When Jim Donovan, the longtime Browns radio play-by-play announcer and sports director at Cleveland TV station WKYC, and the authority on the team speaks, everybody listens, including the club’s top executives.

His thoughts and opinions carry that kind of power in this market, and he has the unique ability to express them tactfully, respectfully and strongly. He doesn’t scream and holler and beat people up.

And so it was when he expressed the other day that the Browns, specifically those top people such as General Manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski, need to do a much better job of connecting with their fans and being honest and forthright with what they really think.

No one — including the Browns if they would . . . well, be honest and forthright with what they really think — can argue with any of that. Mr. Voice, as I call Donovan when I communicate with him, speaks the truth. It is a fact.

Let’s take that thought a step further by pointing out the fans are the reason why the Browns exist. They fought to get their team back and, in unprecedented fashion, were successful, after the original franchise moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season.

So, they are the real owners of the team. They were here long before Jimmy and Dee Haslam arrived, and they will be here long after they leave.

As such, they deserve the truth, not some skim-off-the-top public relations spin full of hollow words. They deserve that respect.

That the Browns fail to do so is reprehensible. It is just plain wrong. They are being derelict of duty.

It is well past time for that to change, and it is a good time, too, for the Browns, with the secretive way they conduct their business, their trade for polarizing quarterback Deshaun Watson and their poor play on the field, have ticked off many in their fan base. The club could win those fans back by offering this kind of olive branch.

Will they, though?

I’m not sure. There are too many people in Browns headquarters in Berea who are too proud — and too self-consumed — to ever admit they’ve made a mistake.

Steve King