Dolphins Forfeit 1st-Round Pick, Owner Suspended For Tampering With Tom Brady, Sean Payton

There's good news and very bad news for the Miami Dolphins on Tuesday.

An NFL investigation into tampering and possibly tanking during the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons and offseason found the Dolphins did not intentionally lose games in 2019. Good for them.

But the investigation also found that the Dolphins willfully tampered with quarterback Tom Brady multiple times when he played for both the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are being sanctioned for that by losing a first-round pick in 2023 and a third-round selection in 2024 while owner Stephen Ross is being suspended by the league until Oct. 17.

Ross is also being fined $1.5 million, cannot attend any league meetings prior to the annual meeting in 2023, and is being indefinitely removed from all committees on which he serves.

Dolphins vice chairman and limited partner Bruce Beal is prevented from attending league meetings the remainder of this year and is being fined $500,000. Beal has a relationship with Brady and was involved in the tampering, per the NFL.

This is what the NFL investigation found:

Today's announcement follows a six-month investigation covering events from 2019-2022 that was led by former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White and a team of lawyers from the Debevoise law firm. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell expressed his deep appreciation to the investigators and then clobbered the Dolphins.

"The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity," 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."

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