The Winning Ways of Jimmy Haslam

Jimmy Haslam is a maniac obsessed with winning to a point that he does not know the appropriate approach to go about doing it. Or, Jimmy Haslam is so obsessed with winning that he’ll do anything to make it happen, and just made a genius decision that will pave the way for a winning team in Cleveland. I’m a patient man (clearly unlike Mr. Haslam), so I’m willing to wait before giving a clear verdict, but to most fans, Haslam is looking more like the former than the latter. In a little over a year, Haslam has fired two head coaches and two front offices, a frightening statistic in a league that has proven that consistency wins championships.

At the time, the hiring of Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi didn’t look particularly impressive. Banner had years of experience with the successful Philadelphia Eagles, but his departure from the team came from a reported rift with head coach Andy Reid, which then begs the question of how much Banner was really involved in the team’s success. Lombardi already had an unfavorable history with the Browns, and was a reminder of the unsuccessful Bill Belichick era and subsequent move of the team to Baltimore. Yet, Haslam went with these guys.

From a fan’s perspective, it didn’t seem quite clear who was doing what. Banner appeared to be the face of the front office, who would speak to the media. After his initial press conference, Lombardi simply disappeared, and was presumably doing player evaluation. At times, it was conveyed that Lombardi was making personnel decisions and Banner was presenting them. Then, it seemed that Banner was entirely responsible for personnel decisions, which then led to questions of what Lombardi was even doing and why he wouldn’t appear at press conferences. Even though fans didn’t have an idea as to what was going on, the owner should know, but when taking questions after the firing of Rob Chudzinski, Haslam’s response to Lombardi’s lack of presence was that he hadn’t thought much of it. With yesterday’s firings, Haslam may have been more clueless than we thought.

If the timeline of events seems right, then Haslam simply did not do his homework and took things for granted. He chose Banner perhaps for his experience, but perhaps never truly asked around as to his reputation in the NFL community. He didn’t take into account Lombardi’s reputation among Cleveland fans and previous history in front offices, and relied on Banner’s opinion of him. He fired Pat Shurmur under the presumption they could bring in Chip Kelly, and ultimately settled on Rob Chudzinski. He fired Chudzinski under expectations that he would do better as a first-year coach based off the performance of other first-year coaches even though other first-year coaches didn’t have to work with three different quarterbacks, a non-existent running game, and a front office clearly working on a rebuilding project for the next season. He then took 25 days to have Mike Pettine, clearly not either Banner or Lombardi’s first selection, hired as the head coach. Whatever happened in that coaching search and whatever disagreements arose between Banner, Lombardi, and Haslam clearly led to yesterday morning’s announcement. Haslam has to be embarrassed, and either he’s looking to rid himself of embarrassing actions of a first year in one move or he is the cause of all the embarrassment and will continue to be.

Jimmy Haslam, not at a press conference for a change.

Haslam has decided to keep Alec Scheiner on as President. He has hired Ray Farmer as the General Manager. Both are younger executives who have developed a good reputation in the league. Haslam has defined their roles. It may be a good sign that Farmer was the top choice of the Miami Dolphins for their GM position, but turned it down to remain with the Browns. The Dolphins (dysfunctional in their own way due to the Jonathan Martin scandal this season) were looking to right their ship and gain a better front office perception in the league (particularly after the Davone Bess issue that strangely involved the Browns as well) with Farmer.

The big question marks are still there. Farmer openly stated he played no role in the interview process to hire Pettine. So, will he and Pettine even get along? Farmer also worked as the assistant to Mike Lombardi. Was he just following under Lombardi’s watch or did some of his decisions and advice lead to some of the Browns’ problems? Most importantly, Haslam has said that both Farmer and Scheiner will report to him. It’s not clear what that means. If it means that Haslam would just like to be involved and have knowledge of the football operations (because he clearly had no clue with Banner and Lombardi), then that’s acceptable. If Haslam is looking to start making football decisions and rely on impulse feelings, then Browns fans may be looking at a new GM and coach again next year.