Of all the disheartening things we've heard and read about our team this season, this is the most disheartening of all:

"This isn’t the north, where you want to just take it 4 yards and a cloud of dust," Ross added. "I think I look for a different brand. Seeing the Dolphins, how fans want to see them, how we win, we’re going downfield, the days of Dan Marino, the days we all want to go back to."

That's a man who wants to sell tickets, ads, and merchandise, not a man who wants to win championships.  It's so wrong-headed, I hardly know where to start.

I love Dan Marino.  I think he's the best passer to ever play the game -- and by a wide margin.  I still get goosebumps just thinking about watching that guy play.  But I do not want to go back to the days of Dan Marino.  We won zero championships in those days.  None.  Not one.

Ross needs to acquaint himself with some basic geography and a calendar.  Miami may not be in the north, but the AFC East most definitely is.  And NFL football is played in the fall and winter months, not the spring and summer.  You go into it with the mindset, "Hey, it's warm here!  Let's just play fair-weather football!", you are going to lose.

The very Dan Marino days he speaks of are proof enough of that.  Those were days when we perennially faltered in November and December, and could not win a road playoff game to save our lives.  That is not a championship formula.  Let's not repeat it, I don't care how many jerseys it sold.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not saying this year's offensive approach is the right one.  Not at all.  But "let's go back to the days of Dan Marino" is swinging way too far in the other direction.  We'll win just as many championships with the one as we will with the other: none.  So how 'bout we do neither, Mr. Ross? 

At such a pivotal moment for the franchise, this fan, at least, does not want to hear the owner telling the world his goal is to repeat the glorious futility of the past.  That's part of our problem as a franchise -- we think of the wrong era as the glory days.  The days we want to go back to are the Csonka days, not the Marino days.  I don't want to hear that my owner is in a mindset where he thinks of the latter as the era when this team was a winner.  I want to hear that he's clear-eyed and focused on winning what really counts.

Championships, Mr. Ross.  Championships.