Warren Sapp says Richie Incognito called him ‘the N-word’ in a game

The Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin situation took on a racial aspect when a voicemail Incognito left for Martin included a racial slur.

Now Incognito, who is white, has been accused by Hall-of-Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp of calling him a racial slur during a game.

Sapp was on "The Dan Patrick Show" when he relayed the story.

"One time he kicks me in a game and calls me the N-word," Sapp said. "I looked at him and said, 'Oh you want me to punch you in the mouth so they kick me out of the game?'"

Sapp said he told Incognito that he had another plan, that he would sack the quarterback so often he'd get Incognito cut. Sapp and Incognito played against each other in the regular season once, on Dec. 17, 2006 when Sapp was with the Raiders and Incognito was a rookie with the Rams. Both players started that game. Sapp had one sack.

Patrick doubled back and asked Sapp to confirm Incognito used a racial slur during the game, and Sapp said he did. (Incognito also used the term during a weird bar rage that was shown on a video posted by TMZ this week. He says it after calling out teammate Mike Pouncey's name, and it doesn't seem he is using it as a slur toward him.)

"I looked at him and said, 'Really? That's all you got?'" Sapp said.

Sapp, who was laughing during Patrick's questions, said he wasn't offended.

"No. Come on," Sapp said. "That's a term of endearment where I'm from."

"Yeah, but if a white guy calls you that ... " Patrick said.

"Come on, in a football game?" Sapp said. "He only wants to get me kicked out. He don't want to fight. Because the only thing he got to do is call me after the football game, just come over to the locker room and say it after the game. Now we've got a real situation."

The racial aspect of the saga took a fairly ridiculous turn when the Miami Herald posted a story titled "Richie Incognito considered black in Dolphins locker room." In it, three black Dolphins players are quoted as saying they don't think Incognito is a racist, and the Herald's Armando Salguero wrote this passage:

Well, I've spoken to multiple people today about this and the explanation from all of them is that in the Dolphins locker room, Richie Incognito was considered a black guy. He was accepted by the black players. He was an honorary black man.

And Jonathan Martin, who is bi-racial, was not. Indeed, Martin was considered less black than Incognito.

"Richie is honarary," one player who left the Dolphins this offseason told me today. "I don't expect you to understand because you're not black. But being a black guy, being a brother is more than just about skin color. It's about how you carry yourself. How you play. Where you come from. What you've experienced. A lot of things."

If you didn't think the Incognito story could get much weirder, it just did.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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