself to compete for the left guard job. And just as importantly, he’s got to prove it off the field.”
Incognito was also accused of directing racial slurs at Yannick Ngakoue of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2017-18 postseason.
“We had a one-on-one meeting with the door closed, where I asked him specifically what he would need, not only to be a good football player but to be a really good human being,” Mayock said. “We went through a lot more of that than we did the football.”
Incognito is expected to compete with Denzelle Good for the Raiders’ starting left guard position.
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