Miami Dolphins: Stephen Ross Speaks on Lockout, Implies Players Are Greedy

I'm no huge fan of Stephen Ross.

I even came close to disowning my first and favorite team in all of sports because of his actions.

Now in a recent interview in USA Today, Ross manages to do something that in terms of public relations is smart, however in terms of owning a team is very stupid.

In the interview, Ross states that he foresaw some labor strife on the way when he purchased the Dolphins from former owner Wayne Huizinga, saying:

"The emotions of wanting to own a team were greater than the fact that this might be coming,you always figured that something like this, you know it's going to get resolved. It's a question of when. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later."

Ross then says that he wants to get a deal done with the players soon and not miss any games:

"Who the hell wants to own a team and not play? It's about having a system that works. It's not about a bunch of greedy owners. It's a bunch of players looking to see how much they can really get."

Wait, what? All the players want is the status quo. Its the owners who want to change the way things are done; hence why it is a lockout and not a strike.

This isn't Ross' first go-round with unions. As a real estate developer, Ross has to negotiate with Unions on many major construction projects. However, he claims that the two are completely different.

"We negotiate with unions all the time, and there are issues there," he said, "but they're not the same types of issues. When you're dealing with guys earning over $1 million a year—the average salary is, what, $1.87 million?—you're not talking about the same kind of labor issues. Are these really labor issues? These are not labor issues.

"There should be no sympathy in the labor movement in America for these ballplayers. It's a different deal."

Maybe Ross is right and that there should be no sympathy in the labor movement for NFL (and soon NBA) players. However, Ross is doing his best to spin it that way because of the fact that to many people, it is the players who are greedy.

Its not the same case. Throw the money out and look at it like this: you're getting paid a certain amount, and the owner of the business you work at is raking in a lot of money. However, the owner still wants to cut your salary despite the fact that he's still making a very nice profit off of your work. On top of that, to get it done, he closes down the business in order to get you to agree with him even though you want to work.

How is it that you're being greedy when you just want your boss to agree to the terms that he agreed to originally?

That's what happened with the NFL. The owners agreed to the terms five years ago, now they want a mulligan. The players want to play and only want the owners to retain the status quo. How are the players being greedy when all they want is the same thing that was already given to them, and they want to go out and work, but the owners aren't letting them.

Please Dolphins fans, this isn't a strike, it's a lockout. Do not listen to our clueless owner on this situation. Do the research, look at the facts.

And please Stephen Ross, sell the team. Its obvious you have some buyers' remorse. Just sell now before you further drive the team down in value with perennial losing seasons.

All I have to say is thank God for the Heat.

Thomas Galicia is a Miami Dolphins Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report who also writes about the Miami Heat, Miami Hurricanes, Chicago Cubs and Professional Wrestling. For some of his non-sports musings, check out www.thomasgalicia.com. Follow him on twitter, @thomasgalicia