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March 23, 2015Anderson Varejao talked out of attempted return this season
March 23, 2015In what would be a move best made for a cable-based reality television show, could Jimmy Haslam Jr. swap his stake in the Cleveland Browns for that of the Tennessee Titans?
According to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora, the sale of the Titans is becoming a reality. It’s long been rumored, but the wheels are apparently in motion with something likely occurring within the next nine months. Dave Tepper, a billionaire who owns a sliver of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is rumored to be in the running, but another billionaire who just so happened to recently own a piece of the Steelers could also be in the mix in in the form of Haslam.
there remain rumblings of one bizarre, remote possibility, which would involve a complicated franchise switch. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam badly, badly wanted to own the Titans, in his home state of Tennessee. But at the time the Browns became available a few years back, he had a decision to make — wait for the Titans to come to the market, eventually, and hope to win a bidding war against giants like Smith and Tepper (sources said he was advised by the league that’s a battle he might not be able to win), or move quickly to land the Browns. He chose Cleveland.
In his perfect world, however, if someone other than Tepper ends up with the Titans, several highly-placed sources have suggested there might be backroom talks of a potential franchise swap with the Browns (Tepper is a Pittsburgh guy through and through, and would never want to own their rival in the Browns). It would be, ultimately, probably impossible, but it’s a dynamic other owners are watching and many interested parties will be monitoring.
La Canfora quotes a source who cautioned to not rule out a swap, something that would have been almost unheard of prior to this geographic alignment of stars.
Haslam’s ownership of the Browns has rapidly spiraled out of control since his arrival. Not long ago, he was sitting in the Dawg Pound, high fiving fans and talking about consistency and continuity in correlation with playoffs and championship aspirations. Since this point, however, he’s been embroiled in a scandal involving his company Pilot Flying J, has been considered to be a “meddling” owner who churned his front office after one season at the helm, and is currently awaiting word from the NFL regarding his hand-picked GM, Ray Farmer, texting to the sidelines in a blatant dismissal of NFL rules.
If Haslam did manage to toss in the towel on the Browns and somehow get to Tennesee before the summer, at least he’d get to avoid potentially being on HBO.
26 Comments
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I don’t get it. how do i embed a gif?
…
The cup-checks just keep on coming…
https://forshiggles.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/weeden-and-haslams.jpg
Tell me more, Jason.
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http://img.pandawhale.com/74343-Tombstone-well-bye-gif-hji0.gif
This is just hilarious. La Canfora calls it impossible within the same article in which he is explaining its plausibility.
This would not be unprecedented. In 1972, Robert Irsay, owner of the L.A. Rams, and Carroll Rosenbloom, owner of the Baltimore Colts, swapped franchises. Irsay moved to Baltimore and took over the Colts, and Rosenbloom moved to L.A. and took over the Rams. Weird.
JIMMMMMAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!! http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view2/3312596/goodfellas-henry-hill-shower-o-s.gif
I kind of doubt the NFL owners would approve of Haslam owning another team.
Lacantreporta at it again?
http://i.imgur.com/IqktvjH.gif
Maybe Tennessee will give him a hometown…rebate!
Thank you, thank you. I’m here all week. Try the veal.
that is hilarious
It just never ends this clown show was made for HBO!
No no no no Sam, my friend.
It’s a “remote bizarre possibility”, one that would be “ultimately probably impossible”.
http://media.giphy.com/media/ToMjGpKniGqRNLGBrhu/giphy.gif
Lacantreporta it again?
Banner and Lombardi at it again?
There fixed that for you. 😉
Truly my all time favorite.
The html from that site looks like something my cat left on the floor after eating biltong.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
No offense but why do the public musings of this clown get any attention. This isn’t news, it’s speculation by a writer that apparently has an ax to grind with our current ownership.
Geeezz, I hate this guy!
This will never happen, would completely undermine the credibility of the NFL. Ya screwed up one team, so here have another. What is wrong with you for writing this kind of Article. And you site Laconfora as some kind of source? He is terrible!
“. . . there might be backroom talks.” And then again, there might not be. Who knows? Not La Canfora. He’s just whoring for attention by flinging poo against the wall again. Completely irresponsible reporting, if you can even call it that.
Hey Jason, here’s a hot take. There might be Martians on the moon. Run with it, baby.
That’s a little bit like Art Modell going broke running one team, being given a fresh start, and then going broke again running another team.
hi Scott … i don’t think many of us are putting any credibility on la canfora’s story. even if it is true , this would put haslam’s loyalty to the browns & the city of cleveland to the test.
i personally like the guy , he wants to win . the only thing i see that he has done wrong (pilot / flying J) has nothing to do with the browns … i would rather have a “meddling” owner over a “do nothing” owner (randy lerner) any day . and wasn’t his first FO (banner & lombardi) forced on him by the nfl as condition of part of the sale ?? i still say canning banner & lombardi was the smartest thing he has done so far.
… and yes , he probably butted-in on the drafting of manziel … hopefully , he learned a lesson on that one … let farmer do the job you hired him to do !!
I read La Canfora’s article 4 times and I still can’t make much sense of it.
1. Who would have to be in the running for the buy and switch to work?
2. How many different ways can he say “not likely”? We get it: it’s either a rumor or a speculation. Either way, it doesn’t really matter.
3. It feels like this is a “I said it first” article. Throw everything at the wall and when the real story breaks you can say you were there first.
4. What in the world is he trying to say with that last run-on-hyphenated-sentence-paragraph?