The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Haslam should distance himself as owner
Here is some free advice for team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam: Pay the bills and butt out. Show up on game days, rub shoulders with the owners of the opposing team and your rich acquaintances, enjoy the perks that go along with owning a football team with a blindly loyal fan base and continue your wonderful philanthropy that makes you a vital part of the Cleveland community.
But when it comes to football decisions, starting with the coaching search that will be fullgo in January, Haslam should not get involved.
The Browns are in this quagmire because of Haslam’s ridiculous decision in 2016 to make Sashi Brown head of football operations, even though Brown had no experience evaluating players. Haslam should leave the football decisions strictly then to General Manager John Dorsey.
That’s why Haslam hired Dorsey last December. It wasn’t so Dorsey could model Cleveland Browns sweatshirts. That’s what Haslam should do, but that isn’t what he’s going to do.
Hue Jackson was fired as head coach Oct. 29. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was named interim head coach.
Haslam and Dorsey conducted a news conference to say how they are focused on the last half of the season.
The Browns (2-5-1) have lost three straight.
“We have a lot of football left in this season,” Dorsey said optimistically. “We have some very talented players on this team right now as we speak. As I look at this thing, our job is to support Gregg and his staff right now and put those players in position to succeed.”
The fiery Williams could turn the Browns around, but the problems that doomed Jackson did not follow Jackson out the door. The offensive line still can’t protect Baker Mayfield, most of the wide receivers are still inexperienced and unreliable and the defense still can’t make a stop at crucial times.
January will produce another coaching search if Williams fails. It will be the fourth since Haslam
bought the Browns in 2012 and the first for Dorsey as Browns GM. So how will that search be conducted?
“I think that we’ll have a collaborative effort in everything that we do here,” Haslam said. “Right now, we’re focused on the next eight games and Gregg and his staff winning as many of those games that we can.”
“Collaborative effort” means Haslam will be involved in the search. Again. That cannot possibly help the situation.
The Haslams should go on vacation the day after the current season ends. I hear Aruba is nice this time of year. Have Dorsey shoot you a text when he decides on the next coach.
Haslam is 22-81-1 as Browns owner. He has fired four head coaches (he inherited Pat Shurmur in 2012) and hired three of those – Rob Chudzinski, Mike Pettine and Jackson. He should learn from
the late Al Lerner, the Browns’ first owner in the expansion era. Lerner explained why he didn’t get involved in football decisions by saying, “I’m the president of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, too, but that doesn’t qualify me to do heart surgery.”
Jackson was 1-31 in 2016 and 2017 and probably would not have made it to 2018 if Jimmy and Dee Haslam weren’t blind to Jackson’s deficiencies.
Williams as head coach will report to Haslam, just as Jackson did. Jackson also reported to Dorsey. Now Williams will report to both. Dorsey also reports to Haslam.
“I dare say Hue was in John’s office more than he was in mine, and I suspect Gregg will be the same,” Haslam said. “The three of us work together. Hue, John and I worked together well, and I would expect the same with Gregg.”
Unlike Las Vegas, what
goes on in Browns headquarters doesn’t stay in Browns headquarters. The Browns’ reputation for being a dysfunctional mess doesn’t end with purging Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley (also fired) from the building. The Browns will have to prove things are different.
The dysfunction, constant losing and constantly changing coaches makes it difficult to lure top coaching candidates to Berea. It shouldn’t be that way this time, though. Mayfield, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb and David Njoku and potentially another high draft pick in 2019 is a good starting point for the next head coach.
Haslam staying out of the way could be the clincher.