The NFL announced Tuesday the conclusions and penalties after investigating the Miami Dolphins for contacting Tom Brady and Sean Payton without permission, in addition to considering purposely losing during the 2019 season, for which they imposed various fines and penalties, including losing a first-round draft pick in 2023 and a third-round selection in 2024.
In addition, the owner of the team, Stephen Ross, is banned until October 17, 2022, so he will not be at the Annual Meeting of the league in 2023 and the committees of which he was a part, in addition to being fined $1.5 million, while vice president Bruce Beal was fined $500,000, all for undermining the competitive spirit of the league.
Stephen Ross was fined 1.5 million for trying to sign Tom Brady and Sean Payton and for proposing tanking in 2019.
The NFL opened two investigations against the team. The first for illegally contacting ( tampering ) personnel from other groups in their attempt to unite Tom Brady and Sean Payton, and the second for suspicions that they were losing on purpose ( tanking).
In the case of Tom Brady, they contacted him between 2019 and 2021, in addition to calling his agent in December 2021 to try to make him an owner, executive, and player in Miami.
In Sean Payton's case, they contacted his agent in January 2022, before he announced his retirement, and since he's still under contract with the Saints, they should have contacted the team first. After the coach announced his retirement, they did so, but New Orleans wouldn't let them.
The tanking case arose after Brian Flores, who sued three teams for racism in the coaching selection process, mentioned in court filings that team owner Stephen Ross offered him up to $100,000 to lose.
On purpose in 2019 to improve his position in the Draft. Miami had one of the worst teams in the league after trading the likes of Minkah Fitzpatrick, and they started 0-7 before winning five of the last 11 games and going 5-11 to finish sixth in the Draft. Payment or that Flores and the team were incentivized to lose. However, the owner told several people that it would be better for the team to focus on improving its position in the 2020 Draft and that the comments about the 100,000 dollars were made in jest and not taken seriously.
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