Rookie Tribe Manager Frank Robinson Grants a Tryout to T.J. O’Hays
February 13, 2015The Seahawks might target Jordan Cameron
February 13, 2015The scariest part about all the bad press the Browns have gotten recently might just be with relation to Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam. In my first round of writing about the Browns with Randy Lerner at the helm, that always felt like the biggest, un-jump-able hurdle that the team faced. My thought process always was that you could change coaches or executives and players, but that the hardest thing to change was a fatally flawed owner. So, when Jason La Canfora’s blast came out about the Browns and their top-down muck, it seemed all that much more problematic. Jimmy Haslam spoke to it directly recently, via Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“I feel very good directionally about where we’re headed,” Haslam said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “That’s why [the article] was like getting sucker-punched when it kind of came out of left field – ‘whoa, that’s not what we’re seeing.’ Now, I also accept that until we win and win consistently which we have not done – they didn’t do before we got here – and we haven’t done, we don’t have any credibility. We don’t have any equity with y’all. We accept that. We have to prove we can win and win consistently and we accept that.”
Haslam goes on to say that the three-day getaway that he had with his people had them feeling renewed as an organization on the heels Kyle Shanahan’s loud departure. I get that to a certain respect as well. Whenever you take the time to really refocus with a team, whether in business or even in some kind of committee, I think we all know that feeling. Still, the better situation is where a group doesn’t need to hit that reset button in order to refocus, re-energive or whatever other “re” they were trying to achieve by having a “retreat.”
In the end, all this touchy feely stuff should probably stay out of the public realm. Jimmy Haslam will never escape the meddling owner moniker until his team starts producing consistently on the field. All the rest of the noise is just self-affirming noise to reflect on the record the team put up on the field. I’m not necessarily saying you should ignore it, but keep it is important to put it in context.
We probably shouldn’t even bother trying to figure out whether or not the Browns are dysfunctional. We should focus on whether or not they’re a good football team. So far, they’re not.
42 Comments
I note that he didn’t say “candidly” once, which means he may actually be telling the truth here
Good organizations: Everybody has to understand the big picture in order to work cohesively, so even the business people strive to learn the game. Bad organizations: why are the marketing people taking part in football meetings? Good organizations: stretch the rules to the breaking point. Bad organizations: caught up in all kinds of ridiculous shenanigans like illegal texts to the sidelines. Good organizations: get the most out of flawed players. Bad organizations: acquire flawed prospects and are saddled with the consequences.
Haslam is right – they need to win to have credibility. But fans should be smart enough to distinguish between the examples that reflect on quality and the ones that don’t. The Seahawks would be (to avoid the use of the word “thugs”) unsophisticated whether they are winning or losing (Wilson is a notable exception). Lucky for Richard Sherman they’ve been winning.
Jimmy, you fired his pal.
LaCafora’s butthurt fuels his personal vendetta against you. Get used to it.
I disagree. Supposed good NFL organizations have as many of the same issues, but they do a better job overall of either covering them up (Steelers with their PD “cleaner”) or by instilling an atmosphere that compartmentalizes them (Belichick Patriots). Or, they have Andrew Luck that covers it all up (Colts).
We might be a good organization. We might be a bad organization. Honestly, it is too early to determine it in either direction and 1 year of disappointing 1st round draft picks is not reason for condemnation. We will see if they can keep their house issues to themselves or if they can win on the field in spite of what gets made public.
“So far, they’re not.”
Bottom line.
Win and this all goes away.
Gonna be a long off season.
Some of the more reputable Plain Dealer writers have pointed out how strange it is that Haslam didn’t ask Farmer what he was texting or anything else about this. You would think that the CEO would want to know everything that happened since his team might get into trouble for it.
Is this a case of turning a blind eye and saying, “If you’re doing anything wrong, I don’t want to know about it?” For example, the “plausible deniability” that allows him to swear that he knew nothing about the PFJ rebate scam.
Or is he lying?
I don’t know, but it is strange that he had no curosity about the texting — or professes that he didn’t. This doesn’t pass the smell test.
such a great call on Andrew Luck. He and Peyton Manning have covered that team’s flaws for years.
or maybe Haslam simply didn’t feel it best to tell a reporter about his private conversations with an employee knowing the media crapstorm that these days springs from every tiny opening, and stonewalled the inevitable follow up questions/speculations with a simple “no, didn’t ask him.” And I would have no problem with that. He doesn’t owe the paper or public a high intensity light on how he is handling everything. He just owes us an entertaining product.
I understand that the media hates me thinking this. They have ads to sell and chaos talk gooses ratings and readership. I don’t care about that.
Thanks, Craig, for not basing your piece on the assumption that everything La Canfora wrote was the truth. Yep, texting obviously went on. But his claim that Haslam’s already decided to purge the FO purge at the end of next season and told the secret source this is clearly nonsense. One of those things where if Farmer is later canned the writer says “see? Told ya.” And if he’s not, no one remembers, we’re on to new excitements.
When assessing whether the Browns are a mess internally, Haslam is like the last person whose word can be trusted.
If we take his Flying J track record into account, then we know that one of the following two things are true:
1) He has no idea what’s actually happening in his own organization.
2) He’s a big crooked liar.
Hence, “Or is he lying?”
If Haslam doesn’t want to answer the question, he should do what Pettine does and say, “I’m not going to talk about that today.” People respect that.
If the best Haslam can do in handling a sticky situation is to lie about it, that’s pretty sad.
Again, I don’t know if he lied. Maybe he is just clueless, literally and figuratively.
And if the cure is to “win and this all goes away” then it’s going to be a long on-season as well.
I don’t really care whether they get along or not. I just want Farmer to stop the trend of Browns GM’s trying to prove their smarter than the rest of the league. Draft a damn WR in the top two rounds or hit the road.
the scariest part is that appears that there are four dudes (haslam-scheiner-brown-farmer) in the building with an interest in doing pettine’s job and the guy at the top encourages this.
does pettine show up at construction project staff meetings? if not, why not considering it’s such good practice to have a matrixed organization and ‘more intelligent people in rooms.’
also two points need to be made with respect to reporters and agendas:
1. JLC’s personal feelings toward haslam don’t act as a disqualifier for his story’s veracity. also ex-employees are more free to express themselves and -again- their employment status doesn’t make them inaccurate remembers.
2. as long we’ve got our cynical hats on and want to be all about questioning what motivates JLC,,, shouldn’t we also question the non-reporting of all this ‘dysfunction’ by local media types who are beholden unto scheiner for access to browns facilties? isn’t their primary ‘agenda’ to maintain their credentials so they can continue to be invited to private group pressers held by jimmy?
[please stop psychoanalyzing JLC. his report has been mostly confirmed by lane adkins and those points which haven’t been confirmed are contradicted by jimmy ‘i-dont-know-whats-in-the-texts’ haslam.]
Sigh.
I think he did lie and it was unnecessary. One of the biggest problems Haslam seems to have is that every time he speaks to the media he creates problems rather than resolving them. What the media asks and accepts as the head of a PFJ is night and day from the owner of a “public” entity such as a professional sports franchise. Jimmy needs to hire a coach for his little fireside chats that keep turning into infernos every time he deigns to speak.
YOU’RE NOT HELPING, JIMMY!
Sigh indeed.
Congrats, guys, you share the Sigh Young award.
I love how we’re not allowed to psychoanalyze La Confora, but we’re expected to take as gospel every hack’s psychoanalysis of Jimmy Haslam, et al.
You know why it felt like a sucker punch? Because it was a sucker punch.
I’ve been reading your narrative across the blogosphere along with those who’ve offered the counter perspective to yours. I’m still confused why you’re lending so much veracity to JLC’s report and discounting the obvious vitriol and agenda (certainly the appearance) contained within his singular reporting of said dysfunction. I’m especially surprised at your buy-in of his version of events considering your write up last year of JLC’s report of Shanahan dysfunction around his tenure in Washington and his 180 on Shanny with this latest.
In any other industry people taking the initiative to better understand other roles within their company makes them better equipped to fully understand and execute their own role in the big picture. If Farmer feels like sharing his time reviewing film with others interested how is this harming the coaching staff’s ability to do their job? You’re reaching conclusions that their only motivation is to interfere with no evidence other than your own prejudice.
“JLC’s personal feelings toward haslam don’t act as a disqualifier…” Of course they do. While they do not act as an outright disqualifier of everything he wrote they are a gigantic grain of salt which can’t be ignored. Writing with an agenda is a very different animal than reporting a series of facts. You know this.
“…shouldn’t we also question the non-reporting of all this ‘dysfunction’ by local media types…” Isn’t another possibility that the dysfunction reported only existed for those with an ax to grind? Isn’t it possible that the local reporters weren’t reporting what wasn’t there? Why does JLC get an automatic vote of validity while all the locals are buffoons?
(Yes, many are buffoons in my experience but a few are quite good and thorough. Yet your supposition is that NONE of them saw any of this so they were ALL wrong while JLC is above reproach?! You of all people seem like the last I would expect to take this stand.)
Finally, my take on Lane’s work has been that JLC is reporting a great deal more dysfunction than actually exists. Does some exist? Of course and obviously but show me a single FO across the league where none exists.
Which is getting old.
Badum bum. I’ll be here all week.
And I’ll say it yet again, for example, anyone reporting Johnny Manziel’s checking into rehab as a sign of dysfunction is either an unthinking fool not to be trusted or a lying hypocrite (not to be trusted).
“we’re expected to take as gospel every hack’s psychoanalysis of Jimmy Haslam, et al.”
i’m not sure it’s possible to misinterpret what i said any more comprehensively and yet so succinctly. Congrats.
Yeah. Wasn’t an interpretation, but an independent observation. You certainly don’t have to like it (but I’ll accept whatever trophy you’re handing out!).
It’s getting a little testy in here today, boys. Where’s RGB? We need some of his Tgif magic to send us into the weekend.
hi MG … and i believe the ravens have had 5 players arrested since the start of the 2014 season. there’s something happening on every team.
isn’t scheiner in charge of the salary cap ?? … if he is , i too would want to know a little something about the players.
… and i doubt anyone in the FO has anything to do with game plans & strategies. i think this whole thing is way overblown.
Dichotomies are fun.
“Hey, thanks for the warning.” (Stolen from B-bo)
nice
it’s too late and i’m no RGB, but…
http://cdn.videogum.com/files/2012/12/tomcruise7.gif
I got my wrist slapped for my troll cartoon, earlier. lol
Hey, it WAS funny…
Hey, don’t listen to the haters. I think they’re hilarious!
Mike, to your point that JLC’s personal feelings toward Haslam shouldn’t be a disqualifier, it surprises me how often people conflate having a bias/agenda with being wrong, as if the two were synonymous. However, you can be biased or have an agenda, and still be right. The former does not preclude the latter. Thus, invoking “bias” as a counterargument is inherently lazy, as well as often guilty of a certain logical fallacy.
Uncertainty? To be sure…not unlike so many other clubs.
Toxicity? Not so much.
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/index.ssf/2015/02/terrys_talkin_about_johnny_man_1.html
To ignore bias as though it would/could play no role in one’s reporting of events or search for truth is equally lazy. Assuming that recognizing the bias equates to employing it as THE counterargument is disingenuous.
Mea culpa…Freeman’s report is now officially the billowing smoke that points to an inevitable raging inferno. I was wrong. You were right.
Don’t forget to let Haslem into your wallet again so you can have one of those new super duper special new jerseys that are coming into your face in t minus 4-3-2…
HACK???
It’s “Haslam.”
Who?