Tom Brady Contact Earns Dolphins Owner NFL Suspension

MIAMI, FL — The NFL has fined and suspended Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and docked two draft picks from the team at the conclusion of a six-month investigation stemming from accusations in a lawsuit filed by former coach Brian Flores, the league announced Tuesday.

The NFL found that the team had violated league tampering rules in talking with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton at various points between 2019 and 2022.

The Dolphins will lose a 2023 first round pick and a third-rounder in 2024, and Ross will be suspended through Oct. 17 and fined $1.5 million.

Ross' suspension will run through Week 6, and he'll be eligible to attend the Dolphins' home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 23. He will be banned from team facilities and all league events until the suspension is up, and he won't be allowed to attend any league meeting until the Annual Meeting in 2023. He also has been removed from all league committees indefinitely.

The Dolphins were accused of pressuring Flores to violate NFL tampering rules and lose games intentionally in a racial discrimination lawsuit he filed against the team and the league in February.

Through Dolphins vice chairman and limited partner Bruce Beal, the team had impermissible contact with Brady during and after the 2019 season, when he was under contract with the New England Patriots. Beal kept Ross and other team executives updated on these efforts, the league said.

Both Beal and Ross were involved in impermissible communications with Brady beginning in December 2021, near the end of his second season in Tampa Bay. The talks centered on Brady becoming a limited partner and team executive, but the possibility of playing for the Dolphins was discussed at some point, according to the league.

The league also found that the team had impermissible communications with Payton while he was still under contract with the Saints in January 2022. The Dolphins didn't reach out to the Saints to ask permission to contact Payton until he announced his retirement, which New Orleans declined to grant.

Beal was fined $500,000 and is banned from attending league meetings until the end of 2022 season.

The league did not find enough evidence to issue punishments on Flores' tanking accusations.

The Dolphins did not intentionally lose games, and no one with the team told Flores to lose games, the league said.

Flores accused Ross of offering him $100,000 for each loss, but the NFL did not see it that way.

Ross told team leadership, including Flores, that the Dolphins' 2020 draft position should take priority over its 2019 win-loss record. The league says Flores took that as a suggestion to lose games and wrote senior leadership about his concerns. Club executives assured the coach that Ross and others in the front office supported his efforts to create a winning culture, according to the league.

Regarding the alleged monetary offer to lose games, the NFL said there were "differing recollections on the wording, timing and context" of the comments and that any offer was not serious or pursued by Ross.

Ross released a statement Tuesday calling Flores' accusations "false, malicious and defamatory."

"With regards to tampering, I strongly disagree with the conclusions and the punishment," Ross said. "However, I will accept the outcome because the most important thing is that there be no distractions for our team as we begin an exciting and winning season. I will not allow anything to get in the way of that."

Flores said he was thankful his accusations were found true by the NFL's investigation, he added he was disappointed "the investigator minimized Mr. Ross's offers and pressure to tank games."

"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."