Mar 25, 2015Former Dolphins’ Athletic Trainer Sues Team
Kevin O’Neill, former Head Athletic Trainer for the Miami Dolphins, has filed a lawsuit against the club, claiming he was made the scapegoat and fired amid the fallout from the Jonathan Martin bullying scandal.
As reported by WPTV, O’Neill alleges that he was let go following the NFL’s investigation into what Martin had claimed was a bullying culture. After the investigation, when the Dolphins found the league’s 144-page Wells Report to be flawed, rather than challenge the findings, O’Neill claims the team chose to fire him instead, hoping to silence critics who were looking for someone in the locker room to blame.
O’Neill, who had worked in the league for 25 years and won the Tim Kerin Award for Excellence in Athletic Training in 2013, is seeking compensation, claiming his reputation and good name were destroyed.
“He has been very diligently attempting to find work as an athletic trainer on the professional level, the college level, and even at the high school level, and he has been completely and entirely unsuccessful,” Jack Scarola, O’Neill’s lawyer, told the Palm Beach Post. “He has clearly been stigmatized by what the Dolphins have done to him.”
