Dolphins Fans to Fly ‘Fire Jeff Ireland' Sign at Jets Game

A pair of bloggers can no longer let the follies of the Jeff Ireland regime go unnoticed

The Miami Dolphins have been mired in mediocrity for too long, and a pair of Dolphins fans are angry enough to do something about it.
 
Before the Dolphins take on the New York Jets on New Year's Day, a plane carrying a banner exhorting team owner Stephen Ross to fire general manager Jeff Ireland will fly over Sun Life Stadium.
 
Chris Joseph and Roger Paul, cowriters of the Miami Dolphins blog FinsNation.com, are two of Ireland's biggest critics. When Ross decided to fire Sparano but leave Ireland in place, the two were miffed.
 
So they did what any enterprising bloggers would do: solicited their readers for money so they could fly a banner expressing their frustration at a Dolphins game. It took the pair less than a day to raise the $1,500 needed to pay for the expression.
 
"Mr Ross:  Save Our Dolphins, Fire Ireland," the banner will read. "We just put it out there on Twitter, and the next thing you know it snowballed like crazy," Joseph told the Palm Beach Post about the idea.
 
The plane carrying the banner can fly over the stadium up to an hour on game days, so Joseph scheduled his flight between 10 a.m. and noon on the day of the Jets game, when the team is expecting a sellout. Joseph told the Post he plans to hold a tailgate watch party at the game to celebrate the fruits of his labor and his readers' donations.
 
"We put up a Paypal link, and within four hours we met our goal, just purely on donations," Joseph said. "We're just overwhelmed by people’s anger." 
 
Joseph's animosity toward Ireland is simple: he does not think Ireland is capable of making the personnel moves necessary for the Dolphins to emerge from the basement of the AFC East. "We just don’t have faith in the guy," he told the Post.
 
Not that anyone thinks this gesture will change Ross' mind about his general manager. All signs point to Ross keeping Ireland around next year, though he may hire Carl Peterson as an additional voice in the personnel decision-making process.
 
"There's a feeling that he's going to screw up the draft again, or not get the quarterback that everyone wants," he added. 
 
The banner may not result in the desired outcome for Joseph and Paul, but the fact that they will be able to let everyone know exactly how they and their readers feel about Ireland will be rewarding. 
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