NFL suspends Dolphins owner for tampering
The NFL has suspended Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and fined him $1.5 million for tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton following a six-month investigation stemming from Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit against the league.
The league’s investigation found the Dolphins did not intentionally lose games during the 2019 season but the team had impermissible communication with Brady and his and Payton’s agent, Don Yee. The league announced the findings of the investigation on Tuesday.
The Dolphins will forfeit a firstround selection in the 2023 NFL draft and a third-round selection in the 2024 draft. Ross is suspended through Oct. 17.
“The investigators found tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “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.”
The investigation concluded the Dolphins violated the league’s antitampering policy on three separate occasions. The Dolphins had impermissible communications with Brady as early as August 2019 through the 2020 postseason, while he was under contract to the New England Patriots.
Alonso surprised the team Monday when he informed Alpine he’ll move to Aston Martin next year. Alpine needed just one day to announce it would promote its 21-year-old budding talent to race alongside Esteban Ocon in 2023.
But the Melbourne that’s not happening.
“I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year,” he wrote on Twitter.
Alpine’s news release had not included any comments from Piastri. There has been speculation that the current F2 champion was working on a better deal with another team.
In Alpine’s announcement, team principal Otmar Szafnauer said Piastri is “a bright and rare talent” who is “more than capable of taking the step up to Formula 1.”
Aston Martin on Monday signed the 41-year-old Alonso, a two-time world champion, to replace Sebastian Vettel, who announced his retirement last week. Alonso’s contract with Alpine was ending this season.
It’s been a hectic six days of F1 “silly season” that opened ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix with Vettel announcing he’ll retire at the end native said