The Sports Xchange

The NFL ruled that the Miami Dolphins did not violate the league’s tampering policy in signing free agent defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, according to multiple reports Tuesday.

The controversy stemmed from details of Suh’s deal with the Dolphins being revealed before the official start of free agency in March. According to the rules, teams cannot agree to contract terms with a player until the free agency period begins.

Suh signed after free agency began and received $60 million guaranteed, including a $25.5 million signing bonus, as part of a six-year, $114 million package that makes him the league’s highest-paid lineman, passing Houston’s J.J. Watt.

The Detroit Lions, Suh’s former team, never logged an official complaint against the Dolphins.

Suh said he believed all along that he would remain in Detroit.

“I thought at every single point through the process that I was going to be in Detroit,” Suh said after signing with the Dolphins. “Even after they didn’t do the franchise tag … I still felt just a great, great chance of me still being in Detroit. So it wasn’t until really, really late, late in the process is where I was like, ‘Wow, I got to, I actually got to start thinking outside of Detroit.'”