Sometimes Stephen Ross just doesn’t know how to get out of his own way.
Here he is, on the verge of seeing his team become relevant for the first time in the last 20 years, and he has to go run his mouth about the problems of the last few years.
No one wants to hear him lay blame for the Miami Dolphins’ more recent failures on the head of former head coach Tony Sparano. Those days are over, and the team is on to a new chapter of its history. To revisit the past in an effort to demean one person while uplifting oneself comes off as petty, and crude.
Ross went on the radio Friday afternoon just hours before the 2013 NFL Draft got underway, and rather than talking about the new stadium proposal (the planned topic), Ross chose to boast about how good his organization was running, claiming it was at its best since the days of Don Shula.
This may be true, but he then went on to take credit by saying it was because he, along with Jeff Ireland, had picked Joe Philbin to be the head coach.
Ross then pointed out that hiring Sparano was not something he had been involved with, and that the former coach had run the organization into the ground. Ross claims Sparano was offended when the team owner went to talk with Jim Harbaugh about coaching the Dolphins, and that Sparano could never get over it.
It makes little sense for Ross to be coming out and making these comments now. The Dolphins are finally putting together something worth being proud of, and it’s the wrong time for the owner to come out and clear himself and Ireland of any wrong doing over the past several years, while blaming Sparano for everything that went wrong during his tenure as head coach.
Clearly, Sparano was not the answer at coach for Miami, but Ross and Ireland carry their fair share of the blame for those years, too. Ross must truly believe the people are idiots if he thinks he can just point at Sparano as the bad guy and then have the community welcome him with open arms.
There are still fans everywhere calling for Ross to sell the team and for Ireland to be fired. No amount of finger pointing or name-calling will change that.
Ross seems to think that because he is fielding a better football team, he can convince everyone he is a good guy and that he is one of the people now. The thing is, his team only looks better right now. The new roster has not seen the field yet, and there is no telling what type of product he will put on display this fall.
Ross wants to be loved by the fans of his Miami Dolphins, but he has a long ways t o go. It will take more than a couple of roster changes and a bit of former coach-bashing to get fans to forgive the past; and even if they do forgive, they will surely not forget.
Jeff Everette is a NFL columnist for www.RantSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter @jeverettesports, “like” his page on Facebook, “Trust” him on Sulia, or join his community on Google+.
