Omar Kelly: Steve Ross shouldn't step back from Dolphins

Omar Kelly, Miami Herald on Mar 25, 2026

Published in Football

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MIAMI — History will eventually prove that Steve Ross is a man of his word.

The real estate mogul has done just about everything he vowed to do as a sports influencer in South Florida, despite many of us doubting his vision, and often questioning his team’s execution.

But the skeptical nature is much like bad driving in South Florida. It should be expected.

Ross paid a premium price for the Miami Dolphins, and the privately owned stadium that housed South Florida’s NFL team 18 years ago. Then he pumped half a billion into the venue to make it “first class,” with the goal of hosting major sporting events.

And he has done just that.

Ross saved the Miami Open, moving it from a dilapidated Key Biscayne venue, and retrofitting Hard Rock Stadium’s grounds for it.

Miami Gardens, and its No. 1 employer, has hosted multiple National Championship Games, which includes January’s final game, and brought major soccer events to South Florida, which includes hosting the World Cup beginning in June.

Ross also created one of the grandest F1 events in North America, a race that annually infuses hundreds of millions into the local community in one weekend.

The race, which hasn’t even turned five yet, has become so big it’s more profitable annually than the Dolphins’ entire football season.

That’s right, one weekend is worth at least $1 billion. And Ross did that.

While Dolphins fans might get in their feelings about the financial gains Ross has made from all his other sports ventures, let us not distort the truth to fit our agenda-driven narrative.

There hasn’t been one moment as the Dolphins owner Ross could be described as frugal, or distracted when it came to running South Florida’s NFL franchise.

However, the only thing he hasn’t done is win at the highest level in the NFL. But that hasn’t been for lack of trying.

Few owners have infused more into their team, their facility than Ross has over two decades.

That’s why Ross deserves some grace as a sports owner because the last thing I would want him to do is step away, losing his passion for building something that’s “best in class,” which has always been his goal in whatever he touches.

If you got to attend the Miami Open, the F1 race, or any of these world-class friendly soccer events, you would get it.

The people who don’t are Dolphins fans.

For Ross, owning the Dolphins was always about building a legacy, and this isn’t the time for the 85-year-old to withdraw, which I’m told he’s doing, giving more and more daily power and decision making influence to Dan Sillman, his son-in-law.

A shift in power, say, influence could be a good thing. Maybe Sillman can give his full focus, attention, energy and effort to the Dolphins, which is something Ross has never done because of the many plates he has spinning in the air.

But it also could be a bad thing, one that has us exiting a highway headed in the wrong direction.

The Dolphins’ struggles during the last decade-plus with Ross signing the checks was a result of poor leadership at the top of the football operations side.

Ross inherited Jeff Ireland, and a dysfunctional situation left behind by Bill Parcells, and stayed in it too long.

He hired Dennis Hickey as Ireland’s replacement, and when Ross discovered Hickey was in over his head, he hired Mike Tannenbaum as his boss.

Chris Grier replaced Hickey as Miami’s general manager, and stayed in that position for 10 years. Grier eventually inherited Tannenbaum’s power after he was removed with Adam Gase.

Problem is, history will show that Grier was in over his head because of his lack of conviction on decisions, lackluster drafting and history of doling out bad contracts, while simultaneously letting some of the team’s better free agents walk.

Not all of the mess new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and new coach Jeff Hafley were hired to clean up was Grier’s fault. Former coach Mike McDaniel had a hand in the journey the Dolphins took the last four years, as did Ross, because he funded Miami’s foolishness, doubling down on the 2023 season despite the realization that that squad didn’t beat a single good team that year.

But that was the Dolphins’ past.

The page has been turned, and another rebuild is upon us.

This time around, let’s hope Ross gives it one last chance, reinvigorating himself to find the passion he has seemingly lost to make the Dolphins a championship organization, before checking out.

Just like South Florida deserves the Miami Open and F1 being in our backyard, we deserve to see the Dolphins returning to glory one day. And hopefully that day happens in Ross’ lifetime.

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