Owner Steve Ross declares the Dolphins , Superbowl Bound..........

[Defense54]

Theres more..........he also thinks that Chad Henne can out perform Dan Marino.

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_football_dolphins/2010/06/has-dolphins-owner-steve-ross-lost-his-mind.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sports%2FMiamiDolphinsweblog+%28Miami+Dolphins+%7C+Sun-Sentinel+Blogs%29

While I dig confidence in your team..........I think he needs to slow down just a bit..................

[StL FinFan]

Put down the crack pipe.

[Defense54]

Put down the crack pipe.

Seriously.  Rich guys get all the good stuff.........

[hordman]

love the enthusiasm and the willingness to expect good things from your team.............however, there's a time and place and the Phins are one year removed from a 7-9 season and my head coach has 18 wins.

I do expect great things, if not very good things, this year from Henne and the Phins but the SB is over-reaching at this point.

[fyo]

I hate this kind of journalism, I really do. Out of context, unsourced, unattributed... worthless trash.

I go to the link above. A blog talking about some comments Ross made. Yes, it's by a part-time Sun Sentinel reporter, but the fact that it's a blog presumably means little-to-no editorial oversight. Reading it, it appears to be little more than his feelings about the topic, which is fair enough in a blog (and not what I'm criticizing here). He does link to a "real" article:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-dolphins-fishing-tournament-0606-20100606-8,0,1036582.story

Surprisingly, and this is where I have to call out the journalism, this "real" article contains pretty much no information not in the blog piece. Yes, we do learn that the statements from Ross came during ground-breaking of a high school football field he had sponsored. Yes, we do learn that it was raining. What we don't learn, however, is ANYTHING about the answers. Or even much of the answers, just some very, very short snippets of a (presumably) longer answer.

Questions matter.

Ross is being criticized in this thread -- and indeed by Omar Kelly, who questions his sanity -- for the Dolphins to the Super Bowl line:

"I think in February we'll be playing in the Super Bowl," Ross said.

Now, I don't know what the question was -- and I cannot easily find out, since no link to the full interview or even just the question is given -- but I wouldn't be surprised if the following were close:

"Mr. Ross, about the Dolphins, what do you think you'll be doing in February?"

What the hell was he supposed to answer? "Sitting at home on our collective asses?".

I really wish journalists would either give us a much more complete context or a link to the full exchange (at least the relevant portion).

There are other pieces of context as well, that are needed in order to properly evaluate the answer. "Audience" is one.

This kind of shoddy journalism is why most of what we get from people like Ross is filtered through layers and layers of PR. Context matters and you can bet you're not going to get it when you watch or read the news.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

"Mr. Ross, about the Dolphins, what do you think you'll be doing in February?"

The AFCE has two extremes in how you can answer this question. 

Bill Belichick: "Its too early to be discussing February.  Right now my focus is on the Bills.  They are a tough football team.  Good on both sides of the ball.  I have the utmost respect for Chan Gailey and expect to have a tough match-up when we travel to play them on Sept 12."

Rex Ryan: You want to know what my fucking plans are for February?  I will tell you what my fucking plans are: on February 8th at 1 pm the Jets Superbowl parade will be kick off at times square marching towards central park.  See ya there bitches."

Seems like Ross has found something of a middle ground. 
 

[fyo]

The AFCE has two extremes in how you can answer this question.

The first is a non-answer. A politically correct way of saying "I'm not going to answer that".

The only reasonable *answer* is "play football" (with varying phrasing, according to the specific personality), because if the owner/coach doesn't believe in his team, no one will.

[Brian Fein]

Sadly, Hoodie's Bill Belichick answer is the only right answer. 

[fyo]

Sadly, Hoodie's Bill Belichick answer is the only right answer. 

*grumble* it's still not an answer *grumble*

I'll shut up now

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Sadly, Hoodie's Bill Belichick answer is the only right answer. 

Actually it is not the only *right* answer. 

It the right answer if you don't want to give the other team bulletin board material and you want to avoid having a headline on FPT saying you are predicting going to the super bowl. 

If you don't give a shit about that and you want to fire up the hometown fans, Rex Ryan's answer is better. 

While motivation is important, I think sometimes people give it too much credit.  Yeah, BB read the Eagle's SB parade route to the NEP before the SB as motivation.  But the NEP won because they executed better than the other team.  If you really need that much motivation to be pumped up to play in the SB you shouldn't be playing football. 

I fail to see how Ross's response qualifies as news even on a very slow day.

[Brian Fein]

*grumble* it's still not an answer *grumble*

I'll shut up now

That's the point.  Its a non-answer to a stupid question.  That question is so loaded that it doesn't deserve a real answer.  

Look at what the media has done with the "answer" answer.  That's why the non-answer is the only answer.

[MaineDolFan]

Sadly, Hoodie's Bill Belichick answer is the only right answer. 

Hoodie quoted two coaches.  Ask Miami's coach the same question and you would get a typical sound byte.

Ross is the owner, it's a lot different.  I like the guy's confidence.  As stated earlier, what was he supposed to do? Say "well, we won't be around in February.  We're not that good yet?"

[SportsChick]

Just for the record, both the reporters in the Sun-Sentinel article quoted are full time reporters

[Dave Gray]

FYO makes a really good point.

We want to know answers, but the only answers we accept are non-answers.

If he answers the question, what do you think the Dolphins will be doing in February?
A: In the Super Bowl means the guy is overconfident and nuts.

A: Watching the Super Bowl means that the guy doesn't believe in his team.

It's no win.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

It's no win.

Hence the Belichick answer.