I've been trying to understand the unadulterated hate towards Ross. So I went and did a little research: - Huzeinga hires Parcells. Parcells brings in Sparano & Ireland. That year, the team goes 11-5. - The offseason after 11-5, Ross takes over from Huzeinga as full time owner. At this point, there's no need to do anything about Parcells/Ireland/Sparano cause they just won the East. - Since the football side of the equation seemed to be in good hands, Ross turned his focus to other ways to improve ticket sales. Like celebrity minor ownership and trying to improve the fan experience at the game. There's nothing wrong with that at all. He stepped into a team that had Parcells to take care of all football related stuff, and Ross was to take care of everything else...and he was. - Dolphins go 7-9. Ok it sucked. But there's no need to make a change at this point. This football FO still just made the biggest turn around in NFL history the season before. Making any move here would be an over reaction. So Ross continues as is. - Dolphins go 7-9 again and Parcells is gone. Ok, Ross recognizes that the best coaching prospect is Harbaugh and goes after him. Here's where it gets weird. If you do a Google search for "harbaugh dolphins" you see a ton of articles saying how close a deal is between the two. Then around the second or third page is a couple of articles about the Dolphins taking their offer off the table. That's right, the Dolphins stopped the deal not Harbaugh according these stories. None of them say why. Then comes ole Jason Cole. You know, the same Jason Cole that is NY Jets butt buddies with Mando and participant in HighFiveGate. He blasts into Ross in this article: Link. He basically says Harbaugh told the Dolphins no, because Ross doesn't get it. Now, there are no facts, no actual evidence or any specifics at all in that accusation, other than the ever "accurate" league sources. During this whole time no one is really making that big of a deal that Sparano is still the HC while Ross is looking for a replacement. Now, even if it is a bad thing, this is Ross' first HC hiring attempt. In regular business its not always the right thing to do, to fire someone before you have their replacement. At worst, it was a mistake but one that can easily be chalked up to being new in the business. There has been no verifiable reason for Harbaugh to not be the Miami HC. What is verifiable, however, is that Stanford and the 49ers are pretty close and Harbaugh has been on the record saying that it would nice to stay there. Fast forward to this past year. Sparano gets fired mid season and the coaching search begins in earnest. Sparano was fired early enough to give us a head start on the search. So that was a smart move. Talks are held with Cowher and Gruden. Neither want to unretire. Its been assumed by Jason Cole, surprise, that they were all ready to come back and Ross screwed it up. There is however no evidence of that anywhere. First of all, neither took a HC job anywhere else and secondly, with Cowher its been said he wants the Giants HC job or stay in the studio. Who said that? The Bus, Jerome Bettis. Link (go to point #4). Next up is Fisher. Fisher wants control. Fisher never had control of personnel. Ross isn't willing to pay Fisher with control. Ross backs out of the deal, not Fisher. I wonder what Jason Cole has to say about this: Link Surprise, surprise, he makes it sound like again, a coach turned down Ross for some unspecified ineptitude. So basically, by my count I only see one thing that can be counted as a mistake and that's not firing Sparano before he courted Harbaugh, but that to me is easily forgivable. In know, a lot of people will point to retaining Ireland as GM as a mistake, but to that I say, we don't know that's a mistake yet because we haven't seen it play out. Fact is, Ireland has had only one year without Parcells making the decisions for him. You cannot attribute any bad personnel decision to Ireland before last offseason, because we simply don't know who made what call with Parcells. Except for Pat White, we know for a fact that was Parcells. I'm not saying Ross is a great owner, I'm just saying none of us have seen enough to know if he is or isn't, and the ones that say isn't are holding him responsible for things he wasn't here for or are Jason Cole. To me this all adds up to indifference about him.
FinD, how dare you let the facts get in the way of the media spin and hateful rhetoric around Ross!!!
I've studied this. Here are a couple of other reasons: The University of Miami turned down having a Hurricane Day He brought on minority owners to boost the profile of his team He didn't personally walk into the draft room before he was affiliated with the team and tell them to draft Matt "0 Playoff Wins; 0 Points Scored" Ryan He didn't make Jeff Ireland draft Ryan Mallet who has yet to show anything in the NFL He breaths It's hot The NFL scheduled our games to 4:00 pm Jeff Ireland, who is responsible for Bush, Marshall, Long, Pouncey, Dansby, Davis, Wake, Bess, Hartline, Moore, Wilson, Langford, McDaniel, Starks, Incognito, etc., still works for the Dolphins Tony Sparano is a bad Head Coach
My conclusions why some fans overly criticize him..cause they don't know **** about football, he's a bit uncomfortable in front of a camera, and hes got a funny face. For a first time owner, he's done a good job, has shown passion to bring a winner to our town, and the pockets to close deals.. People who called him names and overly criticized him and who did not putting the job in proper context relative to what he inherited, can piss off..
Because virtually every time he does something, it embarrasses the franchise. The Harbaugh issue has nothing to do with failing to get him, and everything to do with the way it was handled. He tried to hire a coach when he already had one under contract, and then went and kept that coach after he basically undercut him completely and made him even more of a lame duck. He had an inkling what the right decision would have been(firing Sparano, hiring Harbaugh) and then managed to second-guess himself into disaster. The celebrity stuff is ridiculous. No one is going to games, or has any interest in watching some C-List celebrity walk down the "orange carpet". Demographically it makes no sense, there are not people football fans care about, and it's not expanded the market or anything like that. He keeps shoe-horning bull**** into the game experience, and it's awful. He opened a ****ing dance club in Dolphins stadium, that is filled full of bored 20-somethings ringers, and in any lull of the action you've got awful, muffled club music echoing through the stadium. Including during the Jim Mandich Honor Roll ceremony. Very, very rarely does he open his mouth and not say something stupid. We're just lucky he hasn't done serious structural damage to the franchise(yet) as far as we know.
Funny face? Recall my #1 rule of a new hire, the new guy always looks worse then the one who did the hiring... As for Ross, is he hated, or seen as a well meaning bungler? Myself I'm glad he kep Ireland on as I like an involved owner, but not Daniel Snyder involved.
Again, that was his first big football decision. What he did was perfectly acceptable in the non football world. I don't think it did us any harm. This whole "embarrass the franchise" thing is silly too. What does that even mean? It certainly doesn't affect us getting FA's or coaches, so who the hell cares? Its not that ridiculous actually. Miami has one of the most complicated and diverse markets in the US. The demographics are literally all over the place. Of those demographics, Latinos are the biggest and most untapped for American football. Its not random luck that the first to sign up were the Estebans. Did it work? Don't know, it wasn't meant to be an instant marketing success. So there's no way to tell yet.
But Mando reported all that garbage about how we were split on the coaching search and we know his track record is impeccable. And all Ross cares about is bringing in minority owners to offset his financial burden like a good businessman. And there's clearly a conspiracy theory afoot by out front office to ensure that we're a terrible team for years to come because Ireland wants to lose his job and Ross wants to lose money. Can you believe there are people who actually believe this **** and regurgitate it like it actually makes sense. Thank for posting Fin D. But you gotta figure if people are stupid to believe all this garbage they're not going to be smart enough to read your post. Or at least not smart enough to realize you're right.
Ross is a passionate, competitive, caring owner with good intentions who was forced into learning on the fly but IMO has what it takes to develop into one of the league's top owners. I feel fortunate to have him. People that complain about him should spend a year as a Bengal fan. lol.
You know what? No. Im not wasting my time butting heads with the same people when we will never agree. Win a ****ing playoff game. Thats the bar. It aint terribly high. Until then he is Dan Snyder version 2.0
The courting of Harbaugh looked stupid bc I think (assuming) Ross thought he could quietly talk to Harbaugh while keeping Sparano, without the media getting wind of it. That was dumb. I'd guess he just underestimated how easily people would find out. Rookie mistake. The celebrity owners. Corny, but I get what he was trying to do. Get people who aren't really football fans into the Dolphins. Dumb, but I get it. Aside from that he's done nothing wrong other than not taking a public speaking class or 4. People will always look for something to complain about either way. Ross is just an easy target at the moment. We start winning a few games or even putting together an impressive offseason and you'll be able to hear a rat pissing on cotton. Minus the contrarians who're just looking to stand out against the grain.
It's easier for a lot of people to look at things as simply as possible. Even if it's not right from a logical standpoint.
Alot of its more about 1) fans needing someone to blame 2) ross not doing exactly what they think he should(ego) 3) people being to easily embarassed. The sparano thing was wrong. He should of at least came out during the harbaugh thing and said he's not recruiting anyone. But other then that the celebrity stuff, the new coaching search (where they were surprisingly thorough), the games moving, etc.. screams to me to be part of the 3 reasons I listed.
If you were criticizing a coach and saying "win a f'in playoff game" then I could understand. Hell, if you were criticizing a GM and saying "win a f'in playoff game" I would disagree with you in principle but would understand where your frustration was coming from. But putting that on an owner, not to mention an owner who is not actively involved in talent acquisition, is plain ridiculous. Even if you don't like Ross for whatever reason, calling him Dan Snyder 2.0 is short sighted and foolish. Unless by Dan Snyder 2.0 you mean an upgrade that doesn't give 100 million dollar contracts to out of shape players, doesn't trade away entire drafts worth of picks for subpar talent and doesn't give huge guaranteed FA contracts to unproven guys...in that case, yes I agree with you.
In fact thinking about it ross brought in who? the williams sister, you know those crazy non celebrity athletes who owned the top 2 tennis spots for the past years, gloria estefan who you know has sold 100 million albums, marc anthony who has won latin grammies and sold millions of albums, etc. I don't even think you can say he brought in b list celebrities.
Pfft...you clearly underestimate the ability of some to completely disregard all facts, logic, and accepted universal truths in their quest to make a "point"
I feel that alot of fans need a face to blame for the state of the franchise.With so many players that have come and gone and so many coaches too for that matter in the end ,fair or not all that's left to critique is the man at the top. Winning is the only way to change the perception .
No, it's not really acceptable in the non-football world, and there's really no grounds for him to not have known not to do that. Because no one has expressly come out and said that they wouldn't join the team because our owner is a dumbass, it doesn't mean that is the case. It's deeply ridiculous. It's not asinine to court the latino market, it's ridiculous to think it's going to happen because of a news blurb and Gloria Estefan appearing in cheerleading clips on the big screen.
Great post and I totally agree! Remember though there are a few who must take a negative stand no matter what ........... you will never change their minds even with the truth!
In a word...bullsh|t. In the business world you do not fire the head of a department and just leave it unmanned until you find the right person to take it over. It really is that simple. Especially if you are targeting one person in particular. I think what you and many other people refuse to understand, is that Ross wasn't looking to replace Sparano last year with anyone. He specifically wanted Harbaugh. In his estimation, at the time, it was every other available coach was not that much better than Sparano. Think of it like this. Say you have Gruden. He's a damn good coach, but let's say Chuck Knoll is available, do you just fire Gruden in hopes you'll get Knoll? No, you don't. It wasn't until this season was out of control did he fire Sparano because now it was about Sparano being ****ty, not about their being the perfect coach available. Not understanding the difference is because of emotional bs not logic or reason. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. So because there's not a stitch of evidence it affected us or hurt us in any tangible way, you expect me to believe it did hurt us, because....because....um....you said so? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Again, you have no idea the the entirety of their plan. I work for a small marketing firm. The first move to appeal to a demographic is to recruit people who lead that demographic. It is to build, OVER TIME, a recognition. The thought wasn't that, "Hey, we got Gloria Estafan, ergo all the Latinos will love us." It was more about, "Hey Latinos, Gloria Estafan is the part of the Dolphins, so maybe when we start winning and making positive press you might be more inclined to pay attention and start caring a little bit about this version of football." But hey, celebrity involvement never works, that's why big companies like Nike never use them...... Thanks for setting us straight!
Happens every day and while some may consider it ****ty business it is accepted. If it wasn't the NFL it wouldn't be a story. More speculation. Let me know when you have a direct quote from soemone on this. Is putting a hispanic face to ownership much different than advertising? http://adage.com/article/hispanic-m...hispanic-ads-boosts-marketers-revenue/230456/
I was going to respond to this, but Fin D did a very adequate job and I agree with him on all accounts. The only thing I would add is that not only is bringing in celebrity minority owners an attempt to bring in new fan demographics, it also helps Ross to alleviate some of the financial burden of owning a major league sports team and having to pay the salary of 53 men and two dozen coaches. By doing so he helps himself to help the organization by being able to spend more money on free agents which will ultimately (in theory) help us to become a winning franchise again. It's smart business. Oh, and please read this sentence out loud to yourself and see if it makes ANY sense at all. If so, you may be further gone than we thought.
He requested the NFL make the change, he explained that it "was too hot for the fans" (which is a bull**** ***** excuse given the fact that if you're willing to live down here you are willing to endure the godawful summer). The problem with that is it takes away our homefield advantage as it is hotter at 1PM, when it feels like the sun is right next to you, than it is at 4PM.
The problem is, this year it seemed like the other teams had the advantage of the heat instead of the Dolphins for whatever reason. The Miami home field advantage has always been to the Dolphins except for this year. Was it conditioning or was it practicing in the Bubble? Who knows.
It's not the first time its happened. The media pounced on it when someone said Cowher frowned upon it....
No one on this team should be sucking wind on the field on opening game Its the opposing team that is supposed to feel like they are going to pass out because of the heat, NOT US. I want opposing teams to hate coming down here because of the godawful heat and humidity, not think "Hey its not so bad down here."
I do think Ross justifiably is to blame for the whole Harbaugh fiasco, he did go after a coach without firing Sparano first that was clearly not a good idea. He also extended Sparano which I wasn't in favor of but as a whole he isn't a terrible owner. I am glad he didn't give into Fisher, I don't think Fisher's track record warrants a say in the GM selection and personnel, that was crazy and I'm glad he didn't do that. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a guy that makes a few PR mistakes versus a guy that micro manages and has a hand in every personnel decision like a Jerry Jones. He isn't a great owner but he doesn't deserve a lot of the senseless criticism he gets from fair weather fans and media idiots.
On celebrity owners, Danny Thomas ring any bells? Ross is just going back to the roots of the organization.
No, not bull****. If you want to be Ross' White Knight that's fine, but it doesn't make a lick of sense when we know for a fact we've been turned down because we had a head coach under contract. If you want to pretend like there wasn't a bunch of buzz painting how the Dolphins went about the last two years of the coaching staff as embarrassing and poorly done, that's fine, but most everyone else remembers. Typing out an excessive number of "ha's" does not really absolve you from any burden of proof here. I've got plenty of articles written to the effect of it being embarrassing and unprofessional. Do you want me to link them? I do, because it's been what, four years now? And their most notable name is a woman who was last popular among white people 15 years ago?
