Dolphins owner suspended, team loses draft picks for Brady, Payton rigged

The NFL announced Tuesday that an independent investigation found the Miami Dolphins had improper communications with Tom Brady and former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.

As a result, the league is stripping the Dolphins of their 2023 first-round pick and their 2024 third-round player for violating their game policy integrity.

In addition, the NFL is suspending Miami owner Stephen Ross through Oct. 17 and fined him $1.5 million. The league is also removing him indefinitely from all committees and banning him from attending NFL meetings until the league’s annual meeting in 2023.

The investigation found the Dolphins manipulated Brady both during his contract with the 2019-20 New England Patriots and after his 2021 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Miami also broke league rules through its communications with Payton in January.

“Investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scale and severity,” said Commissioner Roger Goodell. “I am not aware of any case where a team has broken a ban on manipulating both a head coach and a star player over a period of several years, potentially to the detriment of several other clubs. Likewise, I am not aware of any instance of property being so directly involved in the violations.”

The NFL also fined Dolphins vice chairman/limited partner Bruce Beal $500,000 and banned him from attending league meetings for the remainder of the 2022 campaign.

However, the league found no evidence to support former Dolphins coach Brian Flores’ tanking allegations.

Flores said he declined an offer of $100,000 a game to refuel during his first season with Miami. The investigation revealed that the offer was not serious or accepted.

“Every club is expected to make a good faith effort to win every game,” Goodell said. “The integrity of the game and the public’s trust in professional football require nothing less.

“An owner or officer must understand the weight that his or her words carry and the risk that a comment will be taken seriously and acted upon, even if that is not the intention or expectation. While this is done in jest and is not intended to be taken seriously, comments suggesting that draft position is more important than winning can be misconstrued and introduce unnecessary potential risk to the integrity of the game.

Goodell continued, “Mr Ross’ comments didn’t affect Coach Flores’ commitment (to win) and the Dolphins struggled to win every game. Coach Flores is to be commended for not allowing comment on the relative importance of the draft position to spoil his commitment to (wins) throughout the season.

Ross said the independent investigation cleared the Dolphins organization of “all fuel-related issues and all other allegations by Brian Flores.” However, Ross expressed his disapproval of the investigation’s findings of tampering.

“However, I will accept the result because the most important thing is that there are no distractions for our team as we start an exciting and successful season,” he said in a expression.

The penalties imposed on the Dolphins are final and will not include any appeals process.

Meanwhile, Flores said he was grateful the investigation corroborated his claims but discouraged by Ross’ punishment.

“I am disappointed to learn that the investigator minimized Mr Ross’ offers and the pressure on Tank Games, particularly as I wrote and submitted a letter to Dolphins executives at the time expressing my serious concerns about this issue to the time documented that the investigator has in their possession,” Flores said in a statement obtained by NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

“While the investigator determined that the Dolphins engaged in improper manipulation of ‘unprecedented scope and gravity,’ Mr. Ross will avoid any meaningful consequence. When it comes to the game of football itself, there is nothing more important than the integrity of the game. When the integrity of the game is questioned, the fans and football suffer.”