A couple of weeks ago, a certain Internet hack with whom you may be familiar suggested that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross may chose to dump coach Tony Sparano for a big-name coach who can put sizzle in the sky and asses in the seats of SunLife Stadium.
And that’s precisely what’s happening.
The Dolphins have pursued three big-name coaches. The Miami Herald reports that the team has reached out to former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and current Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh.
We’re told that the Dolphins also have spoken with former Raiders and Bucs coach Jon Gruden.
Per the Herald, Cowher backed away due to the issue of power over the football operations, which suggests that the Dolphins may be willing to dump Sparano but keep G.M. Jeff Ireland. As to Gruden, a league source tells us that talks occurred on Monday and into Tuesday, that Gruden asked for too much money (in the estimation of the Dolphins), and that Gruden stepped away once the Dolphins started to bat lashes at Harbaugh.
We’re also told that Harbaugh wants $7 million per year, and that he is putting out the word that he was offered $5 million annually from Michigan (John Clayton says it was $5.2 million) in the hopes of leveraging even more from an NFL team.