Which NFL Owner/Oligarch is The Biggest A-Hole? PART III
Stephen Ross/Miami Dolphins
Born in Detroit but moved to Miami Florida to finish high school, Stephen Ross was seemingly very average. Even his BBM degree from Michigan (he is the largest door in the school’s history) led him to become a tax attorney.
After moving to New York in 1968 he spent a few years applying his craft until he went out on his own forming THE RELATED COMPANIES.
With his understanding of tax law and some relationship, he formed a company that would become a powerhouse real estate developer in New York among many other things.
Stephen Ross is a self-made man.
***Authors note
maybe this is the one NFL owner who isn’t a total POS? Made his own fortune, and put money into his school, are they not all terrible people?
End note***
Ross developed such areas as the Deutsche Bank Center and the Hudson Yard project in Manhattan. But his company wasn’t just building buildings, his company also owns restaurant chains and Equinox Fitness as well as a few “off-radar” banking businesses.
I’m sorry, “off-radar” is not the industry term. The industry term is “SHADOW BANKS”. This term usually applies to any capital company that avoids all regulatory agencies established to oversee banking. In some circles, people feel the 2008 banking crisis was a by-product of mortgage-backed securities which shadow banking helped create and then exploit.
Ross tried to take over a company called, LADDER CAPITOL around the time Donald Trump was elected. In fact, in what I’m sure is a total coincidence, Ladder Capitol controlled about $150million in Trump debt. $50 million of Trump Tower’s debt alone was owned by Ladder.
He also owns a super PAC but who doesn’t?
In 2008 he purchased the Miami Dolphins. As an owner, he has shown unusual loyalty to cities that are treated like shit by the other owners. He was the only “no” vote on both the Chargers and Raiders relocations. He felt both groups “didnt do enough to keep the teams in their original cities. With the Chargers, he showed an unusual fan awareness, with the Raiders he was uninformed. But his heart was in the right place.
How did Ross make this list? I mean, gives money to his school, supports fans over owners’ interests, and he seems like an unusually quality person to own an NFL team.
In 2019 (it is alleged) Ross approached his then coach Brian Flores and offered him in excess of $100,000 per game to tank the end of the season, thus earning him the 1st pick in the draft and a potential star quarterback.
But hey, who hasn’t wanted a player badly enough to lose a couple pointless end of season games? He was just trying to bring the fans a winner right?
As the NFL embraced gambling, tanking games undermines gambling certainly, but it really brings into question the integrity of the league. Although “integrity” and “NFL” really don’t belong in the same sentence but humor me.
There is also this one other thing.
From Wikipedia
On August 2, 2022, it was announced that following a six-month independent investigation by Mary Jo White and a team of lawyers, the NFL would strip the Dolphins of their 2023 first-round draft pick and a 2024 third-round draft pick for violating the league’s anti-tampering policy on three occasions from 2019 to 2022 by engaging in impermissible conversations with quarterback Tom Brady and then- New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, both of whom were under contract with other teams. Ross, the team owner, was also fined $1.5 million and suspended through October 17, and was prohibited from being at the Dolphins’ facility or representing the team at any event until then. He was also prohibited from attending any league meeting before the annual meeting in 2023, and was removed from all league committees indefinitely. Vice chairman/limited partner Bruce Beal was fined $500,000 and will not be permitted to attend any league meetings for the rest of the 2022 season. The investigation did not find that the Dolphins intentionally lost games during the 2019 season, however.
The problem was, both guys were under contract with other teams. Which is sorta a big deal. Hence why he is now watching the games from his house and not the stadium that he owns.
The fun thing about most of these guys is that they are so fucking relentless that they backstab everyone no matter who they are or the consequences. The NFL is downplaying the tanking allegations as that has happened many times in the past, victimless crime as far as the NFL is concerned, but when you try to poach two guys under contract to other teams, it’s not ok and the two other owners slam the hammer down.
Of course, this is the guy who tried to purchase a president of the United States for…god knows what reason. Well, or at least a $150mil worth of leverage over the president.
When you think about the conspiracists who believe the illuminate or some other clandestine group of old rich guys are out there pulling strings and making the rules, they aren’t that far off. You just didnt know their secret meetings aren’t in a bunker at NORAD, they are in the Napolian room at the Orlando Hyatt when they have NFL owner’s meetings.
Hey, I’ll say one thing about Ross, at least he isn’t suing a bunch of people.
