Ross may be right

Dave Hyde: Just listen to the Dolphins owner.

This time, Miami Dolphins owner Steve Ross really did it. He spoke his thoughts. He expected people to listen like grown-ups. Monday night, he waded into two nuanced issues of completely different seriousness and riled people on all sides.

1. Players kneeling during the national anthem. He told the New York Daily News that his thoughts changed as events did. He said it’s not an effective protest for racial injustice anymore. And it’s not. It hasn’t been since President Donald Trump hijacked the conversation into a patriotism issue. Does that mean Ross won’t allow players to kneel? No.

2. Miami as a sports town. “It’s a great city, it’s not a great sports town,” Ross said. Who can argue that? It’s a big-event city. It’s a big-moment sports area. But anyone who thinks it’s a great sports town, day after day, really needs to get out more.

Then again, if your idea of a great sports town is being able to get a (relatively cheap) ticket at the last minute, drive with little traffic (compared to some cities) and see every major sport (yes, soccer is coming — maybe), this is a fan’s nirvana. Except no team is winning big — and, other than the Heat, haven’t for a generation.

And we don’t stand for losing.

Or sit for losing. And kneeling? This is an incendiary NFL issue. Ross knows that. He supported players’ right to kneel to protest social injustice right from the start, that first game in Seattle in 2016, when he stood in the locker room afterward and became the first owner to support the players’ right.

His support for that right to kneel hasn’t changed, if you listen to him. What has changed is the received message. The idea of players kneeling in protest of racial problems became lost in the firestorm of Trump calling them

“sons of bitches” for kneeling before the flag.

It changed from a social statement as the players meant it to a patriotic referendum as so much of the public framed it. So when Ross told a New York Daily News reporter Monday night all Dolphins players would stand and his initial support for them kneeling had changed because of the message, that wasn’t some new stance.

Ross told Dolphins players that last year. No doubt he had heard none was expected to kneel this year. But to take those words and say there was a blanket order for players to stand during the anthem, as was headlined?

That’s where things went

wrong. And weird. Ross, after all, spoke at a dinner where he was honored by the Jackie Robinson Foundation with its ROBIE Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ross deserves some blame, of course. He didn’t finish his thought on an emotional issue. It took a statement Tuesday morning to do that:

“I have no intention of forcing our players to stand during the anthem, and I regret that my comments have been misconstrued,” Ross said. “I’ve shared my opinion with all our players.

“I’m passionate about the cause of social justice, and I feel that kneeling is an ineffective tactic that alienates more people than it enlists. I know our players

care about military and law enforcement too because I’ve seen the same players who are fighting for social justice engaging positively with law enforcement and the military.

“I care passionately that the message of social justice resonates far and wide and I will continue to support and fund efforts for those who fight for equality for all.”

The bottom line here is you can question Ross’s ability to get nuanced thoughts across. It’s not the first time it has been a problem. But he’s earned some benefit of the doubt. What owner has supported social causes more than him with his Ross Initiative for Sports Equality?

He’s also the only local sports owner and one of the few in the country to privately own his stadium. That means he doesn’t dip into public money for hundreds of millions of stadium dollars while also paying millions in annual taxes and upkeep.

Now if his team would just win.

If any team here would win these days.

Then we could have some fun sports conversations rather than inane ones about whether we’re a great sports town or not. (And we’re not.)