Here are a couple of things about Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam that will, in one way, explain plenty, but in another way will leave us speculating, at least officially so, with some educated guesses that are no doubt correct about some other issues.

When two strangers, a silver-haired man and a blond-haired woman, showed up at Brownshtood with then  Browns owner Randy Lerner in the middle of all the outside practice fields on one of the first days of the 2012 training camp, we soon found out that their names were Jimmy and Dee Haslam, the owners of Pilot Flying J  store chain, and they were going to be the new owners of the club at the cool cost of $1 billion.

As Jimmy Haslam surveyed the scene, he had the unmistakable appearance of a man who wanted to change nearly everything about the organization, and was bound and determined to do it.

And he has done so indeed, with the last item on the list, because of the breadth and enormity of it, was a domed stadium, something that had been bantied about for decades in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, including by longtime Browns owner Art Modell tracing back to the 1960s, but had never come to pass because no one had the combination of wealth, power, determination and foresight to do it. As Haslam would probably tell you in a private moment, that’s because he hadn’t arrived yet to provide that, and do it.

So, then, the complete renovation of Huntington Bank Field that was on the table as the longtime home of the Browns going forward was an option that he never seriously considered, even for a fleeting moment. The partial renovation done to it some years ago, early in Haslam’s tenure, was never more than a bandage to tide things over until the time was right for a domed stadium  — in the suburbs, where the land was cheaper and he wouldn’t have bumbling Cleveland city leaders in the way. And now the time is right.

So, no one — absolutely, positively no one — should be surprised by this, with the dome being the way forward. This, as mentioned, is a project long in the planning stages that needed only a big push in a variety of ways to make it a reality.

But just as that longtime dream of that dome is in the first stages of being realized, another longtime dream remains not just unfulfilled, but far from reality, and that is getting the Browns to their first Super Bowl. That these two dreams are happening — or not — simultaneously inot only fails to help Haslam’s stead with the done, but it also makes him seethe — and rightfully so — because the timing of it could not be worse.

In a season that began with the Browns having legitimate and understandable Super Bowl aspirations, they are but 1-6 and riding a five-game losing streak as they prepare to host the former Browns, the Baltimore Ravens, on Sunday.

The reason for the crash and burn?

That arguably the biggest, most expensive and most historic player acquisition in pro football history — the Browns’ trade for quarterback Deshaun Watson in which they gave the Houston Texans three first-round picks in the NFL Draft to consummate, and then signing him to a new, fully-guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract — has failed miserably, in historic proportions. It is possibly the worst move ever in pro sports, right up there with baseball’s Boston Red Sox dealing Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a song and a dance a century ago.

The oft-injured Watson is hurt again, this time seriously so with a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in last Sunday’s 21-14 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, causing frustrated Brown fans to, unfortunately and embarrassingly, cheer as he lay on the field. He will be out the rest of this season, and possibly longer. 

When he has played for the Browns, which is not that often, he has been horrible overall, and it has caused the team to have one of three worst offensive starts in itso history.

And did we mention that Watson came to town already with a list of sexual improprieties tied to him that is almost as long as the Terminal Tower is tall?

So, then, it’s no wonder that Browns fans — and people in and close to the game nationwide — were completely put off from the start with this whole mess.

The quarterback the Browns quickly set at the curb for trash pickup to make room for Watson, Baker Mayfield, is tearing things up with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the second straight season. That is another layer.

Jimmy Haslam is, like most successful businessmen, an exceedingly proud man who is set on winning — and winning big — and who doesn’t like to look bad, and he is losing games, and the confidence of Browns fans, to a great degree. He has been not just embarrassed but humiliated. There is a big difference between the two.

It doesn’t get much worse.

With the situation as it is, you have to believe Haslam is having some — or a lot of — serious and uncomfortably straightforward conversations with his two top men, General Manager Andrew Berry and head coach head coach Kevin Stefanski, in whom he has shown great trust publically and whose responsibility it was to make this franchise-defining decision work in the form of the team competing regularly for Suoer Bowl trips and titles. As it stands now, the Browns couldn’t see that level of excellence with a telescope.

At the cost of $1 billion, Jimmy — and Dee — Haslam have a billion-dollar headache on their hands. Seeing this through — making the right moves to fix it — will take everything.

Steve King