On his trip to visit then-Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh when Tony Sparano was still the team’s coach: “I got blasted for Harbaugh. He turned out to be a pretty darn good coach. It wasn’t like I was looking in the wrong direction. Everyone said, ‘This guy doesn’t know what he’s doing.’… I learned a lot. I knew this guy would be a great head coach. We have one now.” Ross criticized former coach Tony Sparano: “The way Tony reacted to [the Harbaugh interview] damaged the whole organization. He could never put it behind him. I don’t think he was right head coach for Miami Dolphins. I didn’t hire him. We’re a much better organization today than then.” By the way, Ross openly questioned Sparano's coaching decisions around confidantes. He thought Sparano's teams played below their talent level. Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/sports-buzz/#storylink=cpy
I listened to that portion of the interview, and I wouldn't characterize it as a blast. He was candid about it sure, but he didn't seem to have ill-will towards him.
The 1st paragraph that I posted from the Miami herald article caught my eye: "Everyone said, This guy doesn’t know what he’s doing." I'm assuming that he was referring to Sparano. To me Sparano is kind of like Wannestedt, as in it's amazing that he got the Dolphins HC job and surprising that he got the Jets and Raiders jobs after his underwhelming performance here. Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/sports-buzz/#storylink=cpy
Ross criticized former coach Tony Sparano: “The way Tony reacted to [the Harbaugh interview] damaged the whole organization. He could never put it behind him. I don’t think he was right head coach for Miami Dolphins. I didn’t hire him. We’re a much better organization today than then.” That's stupid. How else would you expect him to react.....
Just unnecessary. You don't see Mara or Tisch roasting Jim Fassel. Be an organizational leader with dignity, Ross.
Whether the comments were smart or not, I'm sort of glad to know he felt about the guy the way any sensible person would feel about him. Hopefully that means we won't go through **** coaches like the Dolphins did under that last ******* owner.
Ross is a very very intelligent man, after meeting Sporano he must have been confused, in football a guy with an IQ 2 points lower than a stick can became the face of the organization, this would never happen in business.
For THE last time, it is fairly commonplace in the non NFL world to recruit talent to replace a guy on the payroll. It was his first real move in as full owner. Acting like he **** in the holy water at St. Peter's is emotional chicken crap.
Dolphins owner says Tony Sparano 'damaged the whole organization' [video=youtube;Bp6gaB-YmVA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Bp6gaB-YmVA[/video] I just couldn't resist!
In my personal opinion....Ross should rise above that. There was no reason to make Sparano even a story.
He could have probably dodged answering which is what I think others would suggest he do. I'm at peace with what he said.
If this is how Ross really felt about Sparano he should have fired him right after the Harbaugh thing fell through NOT give him a contract extension. Would have made more sense to let him go right there.
Agreed, but I think that Ross went from the "walking on eggshells" mode that he alluded to to "screw you" mode. Should Ross have made the comments? Probably not. Does he feel better, having made them and getting it off his chest? Probably. Do I blame him for making the comments? No. Sparano should have shut his pie hole and just been happy that he was still HC and ended up getting another year's salary out of the gig. Ross, in hindsite, probably should have fired his a** after Sparano threw his post harbaugh tiff. My guess is that Ross felt a bit emascualted, in retrospect, by kissing Sparano's a** in the first place after the Harbaugh fiasco. Now he's owned the team longer and is more sure of himself as an NFL owner, I would guess. So he's venting, which is probably healthy and cathartic. Lets' face it- if any coach got screwd down here it was Don Shula when he got fired/replaced. Sparano deserved nothing more than a foot in his a** as he was shown the door.
If you heard the interview, it really wasn't a total slam on Sparano. Ross was asked about Harbaugh, and because of connections from Michigan, Ross went to San Francisco just to talk, however Harbaughs agent leaked that we were coming, to give himself leverage in negotiations. After chatting with Harbaugh, Ross left without even making an offer, because Harbaugh told him "look, I want to stay out here, don't even bother offering me anything". That's when they extended Sparano... The quote says that Ross blamed Sparano, but as soon as he said Sparano couldn't let it go, Ross said "look I like Tony, I think he's a great guy, but he just wasn't the right coach for the Dolphins"... If there's anything all of us can agree on, it's that Stephen Ross' comment is right on point and I'm glad he had the balls to talk honestly for 1 1/2 hours on live local radio, it was a great interview and anybody with access to pod casts should listen to it. I've been a Ross critic, but this interview made me like him.
I always loved that Ross made to go after Harbaugh..best coach ever...tried to protect him thru the process but dolphin fan likes to jump to conclusions without giving a fair platform and time frame for which we can judge legit success or failure.