Sights and sounds from Dolphins' Ndamukong Suh press conference

Suh, GM Dennis Hickey, EVP of Football Ops Mike Tannenbaum and owner Stephen Ross all got in on the action. Joe Philbin was there too.

By Jared Dubin

Mar 11, 2015 at 5:17 pm ET • 3 min read

Ndamukong Suh's record-setting deal with the Miami Dolphins finally became official on Wednesday. It's a six-year contract that will pay him $114 million, with $60 million of that sum guaranteed in the first three years. The Dolphins held a press conference to announce the historic signing, where some mighty interesting things were said and seen.

Things got off to an interesting start with GM Dennis Hickey.

Dennis Hickey says Suh was named most charitable US athlete in 2011.
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) March 11, 2015

Well, OK. This is likely connected to Suh's $2.6 million donation to the University of Nebraska, but I'm not sure how it's relevant to the signing. More Hickey:

Dennis Hickey: "Playing against him from the other side, we know how much you have to alter your game plan."
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) March 11, 2015

Then Suh spoke about why he signed with the Dolphins, how excited he is to play in Miami and his time in Detroit.

Suh: "This is obviously a great day. ... And there's many more to come after that."
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 11, 2015

#Dolphins DT Ndamukong Suh said he really enjoyed his time in Detroit and their great team and fans. But he's looking forward to Miami.
— James Walker (@JamesWalkerNFL) March 11, 2015

Suh: "I would say money was the most important factor" in making this decision.
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) March 11, 2015

Suh on his rep: "For me being misunderstood is people having their opinion and sticking with that instead of getting to know me."
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) March 11, 2015

Suh says he has a lot of respect for Ryan Tannehill. "He's taken my hits."
— Andrew Abramson (@AbramsonPBP) March 11, 2015

A few thoughts: This has to be the first time in history a player admitted that money was the biggest factor in his signing; it's also the 100,932,928,928th time a player said he enjoyed his time with the previous team he played for; and it's good to know Suh tested out Ryan Tannehill before he signed with Miami.

Side note:

You can barely hear Suh with all the camera clicks
— Andrew Abramson (@AbramsonPBP) March 11, 2015

Who still takes pictures with cameras that make noise? Just use your phone.

Next up to speak was EVP of football operations Mike Tannenbaum.

Mike Tannenbaum says "we're very comfortable" with our macro-economic process of the cap going forward.
— Armando Salguero (@ArmandoSalguero) March 11, 2015

Good to know. In case you're curious, here's Miami's year-by-year cap situation, not including Suh's massive deal.

Last up was Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who spoke about Suh's penchat for dirty plays, the size of the contract and any possible NFL investigation into their dealings in the three-day "legal tampering" period.

Ross on Suh's background: "People learn from their mistakes."
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 11, 2015

Ross: "The more I read about him & learned about him, the more I told Mike, 'Look into it.'"
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 11, 2015

Ross said he's confident his team has broken no NFL rules in the pursuit of Suh.
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) March 11, 2015

Ross: "I can only spend so much. I want to win. If we didn't have a cap I'd spend more."
— Andrew Abramson (@AbramsonPBP) March 11, 2015

Looks like Ross was a big factor in the signing, and it's interesting that he mentioned the cap and what he would spend if there wasn't one, given Chip Kelly's comments about how football isn't baseball ("We'd love to keep everybody if we could pay everybody but it's not baseball. We're all limited by a cap number.") earlier on Wednesday.

And finally, there was the group shot: