Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is a proud man.
Really, all successful business people are proud – fiercely so. And Haslam, with the way he took over a struggling Pilot Flying J from his father and transformed it into a thriving gas station/convenience store chain along the interstates once again, is certainly a hugely successful businessman.
As such, what has happened to the Browns since he bought them in 2012 has to make him grit his teeth and lock his jaw. He is no doubt embarrassed, humiliated and repulsed. Successful people hate to get embarrassed, humiliated and repulsed.
So, then, the question is simply this: Is Haslam more distraught about the Browns being in last place in the NFL? Or that they are in last place among Cleveland sports franchises?
Hmmm.
The NFL situation is much more pubic. The Browns finished 1-15 last year, which was the worst record in the NFL and the worst in franchise history, nosing out the 2-14 nightmare of 1999. They have had nine straight losing seasons and only two winning marks, with but one playoff appearance, in the 18 seasons of the expansion era dating back to 1999.
Obviously, not all of the blame for that can be laid at Haslam’s feet since he has owned them for just 4½ seasons. By the time he arrived, the losing had long since become entrenched.
However, the fact that he hasn’t been able to stem the tide has to absolutely gall him. He’s finding that turning around a pro football team is a whole heckuva lot harder and more tedious than doing so with a gas station/convenient store chain.
It must be mortifying for him to sit at NFL owners meetings with his 31 brethern with the numbing realization that he is at the very bottom of the food chain right now.
The situation with the other Cleveland pro sports franchises hits much closer to home.
The Cavaliers are trying to win the NBA championship for the second straight season, and to make it to the Finals for the third year in a row. They have the best player in the game – and one of the best ever – in LeBron James. That fact James is from Akron, has a worldwide brand and never has gotten into any real trouble ever since he burst onto the scene at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School is a magical tale the likes of which is almost too good to be true.
Then there’s that minor detail about LeBron and the Cavs last summer breaking Cleveland’s 52-year pro sports league title drought.
The Indians are coming off a season in which they came within a whisker of a World Series championship. They have the best pitching staff in baseball, a burgeoning star in shortstop in Francisco Lindor and the game’s best manager in Terry Francona.
Even the then Lake Erie Monsters got into the action last season by winning Cleveland’s first AHL championship in 52 years.
The Browns have a much prouder tradition than all of those teams combined, but right now, they need binoculars to see those franchises.
So, which one – the local pain or that in the NFL – hurts Jimmy Haslam worse?
The answer is likely both.
