Comment The NFL has suspended and fined Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and stripped the team of two draft picks for violating the league’s game integrity policies, the league announced Tuesday. Ross was suspended until Oct. 17 and removed from all NFL committees. He was fined $1.5 million, the league said. The Dolphins forfeit their first-round pick in next year’s draft and their third-round pick in 2024. The sanctions stem from the league’s investigation into allegations of tampering and pooling, which was led by Mary Jo White, a former U.S. attorney and chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The investigation began after former Miami coach Brian Flores accused the Dolphins in his racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and the teams of offering him $100,000 to miss games during the 2019 season in an effort to improve his position draft Mary Jo White to lead NFL investigation into allegations of dolphin tanking The investigation found that the Dolphins “had impermissible communications” with quarterback Tom Brady in 2019 and 2020 while he was under contract with the New England Patriots. The team also had unauthorized communications with Brady and his agent, Don Yee, during and after the 2021 season, which the quarterback spent with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and with Yee in January 2022 regarding a client coach, Sean Payton, the NFL said. “Investigators found violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a written statement. “I am not aware of any previous case of a team breaching a ban on interference with both a manager and a star player, to the detriment of several other clubs, over a period of several years. Likewise, I am not aware of any previous case in which ownership has been so directly implicated in violations.” The investigation found that the Dolphins “did not intentionally forfeit any games during the 2019 season,” the NFL said. “Every club is expected to make a good faith effort to win every game,” Goodell said. “The integrity of the game and the public’s trust in professional football demand no less. An owner or senior executive must understand the weight their words carry and the risk of a comment being taken seriously and acted upon, even if that is not the intention or expectation. “Even if they are made in jest and are not meant to be taken seriously, comments suggesting that draft position is more important than winning can be misconstrued and carry with them an unnecessary potential risk to the integrity of the game. Mr. Ross’s comments did not affect Coach Flores’ commitment to winning, and the Dolphins fought to win every game. Coach Flores should be commended for not allowing any comments about the relative importance of draft position to affect his commitment to winning throughout the season.” The Dolphins released a written statement from Ross on Tuesday afternoon. “The independent investigation cleared our organization of any issues related to tanking and all of Brian Flores[’s] other allegations,” Ross said in the statement. “As I have said throughout, these allegations were false, malicious and defamatory, and this matter has now been settled. As for the tampering, I strongly disagree with the conclusions and the punishment. However, I will accept the result because the most important thing is that there are no distractions for our team as we embark on an exciting and winning season. I won’t let anything get in the way of that.”
