As a longtime Miami Dolphins season ticketholder, it's been an embarrassing offseason.
The franchise became the league's laughingstock last week, when owner Steve Ross boarded a plane with General Manager Jeff Ireland to meet with Stanford's Jim Harbaugh -- even though Ross had yet to fire head coach Tony Sparano.
Harbaugh ultimately chose to stay in California and coach the San Francisco 49ers.
It was a disaster, in so many ways.
Fearing that Sparano would now be seen as a toothless leader, Ross made the public gesture of actually extending the contract of the man he had seemed all but certain to fire. Season ticketholders, clamoring for change after winning just one home game this season, will be getting more of the same over the next three years.
It's all but certain that ticket sales will plunge next season, given the growing criticism of Ireland's wasted draft picks and Sparano's questionable coaching.
A smart investing move
Ross will pay the price for last week's downward spiral. However, it's that same failed approach that would work perfectly when it comes to investing.
"I felt it was incumbent upon me to explore options to improve this team," Ross explained in an open letter to fans over the weekend, explaining his decision to meet with Harbaugh to discuss a coaching position that was never officially vacant.
"Tony Sparano is the best person to lead this team," he concluded, after meeting with Harbaugh.
Isn't this the way we should approach our portfolios? You owe it to yourself to perpetually "explore options to improve" your current holdings, and it doesn't mean that you have to sell your Sparanos until you're sure that the pricier Harbaughs give you a better shot to beat the market.
So what if public opinion turns on you? I have owned Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) since 2002. If I had moved on when cynics argued that a DVD-based service was barreling toward obsolescence, I wouldn't be an owner in the now digital streaming leader at a much higher price point.
My best performing recommendation in the Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter service is Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). If I had cut China's leading search engine loose over valuation concerns or fears that Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) would gobble up market share, subscribers would have missed out on a sweet 12-bagger.
Ross is a contrarian right now. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. When I waxed bullish on Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) when shares were trading for a quarter apiece nearly two years ago, there weren't a lot of mainstream analysts or financial journalists with a kind word to say about the satellite radio monopoly. These days, premium radio is booming with 20 million subscribers and growing.
As a football fan, I may be shaking my head at Ross' actions. But I can respect the passion, comparison shopping, and convention-bucking conviction that would be ideal traits when it comes to investing.
