For months, rumors have persisted that former Chiefs G.M. Carl Peterson will be running the football operations in Miami. Here’s what we said on the matter in late October: “The working theory is that Peterson will, at a minimum, be heavily involved in selecting the next G.M. and coach. Or Peterson will be the next G.M., at which time he could round up various former Chiefs officials, like Denny Thum and Bill Kuharich, who currently aren’t employed by NFL teams.”
We overlooked a third option. Now that the Dolphins have fired coach Tony Sparano and plan (at least for now) to keep G.M. Jeff Ireland, Chris Mortensen of ESPN has reported that owner Stephen Ross will hire Peterson into the position previously held by Bill Parcells -- V.P. of football operations.
As pointed out by our pal Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald, Peterson has denied it. (Even though, as a video from Hard Knocks that has since been removed from YouTube demonstrated, Peterson clearly “supplied it.”) Ross said Monday that he hasn’t “had conversations with [Peterson] with regard to that.”
Moreover, Ross reportedly said in 2010 that Peterson would not be replacing Parcells. Indeed, Ireland’s contract reportedly was revised last year to specify that the G.M. now reports directly to the owner.
Still, it’s hard to believe that Peterson won’t be involved. Peterson and Ross have a close and lengthy relationship. They have been working together most recently on the Ross-owned FanVision product, a handheld game-day video device that is used in some stadiums. From a football standpoint, Peterson served nearly 30 years ago as G.M. of the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars, which were owned by Ross.
Moreover, Ross inherited Ireland and Sparano when Ross bought the team from Wayne Huizenga. Ross now has a chance to make his first meaningful hire -- why wouldn’t he consider seriously a long-time NFL General Manager with whom Ross apparently has a meaningful business relationship?
The entire situation continues to be a mess, one that I’ll try to sort out at the top of today’s PFT Live at 12:00 p.m. ET.
Unless another coach gets fired this morning.