Adam Gase carved his own path away from Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross may have had no choice but to fire Adam Gase if recent attitude reports about the coach are true.

There was a lot of talk that leading up to Adam Gase’s firing. Most of that talk surrounded Gase staying while Mike Tannenbaum was the one heading out the door. Now it appears the relationship between Gase and owner Stephen Ross was deteriorating quickly leaving Ross with no choice.

According to a revealing report by Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, Gase’s attitude and the way he talked to Stephen Ross was often filled with some tension.

"And Gase yelled at the owner about knowing more about football than he did. Multiple sources say a high-ranking club official had to intervene and tell Gase he could not speak to the owner — his boss — that way. – Armando Salguero per source regarding an incident following a 2016 conversation that Stephen Ross had with Gase."

This is new information regarding Gase but it’s not the first. There was also a report a couple of days ago that Gase was approached by Ross following the loss to the Colts and that Gase told him “not now” and walked away. A rumor also surfaced that Ross had spoken with Gase about giving up some of his control to which he declined. All of this ultimately left Ross with no choice but to fire his hand-picked head coach.

Gase has always seemed to have a bit of egotism. An event that was held for more than a decade by the Dolphins for web masters called Web Weekend featured a meet and Q&A with the head coach. From Nick Saban through Joe Philbin, each yearly event paraded the head coach for that brief access.

Adam Gase declined to participate. At first many of us felt that was refreshing. The head coach was preparing for the game that weekend. While that is likely the case still It is clear that Gase’s focus on football was intense. Intense enough to not like the criticism or apparently the questions from the team’s owner. If of course those sources of Salguero’s are correct.

One thing was often clear though. Gase had his moments with the media as well. At times criticizing them for their lack of football knowledge or their inability to watch and understand the coaches tape. In the final weeks of his time with the Dolphins he would make comments that it really didn’t matter what he said or that it didn’t matter if injuries were a problem because “no one would care anyway”.

Gase is without question an “Alpha-Male” and perhaps that created the conflicts in a power structure with no defining person in charge. Gase never seemed like a fit for a three-way system that included Mike Tannenbaum, Chris Grier, and himself. It is also plausible to assume that Gase’s desire to bring in the players he wanted or jettison the ones he didn’t may have been a simple flexing of his authority over the roster. That of course is conjecture and not based on facts or evidence. It’s hindsight subjective opinion.

The lasting impression however will be a coach who tried to change a culture and in the end failed to achieve his goal. Gase will get another shot at a head coaching job if not this year, next. He has the football dedication that teams look for but at some point if he can’t change his antics, if true, will eventually make him someone who teams won’t want to work with.

Salguero’s report gives more credence to the firing of Gase and adds a bit of behind the scenes information that puts the situation into a different context instead of simply believing that Ross fired Gase due to the way the season ended or his record with the Dolphins. In fact, the situation according to Salguero began to spiral after the loss in Minnesota.

Salguero concluded also that after the Bills loss, Gase told some that he would be fired. He was the next day.