The Miami Dolphins have hatched an effective strategy for dealing with delicate situations.
They simply ignore them.
Several days ago, the team reportedly advised receiver Brandon Marshall to avoid an appearance with WQAM’s Sid Rosenberg, apparently due to concerns that Sid would have posed tough, probing questions to Marshall regarding one of the many sensitive topics about which he could have been asked (e.g., the shooting of Darrent Williams, the serious arm injury suffered after supposedly slipping and falling on a McDonald’s bag, multiple arrests for DUI and/or domestic battery, generally acting like an ass at a Broncos practice last year, his hip injury that no one knew about until after the ink had dried on his contract, and probably more stuff).
When it comes to the issue of player arrests, the team has adopted a similar approach. Still, Sarah Talalay of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel has opted to pursue aggressively a response from ownership regarding the recent rash of bad behavior.
She initially explains that attempts to pose questions to owner Stephen Ross during a public appearance after defensive end Phillip Merling’s arrest for domestic violence “were quashed.” Talalay writes that “one colleague was told he was not allowed to ask about the issue,” and that, after Talalay managed to ask the question, a team spokesman said, “we’re not dealing with that.”
Undeterred, Talalay wisely tried to obtain a response to the allegation that a player beat up his pregnant girlfriend from high-profile female minority owners of the team -- Gloria Estefan, Venus and Serena Williams, and Fergie. Talalay reports that the attempts to contact them “went unanswered or were referred back to the Dolphins.”
Eventually, the Dolphins provided a response from CEO Mike Dee.
“We have great guys on this team,” Dee said. “They do a lot for the community both on their own and on behalf of the franchise. Bill [Parcells], Jeff [Ireland] and Tony [Sparano] put a tremendous emphasis on character and makeup when they put this roster together. We’re proud of the team that we have and I know it’s an important priority as we move forward as well to continue to put the emphasis on the character and makeup of our guys. We’re really happy with the team that we have, and think they represent this franchise well in the community.”
Wow. Even when not ignoring the situation, the team still finds a way to ignore the situation.
Maybe Nick Saban had an impact on the organization, after all.