Dolphins’ Ross Courting Cowher?

The title you have probably seen already, you could have seen it last year after the Miami Dolphins finished 7-9 or you could have read it yesterday when CBSsports.com reported that Stephen Ross, through an intermediary has contacted people associated with Bill Cowher.

And here we go again.

The media will cling to anything and everything and it only further stands to destroy the fraying thread that is still holding this team together in some way, shape, or form.  Tony Sparano knows his days are numbered and all he seeks now is to leave Miami with what dignity he can take with him and hopefully a couple of wins at seasons end.  If he makes it that long.

This new report however will undermine an already fragile relationship that Sparano has with the Dolphins front office and it’s un-popular owner.  The worst part?  The rumors are likely not even close to being true.

Reality is sometimes so different than what is reported and if you notice in any of these reports, no one will specifically name a name and their so called source is someone “close to the situation”.  Janitors are close and so are temp secretaries.  I’m not buying it.  Not yet.

The common speculation is that when the season is over Stephen Ross will in fact formally contact Bill Cowher and will likely throw a boatload of money at him to bring him to Miami.  But he isn’t doing that in week 6.  Ross may be naive when it comes to the coming and going of NFL business but he isn’t going to make the same mistake he made last year with his courtship of Jim Harbaugh.  Sorry, he simply isn’t that stupid.

Until someone shows me proof or can name an actual source instead of a “I heard from a friend, who’s friend said that they heard from their cousin who was at a coffee shop and talked to this guy…that Ferris could be dying”, or something like that.  I’m not believing it.

Earlier this morning I took a read of Omar Kelly’s latest blog in which he blames the undercutting of the team by Stephen Ross on the problems on the field.  To Omar’s credit, and the reason I read him first before any and all other Dolphins’ beat writers is he let’s you know it’s his opinion and not something based on fact…he tells you that too when it is.

Kelly did however say in that article that “coaches” tried to leave the team this past off-season but were refused to be let out of their contracts.  One can only presume who those coaches may or may not have been.  If true on any level it does go to explain the lack of communication between the HC and the staff as well as the focus on game planning.  Not to say that an NFL coach will deliberately sabotage a team but to some degree will any coach feel an overwhelming obligation to give more than 100 percent?  Not likely.

This goes back to Stephen Ross and the one issue that I blame him for, his courting of Harbaugh and then leaving Sparano in place as a lame-duck coach for this year.  Contrary to beliefs I do not think he undermined the team by being a little more frugal in his spending.

Kelly also writes a very interesting article about the gossip that is making it’s way around the NFL circuit and how some sites simply have no integrity when it comes to journalism…I can think of a couple of writers who would fit that category for sure.  You can read this very good article here.

He also in that same article reacts in the same way I have regarding the rumors of contact with Bill Cowher (I actually wrote this before reading his and stumbled upon it when getting the link for the other Kelly article).   The reality is that Ross needs to clean up his image and courting yet another coach with Sparano still here is not going to happen again.

Besides, he isn’t going to hire him until after the season anyways so why contact anyone now?

So much is going on in Miami these days that the only real surprise is that Sparano hasn’t actually been terminated yet.  To be honest, it may be the best thing for Sparano if he is.  This catty media garbage isn’t fair to him.  I give Sparano credit though, for a guy who knows he will be fired very soon, he isn’t laying down and taking it.  He is a fighter and while he may no longer have many within the organization he can trust or lean on, he won’t simply roll over and play dead.

Why else would he scream at a ref to review a score while saying if they don’t he will get fired?  Because he wants to at least go out with his pride.