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The NFL is docking the Dolphins two draft picks and temporarily suspending owner Stephen Ross following the league’s investigation into allegations that the franchise engaged in tampering and violated the “integrity of the game.”
The discipline comes after former Dolphins coach Brian Flores said that Ross tried to get him to recruit “a prominent quarterback,” later identified as Tom Brady, in his lawsuit against the team and NFL that alleged racist practices in hiring. Flores also claimed that Ross offered him a $100,000 bonus for each loss during the 2019 season.
Following the league’s investigation, Miami will forfeit the club’s first-round selection in the ’23 NFL draft and its third-round pick in the ’24 NFL draft. Ross is suspended through Oct. 17, ’22 and will not be allowed to be at the team’s facility or represent the club at any team or NFL event during the period of his suspension. He will also be fined $1.5 million.
The punishments come after the NFL investigated the two separate accusations levied against the Dolphins, the first of which was whether Miami violated the league’s tampering rules by engaging in conversations with Brady and Saints coach Sean Payton while the two were under contract with other franchises. The league found that the team had “impermissible communications” with Brady during 2019 and ’20, while he was under contract with the Patriots, and again after the ’21 season, while the seven-time Super Bowl champion was with Tampa.
Dolphins minority owner Bruce Beal, who was considered to be Brady’s primary point of contact with the Dolphins, will also be fined $500,000 and banned from league meetings for the rest of the year.
The investigation also uncovered that the Dolphins engaged in “impermissible communications” with Don Yee, the agent of Sean Payton, about having Payton become Miami’s coach while he was still under contract in New Orleans.
“The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “I know of no prior instance of a team violating the prohibition on tampering with both a head coach and star player, to the potential detriment of multiple other clubs, over a period of several years. Similarly, I know of no prior instance in which ownership was so directly involved in the violations.”
The NFL’s investigation also addressed whether or not the Dolphins intentionally lost games during the ’19 season and whether Ross offered Flores financial incentives to improve the club’s draft position for ’20.
The league found that Miami did not lose games on purpose and that Ross never explicitly instructed Flores to do so. While the NFL acknowledged that Ross expressed his belief to other executives that the Dolphins should prioritize ’20 draft position over their ’19 win-loss record, the league deemed that any comment to Flores that implied he would receive $100,000 to lose games “was not intended or taken to be a serious offer.”
“An owner or senior executive 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 intent or expectation. Even if made in jest and not intended to be taken seriously, comments suggesting that draft position is more important than winning can be misunderstood and carry with them an unnecessary potential risk to the integrity of the game,” Goodell stated. “The comments made by Mr. Ross did not affect Coach Flores’ commitment to win and the Dolphins competed to win every game. Coach Flores is to be commended for not allowing any comment about the relative importance of draft position to affect his commitment to win throughout the season.”
Ross released a statement shortly after the NFL’s ruling, saying that he will “accept the outcome” of the investigation, despite “strongly disagreeing with the conclusions and the punishment.”
“I will accept the outcome because the most important thing is that there be no distractions for our team as we begin an exciting and winning season,” he wrote. “I will not allow anything to get in the way of that.”
Flores and his attorneys also released a statement regarding the league’s investigation into his claims.
“I am thankful that the NFL’s investigator found my factual allegations against Stephen Ross are true,” Flores wrote. “At the same time, I am disappointed to learn that the investigator minimized Mr. Ross’s offers and pressure to tank games especially when I wrote and submitted a letter at the time to Dolphins executives documenting my serious concerns regarding this subject at the time which the investigator has in her possession.
“There is nothing more important when it comes to the game of football itself than the integrity of the game. When the integrity of the game is called into question, fans suffer, and football suffers.”
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