The NFL announced Tuesday that they’re suspending Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and the team will forfeit a first-round selection in the 2023 NFL draft and a third-round selection in the 2024 NFL Draft after the investigation into tampering allegations.
Ross, who is suspended through October 17 and has been fined $1.5 million, would soon release a fiery statement on how he disagreed with everything that has been alleged.
Ross is not allowed to attend league meetings until March 2023. The full findings of the league’s investigations into the team’s attempts to acquire quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Sean Payton include “tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” per commissioner Roger Goodell.
“The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “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.”
Reports surfaced early in the offseason of repeated attempts by Ross to bring Brady to Miami as the team’s quarterback and/or minority owner. The move was expected to represent a package deal with Payton but fell through in the wake of Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit against them.
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The punishment handed down to Ross, Beal and the organization is meant to “deter future violations and safeguard the integrity of the game,” per the league’s ruling.
In the end, Flores may have gotten fired, but he got the last laugh.