Dolphins owner Steve Ross voices support for Tony Sparano - Ingles

Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross just appeared on South Florida radio Monday night and gave embattled coach Tony Sparano a vote of confidence.This article was written by Mike Berardino and appeared in The Sun Sentinel.

"I'm very disappointed, to put it mildly, I guess," Ross said during his appearance on The Finsiders, a team-run program on 940-AM. "Everybody involved with this team — the players, the coaches — are disappointed being 0-4. You can't be any other way.

"I think we have to stay together and really get behind our coach. I believe that Tony is the right coach. All the games we've played have been very close, could have gone either way. I think when you see the team practicing and playing as hard as they can, I think that's a good sign. Certainly we have to see better results."

Program host Jesse Agler asked Ross if he is confident the Dolphins can turn things around after their third 0-4 start in the past eight seasons.

"Certainly I'm hopeful," Ross said. "I think that everybody -- you read the press and everybody talks about changes and that would change things around. I really believe any football team, if you look at the winning teams, they're consistent and they stay the course. You go through rough periods.
"I think we have a lot of talent, but I think most importantly, the players really believe in Tony. As long as the players believe in Tony and they're playing hard for him, with the talent we have, we're going to win our share of ballgames. Certainly coming back from 0-4, hey, remember in the first season [2008] when Chad Pennington joined us, we started out, maybe not 0-4 but pretty similar and we rebounded and I think we won around nine or 10 straight games [actually nine of 10 after a 2-4 start]. I don't know if that's going to happen but I think we have a lot of talent. We'll find out about that as the season goes on."

Ross, who had not spoken publicly about the Dolphins or Sparano since two days before their Week 2 home loss to the Texans, said several times the team has "talent," which could be construed as support of the job General Manager Jeff Ireland has done.

Ross cast his vote for patience, which might not fire up the fan base but is significant because, well, his is the only vote that truly counts here.

"We're committed to winning," Ross said. "This organization is committed to winning. We'll [commit] whatever resources it takes to win. As long as the team is really behind its coach and it has talent, it has a good shot of winning. Like anything else, you have to be optimistic. I think you stay the course, we'll get there."

Ross ended his appearance with a message to Dolphins fans, who have grown increasingly frustrated with the direction of the franchise.

"I really appreciate your fan support," Ross said. "I feel as frustrated you do. When you hurt, I'm hurting. And I'm dedicated to making sure we turn this around as fast as possible."

Your thoughts on the owner's de facto State of the Dolphins address this evening?

This article was written by Mike Berardino and appeared in The Sun Sentinel.