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March 25, 2015The circumstances surrounding Jimmy Haslam’s ownership really make it difficult to defend him. I don’t believe I’ve been particularly unfair, but I’ve also been liberal with the criticism on these pages and on the podcast. It’s just too hard to look at all that’s gone down with the Browns since Jimmy Haslam sat with the fans in the Dawg Pound and pretend like he’s somehow earned the benefit of the doubt. That being said, I’m not particularly motivated to try and blast Haslam for the latest dust-up over the Tennessee Titans that came courtesy of Jason La Canfora and his sources.
At the heart of it all, I have no doubt that Jimmy Haslam would prefer to own the Tennessee Titans in some kind of perfect world scenario. I feel the same way about Dan Gilbert and the Detroit Pistons, by the way. Dan Gilbert has invested a ton of money into Cleveland and worked hard to make it his sphere of influence away from home, but don’t tell me it wouldn’t have been more convenient and more in line with his dream to end up with his hometown Pistons instead. That’s not how these things work out though. Teams are sold relatively rarely compared to many other types of assets.
This isn’t a car where you get to trade in a Cadillac for a Mercedes or BMW just because you feel like it. These teams are often familial assets that are handed down and kept in the family because it has the potential to provide not only income and jobs, but influence, and prestige to entire generations of a family. Dan Rooney is a lifelong Steelers employee, except when he parlayed all that into becoming a U.S. Ambassador to Ireland. You don’t just get to wait around and pick a specific asset in the world of sports ownership.
And in the end, geographic issues aside, Jimmy Haslam undoubtedly bought a great asset. It was the perfect example of an asset that was underperforming massively. Yes, I’m talking about the football team and its actual record, but I’m also talking about the finances. Like any good business man, Haslam is deep in the middle of taking this underperforming neighborhood dive bar and attempting to make it into a premier destination restaurant. Regardless of his missteps, I do believe that Jimmy Haslam wants to succeed because it’s in his best interest to do that in order to maximize asset value and make money.
I also think he wants to do it because he loves football and wants owning the Browns to be fun. You and I both know that even if Jimmy Haslam has inflicted many of his own wounds since purchasing the Browns, he hasn’t had a lot of fun yet. He struggled through initial ownership with Pilot Flying J issues distracting him from his new venture. Then he had to get rid of his first management team when he unloaded Banner and Lombardi. He had to unload them partially because they alienated the first coaching staff – which was almost expertly set up to minimize risk but went unsupported. There’s no doubt in my mind that Jimmy is a competitive guy who just wants to succeed.
And yes, he’s finding it difficult in many ways, but none of those ways include what Jason La Canfora wrote about the Tennessee Titans. While I can rail against things that Jimmy Haslam has done for paragraphs and paragraphs, I need to draw the line on fairness somewhere. I recently talked about this in a podcast with regard to politics. You can smash a President for their policies or what they do in the office, but it’s a far leap to assign evil motivations to someone. There are undoubtedly some evil, selfish people in the world, but they’re honestly few and far between. Most people, whether you agree with them or not, have reasonably good and predictable intentions. In this case, I believe that Jimmy Haslam wants deeply to own a team that is going to perform well and not be subject to all this negativity.
That’s why I can’t put this latest La Canfora thing on Jimmy Haslam. I get where it comes from and I don’t believe (like some others) that Jason La Canfora just makes things up. I just think it’s an unfair piling on of a guy who has plenty of legitimate things to criticize. With Jimmy Haslam you just don’t have to try this hard.
39 Comments
hi Craig … this is an excellent article. i happen to be a big fan of his. the only things the man may’ve done wrong is the pilot/flying J thing , which has nothing to do with the browns , and maybe he stuck his nose in on the 1st round of the draft last year & influenced the manziel pick.
maybe you can clear something up for me : wasn’t banner & lombardi more or less forced on haslam by the nfl as condition of the sale ?? it was funny he already had farmer & scheiner in-house & these are probably the guys he wanted in there from the beginning.
… and i posted yesterday that haslam’s loyalty to the browns & the city of cleveland will be put to-the-test should this team-swapping story have any legs.
… i had heard & read that banner was hired BEFORE the sale to haslam was official & that lombardi was hired & there was no interview process.
Apparently the lack of even a smidgeon of Browns activity cannot stem the torrent of Browns posts. In March, when nothing at all is happening.
Just wait until Johnny gets picked up from rehab. That will be the start of three-a days. (Will not get sucked in … Will not get sucked in … )
browns fans rock !!
When Haslam came in, he stated that he wants to learn from those guys and eventually they would move on. The timetable was based on how quickly he thought he was learning things. He made it clear from the beginning that he wanted to be active, and those guy’s days were potentially numbered
While I wouldn’t say that Haslam has done a whole lot to assure fans, and the Pilot Flying J thing certainly doesn’t help, even if it seems it didn’t get up to him, I do think he gets an oversized share of criticism without basis.
Ultimately, the stadium is far better than it was; the team’s direction is far better than it was; it looks like Farmer/Pettine will be here a while, so we finally may have some stability; and the owner is clearly pumping money into the team, even if he’s not buying up every overpriced FA every fan may think will be helpful. People take the rumors as givens to feed a narrative that’s circularly based on the narrative itself: Haslam wants to own TEN, Haslam ordered the Johnny pick, Haslam interferes with the daily goings on, etc. etc. – none of which is ever corroborated but all is relied on to fit the narrative when the next rumor starts with similar lack of basis.
Just about the worst thing we know he’s done was hiring Banner/Lombardi, which may or may not have been forced on him by the NFL, and for all intents and purposes wasn’t as terrible as it’s been made out to be. They traded Richardson for value and traded picks for value, and helped find Farmer and Pettine before being shown the door.
IF the discussion of team swapping has any legs there is precedent for it. In 1972 Robert Irsay purchased the LA Rams for 19 million and traded it to Carroll Rosenbloom for the Baltimore Colts and cash. Dollar amounts would obviously be different but it could happen.
You don’t believe La Confora makes it up? I mean all the negative press about Jimmy Haslam has come from one source this offseason. The guy who is good pals with Mike Lombardi, who has a big-time ax to grind. Listen, if there was a preponderance of evidence out there from media members besides La Canfora that Haslam wanted out of Cleveland, or that he is running a dumpster fire of a franchise, I would be inclined to agree.
But when you have one guy, with serious connections to sour grapes, hiding behind anonymous sources, I think it’s gullible to take him at his word. This is the problem by the way with reporting on the NFL as that anonymous sources are so routine that it becomes hard to parse whether or not you are getting a straight story.
I just think this story is ludicrous, as have been most stories about Haslam and I would expect the hometown media to do a little better job of vetting negative information about a franchise, particularly when it continually comes from the same person.
Stockholm Syndrome.
Craig, you have a lot more faith in La Canfora’s integrity than I do. He wrote that “there might be backroom talks.” That sounds completely made up to me.
Who would leak a story that something “might” be going on? Someone who doesn’t have any idea what’s going on, that’s who. But JLC runs with it anyway.
This is a totally irresponsible poo-fling, and I’m disappointed that you had to dredge it up again. There’s nothing here. It’s garbage.
LMAO !! … browns fans still rock !!
Of course Haslam doesn’t want to be subject to all this negativity. But does he just not want to get criticized, or does he want to run a competent franchise? The negativity will go away when the ship looks like it just has a chance to be righted. Browns fans are very forgiving, they’ll start preparing for a 10 win season as soon as camp owns, even after this type of offseason.
As far as evil motivations, its not the worst of crimes, but what Pilot Flying J pulled off seems like it at least comes close to fitting the bill.
hi EZZIE … good post. ask yourself this , if you were owner of the browns , wouldn’t it be in your nature , right or wrong , to get involved with the goings-ons ?
hi CRO … i guess anything can happen. but i would think it’s not easy as just swapping. haslam would have to sell his interest in the browns & then the nfl would have to approve the sale of the titans to him … 2 problems : 1) the pilot / flying J hasn’t affected his ownership in the browns , but could very well affect his getting approved for another team … and 2) the titans will cost at least twice as much as what he paid for the browns.
good post …
the pilot / flying J thing is going to linger , though it has nothing to do with the browns.
I wonder how La Canfora would like it if Haslam tweeted out that there might be backroom talks about La Canfora joining ISIS.
Haslam has had enough legal troubles I’d advise against this kind of an idea.
Haslam has been an unmitigated mess he’s just lucky his predecessor set the bar on the floor for him to step over otherwise it would be worse.
It humors me to no end how much s*** we give Haslam for imaginary, unsubstantiated stuff (like trying to trade the Browns as though they were a Pokemon card) over the concrete, real screw-ups like hiring then firing Banner/Chud after all of one year.
there is also the MLB 3-way swap. Loria selling the Expos/Nats to MLB to buy the Marlins to allow Henry to buy the Red Sox.
Of course, this scenario is predicated on the belief that someone else actually wants to own the Browns.
What drives me nuts is not the lack of named sources, but even the lack of specifics. “Toxic” “Worse than before” “Might want to trade teams, because it has happened, and he’s from Tennessee”. How do you refute claims this vague? Is that his angle?
Jimmy bought the team for $1bil. They are worth a couple hundred million more now (at least – likely even more than that). Until the crash (and you have to think there’s a crash coming), sport teams are good money bets.
You’re considering the Browns a sports team? Sure, whatever.
I wish you were writing a few articles (NOT a criticism of Craig!).
Not defending JLC in any way, shape or form but anonymous sources and journalism are hardly new or unique to the NFL. Completely agree that local media have perfected the art of ball-dropping.
I own several things including my car. I have no interest in getting under the hood to ensure it runs smoothly everyday.
There are professionals for that.
I’m always up for writing. (Well, when I have the time…)
He bought himself a little leeway by firing Lombanner.
A little.
What a glorious day on WFNY that was.
Just something to chew on, for what its worth, is that imagine how inept Randy Lerner left the Browns. We saw it on the players side. Now imagine that same ineptitude was deep in every facet of the organization. Marketing. Administration. Communication. Merchandising. Facilitiles. Operations.
People think the owner is just keeping on the GM so we get a new QB and voila, good times. In reality, the entire franchise was performly poorly and he dug in a lot of areas. Now, his legal quagmire was not helping his financial and time resources. That’s on him.
But I think he had to deconstruct how terribly the entire franchise was operated and go from there. It’s like how a complete home rehab can be more work than building from scratch.
excellent post … most people have no clue just how deep it goes & what it takes to get things moving in the right direction.
i have heard the titans may cost closer to $2 billion …
excellent analogy CMM … but are you saying that you would be able to sit back & let people do their jobs ? that you wouldn’t get involved in major decisions ?
i am a business owner & it is hard not to get involved … very hard. i realize you hire people to do a job … but there’s that fine line of being involved & not meddling , because if you are totally out-of-the-loop , that’s when things can get away from you.
i am only guessing (and hoping) that mr. haslam learned a valuable lesson in last year’s first round of the draft.
“you would be able to sit back & let people do their jobs”
The mark of a truly great business owner is to understand just exactly what their role is.
Their role is Management of the highest level.
Does the labor force like to see upper management down in the mine schlepping alongside them every once in awhile…sure. It shows humility and empathy.
But what does the labor force enjoy more? …Job security, career development, public accolades and pay increases to match performance.
Those things only happen if the captain of the ship is keeping a fixed eye on the horizon, not spending half the day below deck.
…..okay that was a car, a mine and a ship analogy all in one thread. +1 for me.
Tearing a room down to the studs and rebuilding it takes way longer than building a new room from scratch. Demolition and clean up takes way longer than you’d imagine.
Yep. Exactly, which is what they are doing.
LaCanfora may not make some of this stuff up, but his source Lombardi sure does.
I totally forgot about that one.