NY Times reporter pens column explaining he is not a bullied Miami Dolphins lineman

Unfortunately for New York Times politics reporter Jonathan Martin, he shares his name with the Miami Dolphins lineman who recently recently left the NFL citing teammate bullying as his reason.

Since that sports scandal became national news, Martin the reporter has been on the receiving end of an avalanche of both nasty and encouraging tweets from football fans. He wrote a column for the Times Wednesday about his offbeat experience:

At first, I found the confusion quite amusing. So did my family ...

As the story has intensified and misplaced 140-character assaults have piled up, though, the misunderstanding has lost some of its charm. I feel bad for my fellow Jonathan Martin — lord knows what his Twitter feed looks like — but the whole affair has also been a reminder about how ugly discourse can be on the Internet. During campaign season, nasty, even abusive, emails and Twitter messages are standard fare for political reporters. Partisans (or, in this case, fans) say things online they would never contemplate saying to the face of a stranger, let alone one the size of the brawny Jonathan Martin. As one person said in a message to me this week, it is “keyboard courage.” ...

What I have not done yet is send a Twitter message to the other Jonathan Martin. So, Big Jonathan, you have my best wishes. This, too, shall pass. You will surely be representing our name again on the field soon.

A look at the different Jonathan Martins...

Football player Jonathan Martin:

Reporter Jonathan Martin: