Stephen Ross suspended, Dolphins lose 1st, 3rd round draft picks in tampering case

The National Football League has come down hard on the Miami Dolphins for multiple tampering offenses since 2019. The two major offenses were conducting talks with then Patriots’ and Buccaneers’ quarterback Tom Brady and Saints head coach Sean Payton without notifying their respective teams of the communications.

In the NFL’s statement, commissioner Roger Goodell stated:

The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity. I know of no prior instance of a team violating the prohibition on tampering with both a head coach and a 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

These offenses will carry with them a year’s suspension for owner Stephen Ross and the team will forfeit a first-round selection in the 2023 NFL draft and third-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The only good news to come out of this for the Dolphins is that they found no evidence of “tanking” that former head coach Bryan Flores alleged.