Dolphins owner Stephen Ross says the team's bullying scandal was about race. (USATSI)
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross says the team's bullying scandal was about race. (USATSI)

It's been over two years since the Miami Dolphins were investigated for a bullying scandal that led to the firing of an offensive line coach and a suspension for offensive lineman Richie Incognito.

After a two-month investigation that started in November 2013, Ted Wells -- yes, the same Ted Wells who looked into Deflategate -- concluded that Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey all "engaged in a pattern of harassment directed" at former Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin.

After the Wells report was released in February 2014, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross called the scandal "disturbing," while also promising to make organizational changes. One of those changes came in 2015, when he created The Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality, a group that aims to "advance race relations and drive social progress."

If the group would've existed in 2013, it might have been able to help the Dolphins, because Ross said this week that race was the biggest factor in the bullying scandal.

"This bullying incident was really a product of racism," Ross said, via the Palm Beach Post.

It's an interesting statement that not everyone's buying. Although Incognito's white, the other two players who were named in the Wells report -- Jerry and Pouncey -- are black. Martin is also black.

So is Ross pinning the racial blame on Incognito?

Long-time Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero doesn't seem to be buying Ross' statement.

Whatever the issue was in the Dolphins locker room, it cut deep.

In an interview with Bleacher Report this week, Incognito said he'd have "absolutely nothing" to say to Martin if he saw him right now and that there's "no" way to bridge the gap between the two men.

On Martin's end, the former NFL lineman said that playing in the NFL led him to "multiple suicide attempts."

So was it racism? Only the players in the Dolphins locker room during the 2013 season know for sure, and they're not talking.