Sunday’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the visiting Miami Dolphins will pit the 49ers against many familiar faces, with several former 49ers coaches and players on the opposing sideline.
But it also will be the second showdown this fall between the teams’ owners.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross supported Santa Clara mayor Lisa Gillmor’s bid for re-election, contributing at least $250,000 to her campaign. Ross is the founder of Related Santa Clara, a development company that is spearheading the construction of a mixed-use development near Levi’s Stadium,
The 49ers’ owner, Jed York, opposed Gillmor and contributed more than $4.5 million to her opponent Anthony Becker and several others running for Santa Clara City Council seats.
The Dolphins won this one as Gillmor defeated Becker.
It was not a shutout, though. York scored with Raj Chahal and Karen Hardy, both of whom won re-election to the city council.
Becker’s campaign included a television ad, funded by the 49ers, that criticized Ross. NFL owners and executives reportedly were not happy about the ad.
Ross had been suspended by the NFL until mid-October for violating the league’s anti-tampering policy on multiple occasions, specifically with former Saints head coach Sean Payton and Tom Brady, quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Ross also is a defendant in a class-action lawsuit brought forth by former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who the team fired after last season before hiring former 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. Flores alleges that Ross offered him a bonus for every game the Dolphins lost in 2019 so they would have the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
Ross denied the allegation and an NFL investigation cleared him, though the lawsuit is still ongoing.
Ross has attended several Dolphins games since his suspension was lifted, including those in Detroit and Chicago. It is not known if he will attend Sunday’s game in Santa Clara.
Becker, Chahal and Hardy made a point to distance themselves from the 49ers and their heavy-handed financial support, saying that they had no control over the independent expenditures the team made to committees supporting their campaigns and did not know about them ahead of time.
But that didn’t stop a civil grand jury from accusing them, along with two other councilmembers, of having an unethical relationship with the 49ers and prioritizing the team’s interests over those of the city. The report, titled “Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” alleged that the five councilmembers had formed a “voting bloc” that frequently acted in the 49ers’ interests and that enabled the team to assert an outsized influence on the council.
The council voted to discuss the allegations during several public meetings, after which it would form a public response to them. The first of those meetings occurred on Nov. 16, the day Becker conceded to Gillmor.
Vandana Ravikumar contributed to this report.
