So, if you’re Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross, and you had the chance to spiff up your reputation by hiring Tom Brady to the front office, even with a slice of ownership, would you do it?
The real question is if Brady would do it. Maybe it’s when he’ll do it. The bread crumbs keep dropping, the planets keep aligning and this two-step between the Dolphins and Brady is something to monitor. They’re more than kids staring across the room at each other by this point.
Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, attended an exclusive Super Bowl party in 2020 of Bruce Beal, who is a business associate and hand-picked Dolphins successor of Ross. Also at the party: Ross and Dan Marino. This wasn’t some one-off: Beal and Brady have been friends for years.
Brian Flores alleges in his lawsuit against the NFL that Ross organized a meeting with him that same Super Bowl week and “conveniently” bumped into a “prominent quarterback” in violation of tampering rules. The quarterback was Brady, multiple sources said. Flores refused to meet him.
But the bread crumbs. They keep offering clues of something. Some are small: Brady crossed the pregame field each time their teams met to shake hands and talk with Marino, generational respect shown from one quarterback great to another.
Some are geographical: Brady and Bundchen bought a $17 million piece of property on Indian Creek to build a waterfront eco-mansion.
Some are just like this week’s Pro Football Talk report that the Dolphins attempted to get a “package deal” of quarterback Tom Brady and coach Sean Payton.
That idea had no liftoff. Payton, as Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said Wednesday, wasn’t even interested to talk. No surprise there. Probably a dozen teams checked in the same way. If he wanted to return immediately, he’d go to a franchise set up to win a Super Bowl like the Dallas Cowboys.
Brady is the more realistic piece here. The Dolphins were living in fantasyland if the idea was getting Brady as quarterback. Maybe they thought that, too. They’ve been homeowners in fantasyland for years now.
But what about Brady as a front-office executive? That makes more sense. Talk about sticking it to that nefarious New England Patriots franchise that discarded him. Help the Dolphins become a contender? Maybe even build them into one?
That’s a no-brainer for Ross. By rubbing up against Brady, Ross can clean his name up some. The best upside is he gets a sharp football mind, even if not a proven executive one. At the least, the two Michigan men can sing “Hail to The Victor” together.
The main issue is would Brady do this — and at what cost. Would he be happy with a slice of ownership like Marc Anthony or Serena and Venus Williams? You’d think Tom Brady would want to have more of a role than being an eye-candy consultant like Marino.
Run the show? Does Brady want that 12-month responsibility? Would his personality allow for any less?
Brady just retired and is wading through a process of his next chapter. That chapter certainly doesn’t want to be answering even after-the-fact questions about this Flores lawsuit. There’s a long run of accusations, counter-claims, a probable court case — Flores has passed up money seemingly for a day in court — and the real chance of uglier issues to rain on the Dolphins.
Brady doesn’t need that. Why not wait a year, enjoy his family as he promised, survey all the opportunities out there and let this lawsuit get cleared up before even considering the Dolphins?
Next question: Would Brady help this franchise? One of Brady’s buddies, Derek Jeter, just left the Miami Marlins this week after four failing years running that team. Sometimes Hall of Fame players don’t translate into Hall of Fame executives. Then again, the Marlins’ financial mess isn’t the Dolphins problem at all.
Marino once was given the front-office keys by owner H. Wayne Huizenga. That lasted a few days at the Senior Bowl. That was enough for Marino to know he didn’t know or care for that world. For instance, he was given a list of free-agent names, looked at it and wanted to know where the rest of them were. That was it, he was told. There was no Dan Marino on that list.
It’s actually a good thing Brady isn’t coming in the Dolphins door right now. It would be a rushed marriage from his side. Take a year. Decompress from playing. Get the eco-mansion built. Move the family in. Weigh all options while partying with the Dolphins’ future owner in a way that suggests ... or implies ... what?
To be continued.
