The Dolphins were smacked with substantive penalties, including the loss of draft picks, by the NFL on Tuesday following a league investigation into tampering charges against the organization.
However, those penalties will not extend to Tom Brady and Sean Payton, whom the Dolphins spoke with despite their being under contract elsewhere, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The NFL found that Miami had impermissible contact with Brady while he was under contract to the Patriots in 2019 and ’20 and again after the ’21 season, when he was under contract to the Buccaneers. The league also determined that the Dolphins made impermissible contact with Payton, who was under contract with the Saints. Nevertheless, the league apparently views the case as closed after punishing the franchise, according to Rapoport.
Miami reportedly wanted to lure Brady and Payton to the team for the 2022 season, but scrapped the plan when former coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit against the Dolphins, Broncos, Giants and the NFL that contained damaging allegations.
“The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday in a press release. “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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