The NFL found that Bruce Beal Jr. had “numerous and detailed” discussions with Tom Brady about joining the Dolphins after the 2019 season.
The NFL found that Bruce Beal Jr. had “numerous and detailed” discussions with Tom Brady about joining the Dolphins after the 2019 season.Davis, Jim Globe Staff
The new Celtics ownership group that has agreed to purchase the team from the Grousbeck family for $6.1 billion has several local ties. And one already has received an endorsement from perhaps the biggest star in Boston sports history.
Former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady posted a picture on his Instagram story on Friday of himself with new Celtics minority owner Bruce Beal Jr. Beal was wearing a Celtics hat and Brady was smiling while holding one.
“The Boston boy is an owner of his Boston team,” Brady wrote before sharing his congratulations, with the Dropkick Murphy’s anthem “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” providing the background music.
Beal is part of the investment group led by Bill Chisholm, a Georgetown native, that is expected to take over majority ownership of the Celtics after the deal is approved by the NBA. Beal, who is also vice chairman of the Miami Dolphins, is a longtime friend of Brady’s, and their connection previously led to them being embroiled in an NFL controversy.
In 2022, an NFL investigation into tampering charges found that Beal had deliberate “impermissible communications” with Brady as early as August 2019, around the time Brady signed a revised contract with the Patriots.
The league found that Beal had “numerous and detailed” discussions with Brady about joining the Dolphins after the 2019 season. It was also determined that Beal and Brady spoke in 2021, while Brady was under contract with the Buccaneers, with discussions centered on Brady joining the Dolphins as an executive, and possibly even playing quarterback.
Beal, president of the real estate developer Related Companies, and Brady are longtime friends who have attended the Kentucky Derby together. It’s unclear whether Beal believed their conversations crossed a line, but the NFL left no doubt in its findings.
The league came down hard on the Dolphins for its tampering violations, which also included contact with then-Saints coach Sean Payton. Owner Stephen Ross was fined $1.5 million and suspended for three months, and Beal was fined $500,000. The team was also stripped of its 2023 first-round draft pick and 2024 third-round choice. Brady faced no disciplinary measures.
Nevertheless, it appears from Brady’s Instagram post that his friendship with Beal has endured, and that he is eager to see Beal now help lead his hometown team that Brady has also supported over the years, most famously when he was part of the 2016 delegation that tried to recruit Kevin Durant to sign with the Celtics.
Beal’s Boston connections, meanwhile, run deep. In a statement to the Globe after news of the sale broke on Thursday, the longtime Celtics fan and Harvard graduate recalled attending Game 7 of the NBA Finals at Boston Garden after a business associate of his father’s, the prominent Boston real estate developer Bruce Beal Sr., gave the family tickets to the Celtics’ win over the Lakers. Larry Bird was named Finals MVP that day.
“It was the best day ever,” Beal Jr. said.
In 1986, Celtics owners Don Gaston, Paul Dupree Jr. and Alan Cohen put 40 percent of the team up for sale as limited partnership shares to the general public. Shares were initially listed on the New York Stock Exchange that December, priced at $18.50.
“I proudly used the money I made from summer landscaping to buy about 20 shares,” Beal Jr. said. “It was the first stock purchase I ever made.
“Fast forward to today, it’s come full circle: I’m a Dad to three diehard Celtics fans. With our eldest son in school in Boston, and the time I spend at Related Beal, where we have invested and built so much around the Garden and throughout Boston, it still feels like home.”
Shirley Leung of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.