Ellerbe rips Miami Dolphins, apologizes

Former Miami Dolphins linebacker Dannell Ellerbe is glad to be out of Miami.

In fact, he’s so happy to be a member of the New Orleans Saints he told the Richmond County Daily Journal in North Carolina just how pleased he is. All while taking a few indirect shots at his old team, teammates, and their fan base.

"“It’s guys that want to win. I can honestly say it’s a place that knows how to win.”“I’m glad to be getting back to a place with a great fan base and sold out games.”"

So to recap, Ellerbe accused the Dolphins of not wanting to win, knowing how to win and lacking a good fan base that sells out their stadium.

As you can imagine this went over like a bag of bricks with Dolphins fans. Not long after the comments went public, Ellerbe took to Twitter to apologize.

I want to apologize for how the article reads, I was just trying to explain my excitement for playing back in the Dome.
— Dannell Ellerbe (@ellerbe59) May 25, 2015

I had fun in Miami and had some awesome fans on my side.
— Dannell Ellerbe (@ellerbe59) May 25, 2015

This can be summed up as a case of Ellerbe’s foot meeting his mouth. But let’s take a deeper look into what he said and see if his words have any merit.

Since the backlash of the bounty scandal, the Saints have missed the playoffs two of the last three seasons. So maybe a more accurate statement would be the Saints knew how to win, but are in the process of forgetting – especially at home where they lost their last five games to bury any hope of winning an embarrassingly mediocre NFC South.

On the other hand, Ellerbe couldn’t be more right. The Dolphins have no idea how to win critical football games. Both the 2013 and 2014 campaigns were marred with late season losses that cost Miami a playoff berth. But questioning the Dolphins desire to win? That’s where this gets a little hairy.

Maybe Ellerbe saw some things in the Miami locker room he didn’t like. But the known cases of pouters and quitters have been dispatched from the team. So that, more than anything, may have been the “oops” comment that required the apology.