What the fines handed down by the NFL mean to the Miami Dolphins
By Brian Miller
The NFL saw fit to fine the Miami Dolphins and specifically Adam Gase earlier this week for injury report infractions. What does that mean?
On Thursday the NFL fined the Miami Dolphins $30,000 and head coach Adam Gase was fined $15,000 for violating the NFL’s rules regarding how players are listed on the injury report. The incident in question is a month old.
Heading into the team’s home game against the Chicago Bears, Adam Gase listed quarterback Ryan Tannehill on the injury report as having practiced in full. Then issued listed him as questionable later in the week. The problem as it appeared was that Tannehill didn’t actually practice much if at all during that week.
A week before against the Bengals, Tannehill injured his shoulder late in the game and that effected his velocity and power on his throws. The Dolphins gave up 28 points in the 2nd half to lose to the Bengals after leading by almost 21.
Tannehill has not played since the Bengals game but the Dolphins have not placed him in the IR list. He has what is being referred to as a capsule injury that will take time and rest to heal. The problem however was how it was listed on the injury report.
Brock Osweiler started his first game against the Bears and Miami won the shootout in overtime. The Bears were not happy with the way the reports was presented.
Miami now has to be a lot clearer on their reports so avoid further discipline from the league so the long-term issues should not be something Miami needs to worry about. So long as players are listed accordingly.
In New England this has been a point of contention for a lot of NFL fans who clearly see the Patriots avoiding what the injury report is supposed to be for. Listing players that are not really injured is really a directed shot at the NFL. The Patriots have previously been fined for doing what the Dolphins did before Chicago. Now Tom Brady is on the injury report each week regardless of whether he is injured or not.
Call it a lesson learned of sorts. Adam Gase will be more forthcoming in the future. At least now it is over and the Dolphins didn’t lose any draft picks and in reality the fine wasn’t really that big considering the amount of money that was involved.