Troy Aikman Gave Stephen Ross 'Street Cred'

Troy Aikman Gave Stephen Ross “Street Cred” 

The Miami Dolphins organization has been a disorganized disaster since Stephen Ross bought the franchise almost 20 years ago.

Mr. Ross has had his heart in the right place, but he has always stepped in it and never gotten it right.

He was made to look like a clown by selling off 1% and 2% to various celebrities, having an Orange Carpet outside the stadium before games, holding Tim Tebow day on the day Tebow came to town to play the Dolphins, chasing a head coach before firing one, and, of course, getting caught tampering multiple times and being suspended.

It’s been one mistake after another.

And don’t think it hasn’t hurt this organization, it has, greatly.

Any time Miami has needed to hire a head coach, the best candidates don’t even consider Miami.

They won’t even sit down with Miami for an interview.

Mike Munchak, Brian Schottenheimer, and Vic Fangio (years before he came to Miami as a defensive coordinator) are three examples off the top of my head who refused interviews with Ross and Miami.

Ross surrounded himself for all these years with yes men and corporate butt kissers who wouldn’t tell him the truth and would only tell him what he wanted to hear.

They didn’t have the guts to tell the emperor he had no clothes.

But that seems to have all changed in the past couple of weeks, thanks to Troy Aikman.

While Ross isn’t respected and is looked down upon by other NFL owners and power brokers around the league, Troy is held in the highest regard.

He is a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

And since John Madden has retired, he has become the voice of the NFL on FOX and now ESPN, not afraid to say the things most other announcers won’t.

The best color analyst in the business, and he is still in touch with the modern game and in touch with all of the power players in today’s NFL.

So, when Stephen Ross reached out to Troy Aikman to ask him to come on as a consultant these past few weeks, it was literally (and this is not hyperbole) the best thing Ross has done since owning the Miami Dolphins.

Because it gave Ross and this Dolphins organization instant “Street Cred.”

And the perception of the Dolphins has changed quickly, from all reports.

Hey, maybe that Ross guy isn’t a total clown if Troy is working with him.

Hey, maybe Miami is a good place to plant some roots as a head coach or a general manager.

And bringing Troy on as a consultant in this general manager search process brought a different result, just with the interview process alone.

Nobody turned down an opportunity to meet with Miami about the position.

Troy was able to call other NFL general managers and behind-the-scenes power brokers to get the real story on individuals, making the search more efficient and ensuring Miami isn’t hiring the “wrong guy,” as they have so many times before.

And now, good news for Dolphins fans, Troy is staying on in the same role for the head coach search the Dolphins have begun as of yesterday.

Can I say with certainty that Jon-Eric Sullivan will be a good NFL general manager? No!

Can I say with certainty that the next Dolphins head coach, whoever they hire, will work out? No!

But I have a whole hell of a lot more faith this time around with this hiring of Jon-Eric Sullivan and whoever the next head coach is knowing that the decision didn’t come from Ross the real estate guy, Tom Garfinkel the major league baseball guy, Dan Marino (and no offense to Dan) the defacto Mayor of South Florida who isn’t interacting with various NFL front offices, and yes of course our old friend Chris Grier.

And that Miami brought in a hired gun who knows everyone and understands what winning organizations in this era are doing to help fix the broken Miami Dolphins organization.

It took a while, a long while, but maybe Stephen Ross is catching on to the being an NFL owner thing.