Banner over Miami

I love it. Some fans need to have the guts to call out the franchise on a grand scale. We've been run into the ground over the past 10 years and we shouldn't act like everything they do is fine. When you have 3 straight losing seasons for the first time since the 1960s...something is wrong.

1 playoff win in 12 years and 1 appearance in 10 of a franchise that used to be up there with the Steelers and Packers as one of the models of success....frustrating. The 49ers are making a comeback after a long stretch of bad seasons...we better soon or the stadium will be a ghost town.

 

I just wished it worked. Doesn't look like it's gonna though.

 

Accomplishes nothing imo... Waste of money. Would have been better having it say thank you jt or something like that.

"• Fails to utilize the natural Fire/Ireland wordplay; ex., FIREland."

but i agree with The timing may not have been the best. Miami defeated the New York Jets, 19-17. The Fins finished the year with six victories in last nine games. 100%. Miami looked good at the later end of the season.

 

Fairly tasteless really.

Good thing it wasn't a terrorist.

 

Yeah. Probably about as tasteless as asking a draft prospect if his Mom is a hooker.

 

Did Ross hire that pilot?

 

Im happy this was done. Sadly it wont work. Ireland is a bum and should be gone.

 

Here are some arguments I commonly see tossed out there by the disapproval bunch:

1. This is a man's job we're talking about, you're screwing with a man's livelihood.
Response: Football is entertainment. Those performing jobs in football do them with the fans' entertainment as the final goal. All things are subordinate to that. Jeff Ireland has made millions of dollars and will continue to make millions of dollars regardless of whether he's fired or retained (guaranteed contracts for coaches and front office but not for players, gotta love that). If the fans aren't entertained with you anymore, and it threatens revenues, you don't make those millions anymore. Sorry, it was ALWAYS a privilege, NEVER a right, and the privilege is now gone. I rarely see anyone feeling sorry for Channing Crowder finding out that he was cut (without a guaranteed contract, mind you) right while he had a baby on the way.

2. It's totally stupid and ineffective, money wasted pathetically, yadda yadda yadda.
Response: How many national stories have been written about this now? I see it on NFL.com, on Yahoo.com, on ProFootballTalk, the NY Post, pretty much every national and local rag has written something on this. It's been on television. Do you, or do you not think Jeff Ireland and Steve Ross were aware of this banner flying high above the stadium this Sunday? If the answer is yes you believe they were both aware, then I think those that donated would say this was money well spent.

3. Fans should know their place, it's egotistical to think they can decide who should be fired, etc.
Response: Well then I guess fans should just shut up and open their wallets with zero discretion, right? Pay whatever price the team decides to charge for tickets, watch every minute of every game, sign up for NFL.com stuff and any other stuff that goes into revenues, etc. The money and time isn't yours, it's the NFL's, and you should have zero discretion over whether you pay them. Yeah. Screw that. Fans don't always make the right decisions but neither do football people and the bottom line IS always the fans' pleasure, because THAT is what the NFL is hoping for the PRIVILEGE of earning. It's not their right. It's a privilege.

4. This is all just a disingenuous way to advertise a website.
Response: If this is what you think then obviously you don't know the people that organized it. Well, I do. I know all of them. Many of them I've met and hung out with personally. Some, I hang out with regularly. I know exactly how this came about and it's very much in character. It was a running joke that turned into a "Really? We can actually do this?" type of organic unfolding. Really had nothing to do with the site and it didn't even occur to them that it might drive more traffic. That's not exactly flattering, either...they should have anticipated that it could be used to drive more traffic to the site and there could have been things done differently if that were the aim. If they were aiming to make a quick buck they didn't need to stop the donation process after only 4 hours when they'd reached the designated amount.

Incidentally, FOUR HOURS is all it took for guys that have no more Twitter followers than I do, to raise $1500 via tweets and retweets. And that's really the loudest message of all.

@FinsNation has under 1400 followers. @RizzMiggizz has under 1200 followers. @DatRoroKid and @Vinbob have each under 500 followers. @KevinCMayer has under 200 followers.

These are the guys that primarily started the whole banner thing, and they primarily started it via Twitter. To call that 'modest' would be an understatement. @MiamiDolphins has about 110,000 followers. Omar Kelly has almost 16,000 followers. Armando Salguero has about 13,500 followers. Ethan Skolnick has 10,000 followers. Ben Volin has about 6,500 followers. Dave Hyde has just under 6,000 followers.

So these FinsNation guys were only able to tap into really a fraction of the online, tweeting Miami Dol-Fans market. They opened up donations to a PayPal account, and had to close the donations within FOUR HOURS because they'd already raised $1500.

Think about that.

 

If Ross does decide to fire Ireland, those bozos will probably think their little sign stunt had something to do with it.

 

Still don't understand the hate for Ireland. I am happy that he has been retained to be honest. That being said, that was a pretty clever/cool idea for these fans to express their belief. I am honestly excited to see what Ireland does in this upcoming draft/free agency.

 

Right now it appears the Dolphins are not going to be able to draft Luck or RG3. The chances of hiring a big name coach to excite the fan base appears to be diminishing on a daily basis. Keeping Ireland as the teams GM certainly is going to cause a great deal of consternation with this same fan base.

Ross is going to have to pull some magic out of his bag of tricks, or I see the season ticket sales continuing to decline next year. I certainly look forward to seeing if Ross can do anything in the off season which will entice former season ticket holders, like myself, to once again want to attend games at the stadium. Keeping Ireland as the GM is a very big negative, as far as I am concerned.

I am willing to give Ross the benefit of the doubt for now, but I am certainly going to be watching how effective Ross is in making decisions which will improve this team, starting next year.

 

How so? All we've heard so far is unsubstantiated rumors.

Is being constantly negative all you ever like to do when you post? Maybe you are friends or relatives with DolfanJake?

 

I am only stating what is being reported in the Miami Herald. The only big name coach who now appears a possibility for the Dolphins is Fisher, According to Armando Salguero. Fisher also is from Southern California and the thought is that he will take the Chargers job if it is offered. I have stated that I am willing to give Ross the benefit of the doubt, but the fact is that most comments regarding the Dolphins HC position, is that none of the so called big name coaches, are interested in the job at this time.

Of course it is always a possibility that Ross makes one of these coaches an offer he just can't afford to turn down. We will see.

As far as me being negative. I am just making statements based on what I have observed since Ross took over majority ownership of the Dolphins in 2009. Since he became majority owner, the Dolphins are 20-28. They had their worst record of the last three years this season, while playing a very easy schedule. If you are happy with the direction of this team since Ross became the majority owner, great for you. I know I am in the majority of fans who are not happy with what has gone on with the Dolphins since he became the majority owner.

Ross now has a chance to change the minds of all the fans who are upset with the direction this team has taken over the last three years. Perhaps you noticed all the fans who dressed up as empty seats at the game yesterday. As a fan of the team since 1966, I can't recall ever seeing that many empty seats for a Dolphins-Jets game in Miami. All those empty seats were sending Ross a message. The message was, you better get it right this time.

I would love nothing more then to be writing positive comments about the Dolphins. Unfortunately I just haven't seen a lot to be positive about this season.

 

Going 6-3 in the last nine games is something to look forward to next year and is a positive.

 

Out of the 12 sub -500% teams only Miami (+16) & Seattle (+6) had a positive point differential. If you add in the 500% teams only 7 of 20 had a positive one. I like statistics that focus on points, we're better than our record shows...

 

I am not sure how you can use statistics to conclude that the Dolphins are better than their record shows they are. Especially when the Dolphins lost to every single team on their schedule which ended the season with a winning record. As the saying goes, "you are what your record shows you are". As for the Dolphins, the record shows that they are in the bottom third of all the teams in the NFL.

The Dolphins finished with a 5-11 record against one of the easiest schedules in the NFL. They played only three teams the entire season which ended up with a winning record at the conclusion of the season. They lost to each of these teams. As one of my college professors stated many years ago, "you can use statistics to sway just about any argument in your favor, but this does not mean that these statistics really mean anything at all, in regards to the actual truth".

 

I think one of the main points of contention in Finsnation's argument over firing Jeff Ireland (which I happen to agree with) is that why should Ireland be allowed to keep his job when Sparano did not? What has Ireland done to merit being retained when HE is the one in charge of surrounding Sparano with a competent roster?

We talk all the time on this forum about the value of a franchise QB, and many of us have said that even an average (or below average in Jim Caldwell's case) HC can win with a great QB. So, which franchise QB has Jeff Ireland added to the roster? He deserves to be fired.

 

I really miss your posts CK... wish I could afford VIP,,,, maybe after Christmas Debt is paid.
Regards,
True

 

I'm kind of stumped on Ireland. After the 0-7 start, I wanted nothing more than his head on a platter. Down the stretch though a lot of his moves / draft picks the past season panned out. I still don't think he has done enough to address the QB situation. I'm not sure how much there was he could have done last year and some of the non-moves turned out to be good plays, i.e. Orton, Palmer. I think passing on Dalton was a mistake. Ryan Mallet...who knows? Trading up to take a RB who has not contributed shows me a GM who just doesn't quite get the value of the QB position when a guy like Mallet was sitting there ripe for the taking.

Where all this puts me as a fan is indifferent. If they fire him, fine. If they keep him to see if he's finally ready to take a crack at appropriately addressing the QB position, I'm ok with that too.

As far as where I stand on the banner - good for them. We have voices as fans, and we need to use them.

 

I laughed at it. I just wish they had used to $1,500 to help feed someone rather than get a banner. There are a lot of other free ways to express wanting Ireland fired.

 

Don't forget the guy traded a 3rd, 5th and 7th for Daniel Thomas. The same Daniel Thomas who had as many rushing TD's as you and I combined this year.

And if reports are correct, he was ready to trade for Orton AND Palmer. Mike Brown's asking price was too high, and Ross pulled the plug on Orton.

My biggest problem with Ireland is how he's viewed around the league. NOBODY seems to like this guy. The next person to praise him will be the first. That's never good.

 

That's really not a lot to give up (not to mention MonstBlitz mentioned that Thomas was traded up for), and no one on our team had success near the goal line. It's not like it was a problem exclusive to Thomas.

 

Sorry, there's really no way to sell me it wasn't a horrible move. The guy had 3.5 ypc and ZERO TD's behind the same line that Reggie Bush gained 4.5 ypc and 6 TD's. His longest run was 28 yards. And it's not like RB is a tough position for rookie's to have immediate success in.

 

They actually did donate food this year. And last year as well. Seriously.

 

You can think it was a horrible move, I'm not going to try and sell you on it. Doesn't make your opinion a fact though. Just because some rookies have had instant success at the HB spot doesn't mean it's not a tough position for most to see immediate success in. If Thomas was unsuccessful (and by your opinion he was) there were very, very few successful rookie HBs this year despite it being so easy.

 

I don't think it's just my opinion that he didn't have a successful year dude. There have been tons of rookie RB's that have had immediate success. You're trying to take a one year sample to tell me there aren't. Not a good argument. The guy got out-performed by Reggie Bush, who most thought couldn't be a an every-down back.

Steve Slaton had a run yesterday longer than any Thomas has had all year. That's the guy's season in a nutshell. Nothing against the kid, I saw it as a horrible move by Ireland then and even more so now.

 

No he didn't.

 

You are right. In his only game where he actually got carries, he tied the longest run of DT. I like the kid, and he might turn out good, but this year he didn't show much. Now, given he started off with over 200 rushing yards in his first two games, he hit the wall QUICK and got 337 rushing yards total in other 11 games he played. We know he got hurt but nobody really knows to which extent. Did that hammy bother him all year? We don't know. My biggest concern with him is that for a supposed "big guy" , he could not get a 1st down on 3d and 4th and 1 bunch of times this year.
For his sake, I hope he performs better next year.

 

Loved the banner, whether it worked or not. I'm sure it let Ross know that fans aren't happy, and on some level that has to mean something to him.

 

We have a grand total of 1 victory against an above average team outside our division since 2006. 2007-None. 2008-Pats/Jets. 2009-Pats, Jets x2. 2010-Packers, Jets. 2011-None

I will support every wild idea a fan comes up with to express displeasure until this franchise returns to being respected. Just like I won't support and settle for Matt Moore without any real competition.

 

Technically, you're right. TIED him for the longest run. SO SORRY ABOUT THAT ONE MY BAD.

 

There you go with your technicalities again.....

 

Not this year. Most were dealing with a host of nagging injuries. Only 3 rookie RB had over 500 yds rushing and Thomas was one of them.

 

That's one year. We've seen quite a few have instant success over the past decade.

 

Also, yards are a volume stat. He rushed for 3.5 a carry. He was very inefficient, especially in short yardage situations. You get two chances from the 1 like he did yesterday, you have to score.

 

Tough to do when linemen fall down in front of you. I also felt he got the ball across on the 2nd run (thankfully Moore was able to throw a TD on the next play anyway).

We were also terrible blocking in short yardage all year (part of why our 3rd down conversion % was so bad). It's hard to pick yards up when your OL gets no push, or especially when they lose ground.

 

At the risk of being repetitious, the offensive line is the Achilles' heel of this offense, and it has to be fixed as a number one priority. All the halfbacks in the world can't get short yards if the linemen don't get any forward drive. We used to run Lousaka and the conversions and short yardage touchdowns were automatic. No more, and that's a serious problem when it comes to W's and L's in the close games.

I don't say it to defend Thomas, by the way. Reggie follows his blocking and flashes through any crease that develops. He has patience, timing and quickness. Thomas tries to do it as a power back. He just isn't, and there are no holes to power through. Those things are greatly on Ireland because of his boy Colombo and the relative immobility of Vern and Richie. Can't run right.