May 23, 2013

Jimmy Haslam Hires His Replacement at Pilot Flying J

September 12, 2012 by 17 Comments

The Cleveland Browns have a new owner, and that new owner now has more time to fulfill whatever duties he deems necessary in that role. In what is hard to view as anything but a positive for Cleveland Browns fans seeking an engaged owner, Jimmy Haslam has stepped down as CEO of his family’s company. He will be Chairman of the Board, but PepsiCo’s President John Compton will take his spot in Knoxville.

The news broke late last night and most Cleveland outlets have picked it up already by now, but it is still important to note. What this means for the future is unknown, but it at least indicates the Browns could have a much more watchful steward than Randy Lerner going forward, something that became evident when Jimmy Haslam was in Pat Shurmur’s press conference following the opening week loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

As an aside, how is it that the NFL hasn’t confirmed this man as owner of the Browns yet? They’re waiting for some meeting in mid October, but haven’t they heard of conference calls, email, or even the United States Postal Service? This thing couldn’t have been made official before a meeting at a pretty seemingly arbitrary date?

[Related: Jason Whitlock: Andy Reid is “a moron” for not running more against Browns]

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  • bossman09

    NFL owners have to show who’s in charge. It’s like fraternaty hazing, you have to show the new guy how things work and make then sweat before they can join the club. Guess billionaires have to do something for fun.

  • 5KMD

    You are going to get rid of this “comment” right? I think this is the definitiion of spamming.

  • The_Real_Shamrock

    Looks like there will most definitely be a new sheriff in town and lets hope he’s proactive and that by being so it’s a positive. Frankly after 14 years it can’t really be any worse. I liked hearing that the soon to be sheriff was sitting in on Pat Murmurs awesome press conference on Monday. Haslam has been around more then the soon to be previous owner and he still isn’t officially the new owner.

  • deesh

    great to see how dedicated he is to this. I’m almost hopeful for the future… almost.

  • mgbode

    stepping down as CEO (though still chairman of the board) means that the Browns just became his #1 responsibility.

    that is a pretty hefty move.

    I think it pretty clearly signals he will be heavily involved in the day-to-day. And, I think that likely means quite a bit of upheavel from the current stasis despite Banner’s previous working experience with Heckert/Childress/Shurmur.

    If Banner/Haslam have any doubt on anyone, then they are likely gone. We’ll see what this means by the end of the season.

  • mgbode

    Pat Murmur / Weeble? do we really need childish nicknames?

  • Harv 21

    What’s your rush, Craig? Haslam has known all along that it would go down in October. We shouldn’t expect significant changes announced during the season. The only one who should be anxious is Joe Banner. He’s probably chomping at the bit to get back in the saddle and in everyone’s bidness. Personally, I’m not eager to start reading the palace intrigue stories that will follow as soon as he arrives in Berea. Rather have the players and coaches focusing on what’s happening on the field this time of year.

  • The_Real_Shamrock

    Don’t hate the playah’ hate the game!

  • The_Real_Shamrock

    How about this one, in the spirit of Chris Perez, “It’s what I do!”

  • Hopwin

    I prefer to think of him as Bweeds or even Bweeden.

  • cmm13

    Call me Kreskin, but I believe we are not waiting until the end of the season to see some serious changes.
    Haslam to me seems to be a smart businessman with a football IQ. He knows what he bought when he signed that billion (that’s BILLION, with a “B”) dollar check; a team that has finally built base talent, a rabid fanbase desperate for a winner, a succesfull ex-head coach masquerading as a president, a decent GM and a very green (in my opinion subpar) head coach.
    Knowing that coming in, he doesn’t finalize this deal unless he and Joe have already made their calls to gauge new front office personnel level of interest in the team.
    calling my shot early: Holmgren resigns, Shurmur is relieved of his head coaching duties, Jauron is promoted to interim head coach, Rhodes or Board are promoted to interim D coordinator and Childress to offensive coordinator.
    Heckert is the dark horse to me, he’s built a base of talent on the defensive side of the ball, he maybe has a HR hitter in Trent but has really not improved the offense tremendously in his time here. He and Banner apparently do not get along the best but may just be able to hang on.

  • cmm13

    NFL Owners Hazing “Hell Week” — they may Haslam live on a million dollars instead of a billion dollars for 7 days.
    Oh the horror.

  • mgbode

    “has really not improved the offense tremendously in his time here.”

    well, he didn’t seem to try until this past draft. and, while it was terrible, we are only 1 game into that draft classes time here.

  • cmm13

    Prior to this year he has drafted:
    1 QB
    2 TE’s
    1 RB
    1 FB
    4 WR’s
    2 OL
    If that’s not trying to improve the offense, then I don’t know what is.

  • mgbode

    3rd round QB
    4th round TE (who was 2nd TE prior to this year?)
    2nd round RB (failed on that one so far)
    4th round FB
    2nd and 6th round WRs (who are the other 2 prior to this year?)
    3rd and 5th round OG

    missing 2WRs and a TE from your list?

    lots of mid and late round picks. of those, you’d expect the 2nd rounders to be starters and the 3rd round OG & 4th round FB (due to position). all but the RB currently are starting (though none looking like long-term at this point).

    regardless, you are not fixing an offense that was as bad as our offense was by picking up a bunch of mid-round picks. we needed top-of-the draft talent (1st and early 2nd rounders) and the first 3 of those came this year (4 if you count Gordon).

  • cmm13

    My bad, 2 WR’s: Mitchell and Little, for some reason thought he was the Robo pick in 2009.
    Also my bad on the TE’s, forgot we picked up Moore from the Packers and not the draft.
    Guess I should research more versus memory sometimes.
    I also get what you are saying about this offensive picks being late but in the same breath they are still picks used on offensive players Heckert believed had late round value (kinda like he was searching for the next “Desean Jackson” find) and that would improve the hole left from the departure of Braylon, Winslow, Lewis, etc.

  • mgbode

    and this is where I note that DeSean was 49th overall :)

    no worries on the WR/TE, I figured you melded some of the other classes together by mistake.

    as far as the rebuild, they took 8-D and 8-O picks in the first 2 drafts. it’s just that 5 of those D picks were 1st or early 2nd while none of the O picks were.

    now, if by the end of the year, none of these offensive picks look to be improving or offer hope for the future, I reserve the right to re-evaluate everything :)