How the Dolphins’ punishment for tampering with Brady and Payton could be a good thing for Tua | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Senior NFL Writer Charles Robinson and The Athletic’s Arif Hasan discuss the sanctions handed down by the NFL following their six month investigation into Miami’s alleged tampering with Bucs’ quarterback Tom Brady and former Saints’ head coach Sean Payton, as well as team owner Stephen Ross allegedly financially incentivizing tanking to former head coach Brian Flores. Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
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CHARLES ROBINSON: Number one, the Tom Brady retirement was [BLEEP]. Like, it just, it's all aired out now. Like, that was total garbage.
ARIF HASAN: Yeah. Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: We know what was going on now. And Tom kind of playing it off was just BS. So that was one thing I thought was interesting. Number two, the fact that Tom Brady and Sean Payton are not getting hit in this, which, I mean, who typically doesn't get hit in an investigation? The collaborators, right?
ARIF HASAN: Right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: So I don't know what they did or what Don Yee, their agent did to kind of remove them from the blast radius of this, which I think is really interesting. And then, the third thing-- you know, you lose a first round pick, and you know, Tua-- it kind of helps Tua a little bit.
ARIF HASAN: [LAUGHS]
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right?
ARIF HASAN: Yeah, you thought about that.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right? You're like--
ARIF HASAN: That's perfect. Yeah. [LAUGHS]
CHARLES ROBINSON: It takes a draft asset off the table they could have used to either draft another-- or package--
ARIF HASAN: Right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --to replace Tua. And in a weird way, it might sort of help him potentially get an extra year. Because now, they don't have to first round picks to play with in what's going to be a strong quarterback draft.
ARIF HASAN: Right, yeah. I mean, and that was kind of one of the things that-- not that Tua was particularly at risk in this year's draft, or anything like that. But the weakness of that quarterback class, I think, was kind of one thing that kind of helped motivate the Dolphins to be like, yeah, we'll see what it's like when Tua doesn't have, like, 80 RPOs to work off of the game. So--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right.
[LAUGHTER]
ARIF HASAN: So you know, I think, I don't know if Tua is singing about this. I don't know if that's how he views it. But certainly, I think that he should at least pop some champagne.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. You've got to be-- you know, you're sitting there. And you're like, OK. Well, so my former head coach, Brian Flores, tried to replace me with a guy who had oodles of civil suits, you know, pending against him.
And he tried to replace me with that guy. And then, my owner tried to replace me with a dude who-- granted, he's the GOAT. But he's also in his mid-forties, right?
ARIF HASAN: Right, yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: You know, you're probably like, all right. Well, at least it was Brady, you know? At least it was-- you know--
ARIF HASAN: Right, yeah. [LAUGHS]
CHARLES ROBINSON: --on the field, Deshaun Watson's a pretty good player. So at least they're trying to replace me with high level guys. But it can't be the best feeling on earth to know that--
ARIF HASAN: Right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --both the owner and the former head coach were trying to figure out how they could supplant Tua.
ARIF HASAN: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of the on-field potential of Tua. I wrote a recent article about that, actually. But by all accounts, Tua is, like, a phenomenal human being, right?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Oh, yeah.
ARIF HASAN: Like, just a wonderful guy. And I just, I feel bad. [LAUGHS] This is like--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, he's going through it.
ARIF HASAN: Constantly gets roped into this sort of thing.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. I don't know that anybody really deserves this, to be honest.
ARIF HASAN: Yeah, exactly.
CHARLES ROBINSON: So--
ARIF HASAN: Yeah.
