Stephen Ross Is Allowing Dolphins To Suck for Luck

To suck for Luck: that is the question.

The Miami Dolphins are on the verge of drowning, and in this particular instance it is time to embrace that cold, dark fear of a winless season.

This organization has made the postseason only once since 2002.

Prior to this run of futile football they had made the postseason 21 times dating back to 1970.

What was the common denominator in all this success?

Consistency.

The Dolphins didn't just have two of the better quarterbacks to ever play the position lined up under center between the years of 1970 and 1999 (save for a three-year gap between 1980 and 1982), but they also had a coach.

Don Shula, only the second coach in the franchise's history, stood on the sidelines between 1970 and 1995.

For the better part of three decades the Miami Dolphins were led by Shula and Bob Griese and then Shula and Dan Marino. Consistency at its finest.

Shula gave way to two-time Super Bowl champion winning coach, Jimmy Johnson, and he stayed until Marino retired in 1999.

But what left with Marino and Johnson has since turned this once proud and consistent franchise into a revolving door of laughter and humiliation.

The Dolphins have gone through five different coaches and seven different passing leaders since Marino and Johnson's retirements.

That woeful list of quarterbacks includes: Jay Fiedler, A.J. Feely, Gus Frerotte, Joey Harrington, Cleo Lemon, Chad Pennington and Chad Henne.

The model for success in the NFL, as evidenced by the last eight Super Bowl winners, is consistency at quarterback.

The Dolphins know nothing of this.

With that in mind, and the list of Dolphins signal-callers in the last nine years ringing in the back of their head, is it any wonder that the team in South Beach leads the charge in the "Suck for Luck" campaign? 

Fans have already embraced it:

The organization is next.

Can you, in fact, blame either of them?

This team hasn't quit on lame duck head coach Tony Sparano (they've lost a number of close games against more talented teams) but they certainly cannot help him much either.

The talent level present on the team is just good enough to be involved but not to win.

At 0-7, there is no doubt that Sparano needs to be fired.

But not yet.

And if you want to call that "sucking" for Luck then so be it.

Replacing Sparano midseason, which would likely mean an interim coach, would be a mistake.

No organization, owner, coach or fanbase wants to admit to losing, but sometimes you have to sink the ship in order to build a new one.

To sink it completely they cannot pick a new captain (coach) and try to stay afloat for one or two games. The Dolphins need to go completely under.

Stephen Ross appears to know that.

Keeping Sparano and losing now, as cruel as it may sound, is the best decision this franchise can make.

Ross is doing it one loss at a time.

Too many years, too many coaches and too many quarterbacks have passed through Miami without a modicum of success.

There is a chance to change that this year.

Landing Andrew Luck and the right head coach is the only option for a team still trying to replace legends more than a decade after they left.

One wrong move, such as parting with Sparano too early, could condemn this team to another decade of bad football.

Call it what you want, but the Miami Dolphins are "sucking" for all the right reasons.

It is time for this ship to sink. The Dolphins must go under.

But only so it can be raised again with a new coach and a new quarterback for the foreseeable future.