Fired Dolphins trainer from bullying scandal also has issue with Ted Wells

Despite angry teleconferences in which he argued vehemently otherwise, as deflate-gate went on it became clear that Ted Wells was far from the independent investigator the NFL wanted everyone to believe he was.

This wasn't Wells' first project with the NFL, and Tom Brady wasn't the first NFL person to feel wronged by one of his reports.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Dave Hyde wrote a column that is particularly intriguing after Brady saw his four-game suspension overturned in federal court. Former Dolphins trainer Kevin O'Neill was fired in the wake of the Wells report on the bullying scandal in the locker room that involved Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito. He says it's because he refused to answer questions about players' medical histories after being asked to illegally turn over their records. 

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The column says O'Neill was asked to give players' medical records to Wells' team, but he said Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) forms were not signed by the players. O'Neill knew Wells had the medical records anyway when he started asking specific questions about medical history during O'Neill's interview, the Sun-Sentinel said

"I said, 'You guys are attorneys, you shouldn't be asking me about this, and I can't answer it without proper documentation,'" O'Neill told the Sun-Sentinel.

O'Neill cut off the interview there, Hyde wrote. Wells said in his report that O'Neill didn't cooperate (that sounds familiar, doesn't it?). O'Neill was fired. He won an award as NFL's trainer of the year two days later.

O'Neill also told Hyde that key information wasn't included in the report (that sounds familiar, doesn't it?) such as Martin allegedly punching an assistant trainer and Martin's medical history not being given much weight in the report. Martin recently admitted to suicide attempts.

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O'Neill sued. The Sun-Sentinel reported that a Palm Beach County judge ruled that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell "can appoint an arbitrator to rule on O'Neill's lawsuit against the Dolphins, owner Steve Ross and coach Joe Philbin." O'Neill is considering his next legal move. Former Dolphins offensive line coach Jim Turner, also fired in the aftermath of Wells' report, re-filed a defamation lawsuit against Wells and his law firm this week, the Sun-Sentinel said.

O'Neill hasn't been able to get another athletic training job for 18 months, he said.

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