Dan Le Batard: Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross guilty of being human

[Cleetus]

People also seem to forget that Miami beat 4 AFC finalists (New England, Cincinatti, Indy and San Diego) in the course of the season. This team is not the basket case that some fans suggest.

No we are not a basket case but we are nothing more than a mediocre team, and not just last year, for years now. So lets keep the status quo and enjoy another cup of 6-8 wins and no playoffs next year. Then maybe Ross will get fed up and fire Ireland and rebuilding will begin years after it could have.

 

[TheJetsBlow]

This pic is BEGGING for a caption. 'You're gonna fire me? Just remember- I still have those pictures of you with the goat, Steve'.

 

[JTC111]

You realize that Ross is a self made billiionaire and the biggest real estate developer in New York City. Some would be bold enough to consider him a success.

Most guys that do well at one business can do well at others, simply because after the product itself,
it's about all of the same principals.

Just about every NFL owner is a billionaire, or a collective group of multi-millionaires (GB being an exception). That's relevant to one's ability to own a team, but it isn't relevant to one's running a team well. And unless you have some offensive and/or defensive stats on properties, I don't see how running a business equates to NFL success either. There are plenty of very successful business people who have ran failed NFL teams.

You cannot succeed with a guy who quits the team leaving two starters causing havoc with an already crappy line playing as it was with all the commotion and expect to be a playoff team.

Stop using this as an excuse. The O-line was bad before Martin quit. Many of us were screaming about how bad the O-line was during the pre-season ...some even before that. That the O-line sucked during the season was only a surprise to people that weren't paying attention ...and Jeff Ireland.

I find this the most interesting part of the article:
The last two games — two games! — don’t change how good or bad of a general manager he actually is. He’s the same general manager either way.

I agree with that. But Ireland was bad before the last two games. And while there may be a small percentage of people who changed their minds about Ireland after the last two games, there were plenty who recognized his shortcomings long before that. Those last two games are more indicative of how bad a coaching staff might be.

People also seem to forget that Miami beat 4 AFC finalists (New England, Cincinatti, Indy and San Diego) in the course of the season. This team is not the basket case that some fans suggest.

So now we don't just applaud medicrity; we applaud inconsistency as well?

You never will get that number -- all that crowd cares about is their emotional attachments to imagined personalities. They are never concerned with the good of the team or the production of a superior product. This is liberalism at its finest. People's feeling being more important than the quality of the product.

You were fine until you put that last bit in there and made this political. I've been calling for Ireland to go for years and I promise you I'd be a strong candidate for the most liberal guy on here. We're talking football. Personal political biases have nothing to do with this.

 

[whizafriz]

What I saw this year was flashes of hope, but largely just "Inconsistency" in all parts of the game.

Indy was a fantastic win. That was my main glimmer of hope, but some of our other wins were quite ugly despite me still being happy for the team. Cleveland in a nailbiter for most of the game. The Falcons without a lot of players, in a nailbiter. Pittsburgh on a fluke music city miracle that Almost worked. The Patriots without Gronk. Cincinatti losing Geno Atkins mid-game. Chargers in a nailbiter. I'm proud that we won them all, but I also realize that squeaking by each week isn't a formula for long-term success.

Losing to a winless TB team, the Bills twice (once after a BYE, once during playoff hopes), the Jets during playoff hopes, the weakened Ravens, getting manhandled by the Saints on prime-time. These losses weren't "bad days" -- they were Miami's winning gameplans getting purely exposed, and all at crucial times.

Last year we were 7-9. The same inconsistent team. All that means is that it took 1 game sooner for us to realize we weren't getting in the playoffs. It's actually Worse this year because we were in the driver's seat down the stretch, and still blew it.

We're not a Bad team. We're excruciatingly Average; an Any Given Sunday kind of team. I understand that greatness can come from humble beginnings, and it's a slow process to the top, but inconsistency has remained from year 1, and may very well continue into year 3. Many areas of this team have actually regressed since last year. This isn't an elite playoffs team in the making until some serious changes to the team makeup and philosophy occur.

If Ross doesn't want this to continue, he needs to do something about it, not just keep handing out extensions like they're Christmas cards.

 

[royalshank]

People also seem to forget that Miami beat 4 AFC finalists (New England, Cincinatti, Indy and San Diego) in the course of the season. This team is not the basket case that some fans suggest.

This only makes me more pissed off. How do we do that and crap out against buffalo and Tampa?

 

[roy_miami]

This isn't an elite playoffs team in the making until some serious changes to the team makeup and philosophy occur.

Disagree. I believe Philbin's philosophy is the QB is what wins or loses in this league and he's building a team that culminates around that core principle. He's building a team that will stay as even keel as possible, maybe not winning games on their own but certainly not losing games either. If the QB plays well we will win. If the QB plays like **** we will lose. If the QB takes a step up next year, and thats a big if, we can win a lot of games with this philosophy.

Here's an exercise I went through to try to quantify what I'm talking about (its not complete by any stretch and the sample size is relatively tiny but its interesting none the less), win% when the QB has a passer rating of 90 or higher:

Jim Harbaugh: 93%
Joe Philbin: 92%
Bill Belichick: 91%
Marvin Lewis: 90%
John Harbaugh: 81%
Jim Schwartz: 76%
Phillip Rivers coaches: 69%
Tony Romo coaches: 56%
Tony Sparano: 56%

 

[sixzero]

two games! — it looked like Ireland would save his job. The last two games — two games! — don’t change how good or bad of a general manager he actually is. He’s the same general manager either way. But in a lot of markets with different owners, he’d be fired for those last two games.

It didn't matter if we made the playoffs or not. If we won the final two games and lost in the playoffs, we would be demanding for changes from the top.

 

[DeathStar]

LeBetard is actaully very good at what he does.

Yeah...

By far the best in our market

The rest of the clowns are suck ups for the dolphins.

 

[studsatele]

God its depressing to be a fan of this team. Its like being held hostage, but the hostage takers dont want anything, but for you to be a hostage.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Dan Le Batard is entertaining. I like his radio program.

But by his own admission he doesn't really know a damn thing about football. He just likes writing human interest stories about athletes. And that's fine, because his radio show is still pretty funny and I still listen to it sometimes, but I'm pretty sure he knows less about football than my mom.

 

[NorFlaFin]

My read on all this is really simple. Ross is juggling having an incredibly poor reputation due to Harbaugh fiasco, with making a hard decision in the best interest of his investment.

The Wells report gives him cover to make changes that needed and show the NFL community that Ross is not a meddling owner ala Jerry Jones or Daniel Snyder.

Good will goes a long way in the limited circle that is the NFL.

I expect Irish to be shown the door as well some members of the coaching staff. If the report is damning enough than clean sweep might be coming.

 

[Rick Cartman]

The whole torn protagonist angle with Ireland getting on the plane to see Harbaugh is ridiculous. He's been in NFL front offices long enough to know that isn't the procedure in the NFL. If Lebatard's statement is correct, them not wanting agents to get news of their trip is evidence enough they both knew what they were doing was wrong. Jeff Ireland had to get on that plane to keep food on his table for his family? He wouldn't of found another position in the league based on a strong showing of character and loyalty standing up to Ross? The irony is by showing "loyalty" to Ross by getting on that plane, he now has a backstabbing enigma to him that will follow him wherever he goes around the league, who is going to want to work with him now? That won't get put on the backburner until he shows he can produce a winning product.......... good luck with that.

 

[phins_4_ever]

Emotions are emotions. Business is business. The Dolphins fans in south Florida are now emotionless and let business speak for itself. No product, crappy product = no fans in the stands.

Oh yeah, Mr Ross. Loyalty and nepotism does not only exists in the ranks of NFL football employees but also among fans: I convinced 5 of my friends to dump their tickets too. You just lost approximately 30 season tickets in the Prime 400 sections and lower level. It may not be much but it is a start.

 

[TheJetsBlow]

God its depressing to be a fan of this team. Its like being held hostage, but the hostage takers dont want anything, but for you to be a hostage.

That about sums it up.

 

[Mogwai]

Le Batard and his pseudo intellectual detachment from the reality of sports is just so ****ing moving. This is a business. Ross is a businessman. Ireland even having the opportunity is a gift many people in this world would kill for. I'm tired of accountability being viewed as something inhuman. Far from it. If Ross believes this is loyalty he's showing then he is entirely misguided. The greater loyalty should be to the fanbase and the team whose successes and failures affect millions of lives worldwide. Ireland has had ample opportunity. The idea that the Harbaugh pursuit put Ireland in a bad spot is silly since Sparano had no future with this team anyway and Ross was under no obligation to keep Ireland in the first place.