Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is clearly feeling good about things right now.
Not only was he crowing about getting a half-price deal on the third pick in the draft, now he’s blaming former coach Tony Sparano for the hard feelings that followed when Ross interviewed Jim Harbaugh while Sparano was still on the job.
During an interview with Dan Le Batard on 790 The Ticket, Ross said the grudge Sparano held “damaged the whole organization.”
“He could never put it behind him,” Ross said, via the Miami Herald. “I don’t think he was the right head coach for the Miami Dolphins. I didn’t hire him. We’re a much better organization today than then.”
Imagine that, Sparano didn’t play along while his boss interviewed someone to replace him while he was still working.
The nerve of that guy, not being happy about being cuckolded on the job.
Ross said he felt used as leverage by Harbaugh’s camp, and talked about the bad relationship between general manager Jeff Ireland and Sparano after word got out. He talked about the trust he had in Ireland, and said the team was heading in the right direction.
“This organization is functioning the best since the [Don] Shula days, [because] I picked the head coach with Jeff Ireland,” Ross said. “People see this organization is really on the uptick.”
Actually, what most people see is a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2008, the year he bought the team. That’s when Sparano led the Dolphins to an 11-5 record, or 10 wins better than the year before.
But to Ross, apparently, the 27-37 record since then is clearly on par with Shula winning two Super Bowls.