The Dolphins Got Off Extremely Easy By The NFL

After six months of investigating the Miami Dolphins for tampering, the NFL has made their ruling on the team.

The team is playing the price for the actions of team owner Stephen Ross and vice-chairman Bruce Beal.

Their conversations to lure Tom Brady and Sean Payton to Miami before their contracts were expired led to tampering charges.

However, the Dolphins and their leadership dodged a bullet with other allegations.

The allegations of tanking for a top draft pick didn’t have enough evidence to warrant punishment.

But the team, Ross, and Beal all suffered from their tampering with Brady and Payton.

Dolphins Lose 2023 First-Round Pick And 2024 Third-Round Pick

With the team violating the NFL’s policy on tampering with players and coaches, the Dolphins lost two draft picks from those actions.

The Dolphins will lose their first-round pick next year and a third-rounder in 2024. Also the following punishments for Stephen Ross and Bruce Beal: pic.twitter.com/p0c2P5F8gJ

— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) August 2, 2022

While losing a 2024 third-round pick isn’t that bad, losing their first-round pick in 2023 is a serious blow.

However, the team still has a first-round pick for 2023, thanks to a trade with the San Francisco 49ers back in 2021.

So the trade from last year’s draft at least saves them a first-round pick for next year’s draft.

But even with that draft pick, losing their own pick could be important, depending on how they finish this season.

While the Dolphins’ only scratch were those draft picks, it could have been worse had the tanking allegations stuck.

Those allegations would have given the NFL a reason to strip even more draft picks from the Dolphins.

However, the punishment for Ross and Beal is where the NFL went soft.

Ross’ Punishment Is $1.5 Million Fine And Suspension Until October 17

With the allegations of tanking and offering Brian Flores money to tank games, Ross is lucky to escape with only a $1.5 million and short suspension.

However, that punishment was only light because of the NFL didn’t have enough evidence to collaborate Flores’ accusations.

But the league still went soft on the suspension time, which keeps him away from all team events until October 17.

The NFL found that the Dolphins met with Tom Brady on 3 occasions
They've fined the owner $1.5m, suspended him until October 17 and stripped the Dolphins of draft picks

Now. If the Dolphins spoke with Brady, that means Brady also spoke with them

Where's his sanctions?
#FinsUp pic.twitter.com/jPWVfBIfh0

— N.P.O Sports (@npo_sport) August 3, 2022

The league is also preventing him from attending league meetings until the 2023 annual meeting.

While he’s hit with a large fine and short suspension, Beal got off with less than Ross.

With Beal being the guy doing all the legwork for this, it’s shocking that his punishment wasn’t more severe.

Beal Escapes With $500,000 Fine Despite Spearheading Talks With Brady

While Ross plays a huge role in tampering with Brady and Payton, Beal was the guy that started the conversation with Brady.

With that it mind, he’s lucky to get a $500,000 fine for his involvement in tampering with Brady.

However, the league didn’t punish him more while he kept Ross briefed with all his talks with the seven-time Super Bowl champion.

But they are keeping suspending him from attending any league meeting during 2022.

While that’s something, it’s a small price to pay for his role in violating the rules of the NFL.

With the Dolphins and leadership facing these punishments, they are very lucky the other allegations against them didn’t yield an even worse punishment.