Colin Cowherd claims Tom Brady forced Sean Payton to retire - “I’m going to do TV for a year”

Colin Cowherd recently made a bold claim about Tom Brady and Sean Payton.

Brady and Payton nearly became quarterback and head coach for Miami this season in an infamous power play by the quarterback and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. As the story goes, Brady and Ross hatched a plan for the former to retire and become a minority owner of the Dolphins before having his rights as a player acquired. Payton was then to become the head coach.

There was one problem. The plan was a flagrant violation of the Rooney Rule. The rule requires NFL teams to conduct at least one interview with a person of color during the hiring process for diversity purposes.

Former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores cut that off by implicating Ross in a class action suit against several teams for racist hiring practices. Flores also went after Ross for various aggressions towards him that he deemed racist. The aggressions included getting him to tank a season as well as tampering with Brady in the 2020 free agency period with the goal of having Flores fired at the end of it.

Colin Cowherd said on the latest episode of The Herd that Tom Brady forced Payton to retire because he was sick of losing to the top guys in the league:

"I mean, don't kid yourself. Sean Payton's smart. Why do you think he retired? You looked around at Tom Brady, you looked around at the top eight, nine, 10 quarterbacks in the league and thought, you know, I've lost enough in this league. I'm going to do TV for a year, then pick my spot."

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Stephen Ross' suspension from the Tom Brady tampering story

Stephen Ross paid dearly for devising a plan with Tom Brady that ended up disrespecting a rule proudly put into place by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Ross is suspended through October 17, 2022. During that time, he cannot be at the Dolphins' facility and cannot represent the club at any NFL-sponsored event. Ross is banned from going to any league meeting prior to the Annual Meeting in 2023. He's been removed from all league committees indefinitely, and was fined $1.5 million in the process.

So far, the Miami Dolphins are doing fine in the absence of their owner. Miami came away with a spectacular 21-point comeback victory against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2.

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If you use any of the above quotes, please credit The Herd, and H/T Sportskeeda.