To say that Jimmy Haslam had a rough start as owner of the Browns is more than fair.

It is totally accurate.

In fact, it is probably being far too kind. Realistically, in a lot of ways, it could not have gone much worse than it did.

I don’t have to go back and detail all the mistakes. Just as I do, you remember them.

But in acknowledging that, it is also fair to say that Haslam has improved – greatly so – since then. He learned a lot in those early struggles and has taken the lessons to heart.

I say all this because he and his wife, Dee, who is the co-owner of the team in every sense of the world, spoke with the media and gave a broad, wide-sweeping state-of-the-franchise presentation at the annual NFL owners meetings in Orlando.

There will be those people – in the media and out – who, in remembering only the bad start – the bad moments – have ridiculed everything the Haslams, especially Jimmy, said that day. That is unfortunate, because what they said – all of what they said, really – made total sense.

While saying that the team, with what it has done via trades and free agency, is “absolutely” better than it was several months, they also admitted that in being so bad the last two seasons, the Browns “have a long way to go.”

They said they are leaving the drafting up to new General Manager John Dorsey, and won’t meddle. Jimmy Haslam says, “I sit and listen,” when the real football guys talk. He’s he owner. That’s the only way he’s any kind of football guy. You want the owner being involved and informed, but you don’t want them breaking down film and picking players. It’s not smart business.

If you’re a Browns fan, then you’ve got to feel about this Jimmy Haslam – not the one who bought the team 5 ½ years ago – owning this team.

That’s fair to say.

More on what he Haslams had to say in my next post.