Dolphins stripped of draft picks, owner suspended for tampering with Tom Brady, Sean Payton

The Miami Dolphins used “unprecedented” tampering in their failed pursuit of former head coach Sean Payton and star quarterback Tom Brady over the last three seasons, according to an NFL-led investigation. As a result, the league stripped the team of draft picks and suspended and fined owner Stephen Ross.

But contrary to what former head coach Brian Flores had claimed in a lawsuit he filed against the Dolphins and Ross on February 1, the investigation did not turn up any proof that the Dolphins purposefully lost games to increase their draft position.

“Tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity were found by the investigators,” the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated in a statement on Tuesday. “I am not aware of any previous case where a team over a period of years violated the ban on tampering with both a head coach and a star player, potentially to the detriment of multiple other clubs.” Likewise, I am not aware of any other case where ownership was so directly linked to the infractions.
The first-round pick in the 2023 draft and the third-round pick in the 2024 draft will be forfeited by the Dolphins. In addition, Ross has been fined $1.5 million by the NFL and is suspended through October 17. Ross is not allowed to be at the team facility, represent the Dolphins at any team or league event, or attend any NFL meetings before the 2023 Annual meeting while serving his suspension, which lasts through Week 6 of the current campaign. Additionally, Ross will be permanently barred from all NFL committees.

Brady was under contract with the New England Patriots when the investigation revealed that Miami had improper contact with him beginning in August 2019. Investigators discovered that the contact persisted into the postseason and the 2019 season.

The conversations between Brady and Bruce Beal, the vice chairman and limited partner of Miami, were disclosed to Ross and other Dolphins executives, according to the findings of the investigation.

The investigation also came to the conclusion that, both during and after the 2021 season, the Dolphins had improper contact with Brady and his agent, Don Yee. Investigators discovered that Brady had been communicating about “becoming a limited partner in the Dolphins and possibly serving as a football executive, although at times they also included the possibility of him playing for the Dolphins” during this round of conversations, which had started no later than early December of that year. It was discovered by investigators that Ross and Beal were “active participants” in those exchanges.

Investigators also discovered that in January 2022, Yee and the Dolphins had improper communication regarding Payton’s potential appointment as Miami’s head coach. At the time, Payton was the coach of the New Orleans Saints. The investigation concluded that Miami’s improper contact occurred before Payton announced his retirement from coaching on January 25 and that the Dolphins had not contacted the Saints before contacting Yee. At that point, the Saints refused to give the Dolphins permission to speak with Payton.

The announcement follows a six-month investigation headed by a group of Debevoise attorneys and former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White.

Beal has been fined $500,000 and is forbidden from attending any league meeting for the rest of the 2022 season.

In his lawsuit against the team, Flores said that Ross offered to pay him an additional $100,000 during the 2019 season to improve Miami’s position in the 2020 draft by deliberately losing games.

The investigation “conclusively established” that the Dolphins did not intentionally lose games during that year and that no one at the team, including Ross, instructed Flores to lose games on purpose.

The investigation did find, however, that Ross, “on a number of occasions during the 2019 season,” expressed his thought that Miami’s draft position in 2020 “should take priority over the team’s win-loss record.” Investigators found these comments were made most frequently to team president and CEO Tom Garfinkel, but also to general manager Chris Grier, senior vice president Brandon Shore and Flores.

Flores took those comments as suggestions that he should intentionally lose games, so he wrote senior executives at the team, who later assured Flores, according to investigators, that everyone, including Ross, supported Flores in “building a winning culture in Miami.” Investigators found that Ross did not make any similar comments to Flores following that.

As to the alleged offer of $100,000, investigators found “differing recollections about the wording, timing, and context” but “such a comment was not intended or taken to be a serious offer, nor was the subject pursued in any respect” by Ross or anyone else at the Dolphins.

“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 said. “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.”

In a statement posted to the team’s Twitter account, Ross said he strongly disagreed with the tampering punishment but that he would “accept the outcome” so as to not create “distractions for our team as we begin an exciting and winning season.”

Flores said in his own statement that he was “disappointed to learn that the investigator minimized Mr. Ross’s offers and pressure to tank games.”

“While the investigator found that the Dolphins had engaged in impermissible tampering of ‘unprecedented scope and severity,’ Mr. Ross will avoid any meaningful consequence,” Flores said. “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.”