Johnny Manziel’s birthday cake is everything you’d expect
December 10, 2014WFNY’s 12 Days of Christmas, 2014 Edition: Day Three
December 10, 2014Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year is an annual must-read. Sadly, that the national recognition rarely has anything to do with the teams or individuals whom we cover. In turn, WFNY will soon announce its choice for 2014’s Cleveland Sportsman of the Year. Here’s one of the nominations for that honor by an WFNY writer.
This year I am making the case for an unlikely candidate for Cleveland’s Sportsman of the Year when I talk about Jimmy Haslam. The mere thought that I might be making this case a year ago is mind-boggling at best and certifiably insane at worst. Jimmy Haslam was the carpetbagging southerner embroiled in his Pilot / Flying J investigation that proclaimed his company was blatantly ripping off customers. The rest stop business is obviously different in tons of different ways, but as far as first impressions go, it couldn’t have been much worse for Captain Haslam as he attempted to Pilot the Browns — pun intended — out of their historical practice of unintentionally ripping off their customers. His hired gun leader, Joe Banner tied his wagon to Michael Lombardi and the Browns were embarrassing themselves on and off the field with stories of power struggles and near physical confrontations with fired coaches.
Somehow this man, Jimmy Haslam, is now a candidate for Sportsman of the Year. That’s a good thing — as unlikely as it is — and it speaks to what a phenomenal year he’s had (even if it’s all relative).
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Best to be invisible…
The best part about this year for Jimmy Haslam is that we’ve seen and heard almost nothing from him. Other than some spy-shot photos of the owner taking in a practice here and there, Haslam’s been about as present as Mike Holmgren was rumored to be. There will always be speculation about Haslam imposing his will on draft day with regard to Johnny Manziel, but even that seems to be relatively unfounded. Where Jerry Jones was rumored to have had Manziel’s name on a draft card and had to be physically restrained from turning it in, there’s no such smoke signal coming from the Browns to indicate a fire.
Addition by subtraction…
For all the mistakes Haslam made in the prior year, he seemed to go above and beyond to rectify it, regardless of the cost to his political capital. Haslam and the Browns couldn’t have looked worse between the circus of a presser when Michael Lombardi was hired to the eventual firing of Rob Chudzinski after only one season. The NFL had paired Haslam with Joe Banner and after Banner was fired, it seems possible that maybe some in the NFL just wanted Banner to have a job so he’d stop filling their text message boxes with the incessant communiques that he now plasters all over Twitter. Banner’s smart and savvy, but he’s not the leader and driver of culture that you want.
We’ll have to see if Jimmy Haslam made the right choice in committing to Ray Farmer, but it’s almost uncontested this side of Joe Lull that ridding Berea of Joe Banner was not only a good idea, but completely necessary. Banner says he’s an outside consultant for some NFL teams now, and that’s a safe place for him to be utilized to his maximum. Again, this isn’t to say Banner isn’t good at a lot of things, but you have to question a man who so stridently hitched his wagon to Michael Lombardi. And question that man Jimmy Haslam did until he was forced to react and shock the world — Joe Banner included — when he fired him.
The new normal…
What has resulted is far from perfect. The Cleveland Browns won’t ever be perfect, of course, but what they have now is something resembling normalcy thanks to the boldness of Haslam. There’s a balance of power. There’s a professional personnel department led by Ray Farmer and a coaching tree led by Mike Pettine, both of whom answer to Jimmy. Sometimes the simplest solutions are also the most elegant. Sometimes a super tight power trio rock and roll band can sound bigger and better than an ill-practiced five-piece mess.
And that’s why my candidate for Sportsman of the Year in Cleveland is Jimmy Haslam. The sound of the band isn’t perfect yet, but maybe this is Nirvana’s Bleach album. Maybe these wins the Browns are putting together against a weak schedule are “Floyd the Barber,” and “About a Girl,” as the team is poised to hit us with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in the next year or two. I’ll spare you any further comparison, mostly because I can’t bare the thought of any awkward comparison that casts the roles of Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl in this Cleveland sports scenario.
The point is one of possibility created by Jimmy Haslam a year after there was none. Although not necessarily likely, it all feels possible today. After a painful learning curve, the Browns’ owner seems to have turned a corner and pivoted on a dime. It was necessary, but it wasn’t easy. It caused some serious embarrassment nationally in the press and caused Haslam to sound pretty laughable talking about continuity. He stared all that in the face on the heels of what one must assume was one of the worst years of his life, and actually did something about it.
13 Comments
Once you get past the initial surprise, that’s a pretty solid pick. Yep, ol’ Jimmy has withstood the slings and arrows of Stooge-hood and came out looking pretty good.
He had to be pretty confident in himself and secure in his abilities to give the front office another upheaval knowing that he would be crucified for it. And his choice of Pettine as head coach also looks pretty solid.
Good thinking, Craig.
I guess I have to ask how pleased we’d be if they hadn’t faced a schedule ranked 30th so far by Sagarin or if they hadn’t been on the beneficial end of a couple more last drives of the game than not. They’re actually competitive almost every week, so yes, it’s a step up, but Football Outsides has them at 21th, and 538 has them at 24th. This seems like a team that is more likely to go 6-10 than 10-6 when the schedule bumps up to just normal difficulty. I can see the improvements coming down the road, so yes, I like the direction, but I’d have to give my sportsman of the year award to the Browns’ schedulemaker more than anyone within the organization.
Yeah, surviving lawsuits, firing a terrible guy you hired, and staying out of the way for the past 6 months aren’t exactly the best of award-winning credentials. I’d put Haslam somewhere between Scott Atchison and Barkevious Mingo on the list.
Who is the oldest between Atchison, Weeden, and Haslam?
Holmgren: Brandon, this is Mr. Haslam.
Weeden: Sir?
Haslam: Listen, Brendinnnn. See there’s this little….equipment check we’ll call it….that I need to do. It’ll only take a second, and it won’t hurt.
At Weeden’s age, he’s lucky Haslam wasn’t checking him for an enlarged prostate!
No doubt. Hernia checks out ok.
To do what Haslem did is extremely rare. He took accountability for his mistake and fixed them – Not just change, but actual improvement, We haven’t seen that in a long time. Al Lerner is the Closest example of an owner doing things right.
If you don’t think this was a big deal, go back to week 17 of 2013 and examine the state of the Browns.
Al Lerner is the Closest example of an owner doing things right.
Yeah, he was close. He flew Art Modell out of town, but forgot to make sure to keep the team when he left.
You have to be kidding. A man, whose company ripped off tens of millions of dollars from trucking companies, does not deserve any type of an award. Except perhaps, a Lifetime Scumbag Achievement Award.
how can anyone who even knows a smidge about football say the browns had or will EVER have an EASY scedule playing the steelers ,ravens and bengals TWICE every year? i challenge you brain children who crack on my boys every year to pick any team in the nfl and put them in the afc north and see how they do….im waiting?…
GO BROWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10-6 and beyond 😉
I think the correct answer is here: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/lists/the-15-worst-owners-in-sports-20141125/jimmy-haslam-cleveland-browns-20141125
I think the credited response on Haslam is here: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/lists/the-15-worst-owners-in-sports-20141125/jimmy-haslam-cleveland-browns-20141125
If you want a Sportsman of the Year from the Browns you could do a lot worse than Johnson Bademosi: http://mmqb.si.com/2014/12/10/johnson-bademosi-cleveland-browns-eric-garner-michael-brown-tamir-rice-i-cant-breathe/