The Miami Dolphins’ 2023 first-round and 2024 third-round draft picks will be forfeited, and team owner Stephen Ross has been suspended through October 17 as a result of an investigation into possible violations of league rules pertaining to the fairness of the game.
According to the NFL, the six-month inquiry was headed by former U.S. Attorney and S.E.C. chairperson Mary Jo White and concentrated on two areas. The first focused on whether the Dolphins broke the league’s tampering rules with quarterback Tom Brady and former Saints head coach Sean Payton while they were under contract with other teams; the second examined whether the team purposefully dropped games in the 2019 campaign to raise its draft position.
The Dolphins had “impermissible communications” with Brady in 2019–2020 when he was with the Patriots, according to the NFL’s statement on Tuesday. Brady and the Dolphins once more engaged in “illegal communications” following the 2021 season, when Brady was a member of the Buccaneers.
“Those discussions began no later than early December 2021 and focused on Mr. Brady becoming a limited partner in the Dolphins and possibly serving as a football executive, although at times they also included the possibility of his playing for the Dolphins,” the league said in Tuesday’s release. “Both Messrs. Ross and (Dolphins vice chairman/limited partner Bruce) Beal were active participants in these discussions.”
“Miami did not seek consent from New Orleans to have these discussions, which occurred before Coach Payton announced his decision to retire as head coach of the Saints,” the league said. “Following that announcement, Miami requested permission to speak to Coach Payton for the first time, which New Orleans declined to grant.”
“The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” NFL 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.”
Brady and Payton won’t be subject to league punishment, according to NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport on Tuesday.
Additionally, Ross has received a $1.5 million punishment, has been permanently banned from all NFL committees, and is not permitted to attend any league meetings until the Annual League Meeting in 2023. For the duration of the 2022 season, Beal is prohibited from attending any league meetings and has been fined $500,000.
“With regards to tampering, I strongly disagree with the conclusions and the punishment,” Ross said in a statement Tuesday. “However, 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. I will not allow anything to get in the way of that.”
The investigation got underway after former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who the team fired at the end of the 2021 season, claimed in a federal lawsuit he filed on February 1 that Ross had offered to pay him $100,000 for each defeat he suffered during the coach’s rookie campaign in 2019 because he wanted the team to “tank” in order to obtain the top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Mike McDaniel, a former offensive coordinator for the 49ers, was finally hired by the Dolphins to lead the team.