If you’re Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, then you’re probably fit to be tied.
You’re fuming – spitting mad, seeing red, really hacked off, incensed, whatever you want to call it.
 
You might just call General Manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine into your office, lock the door behind them and say to them in no uncertain terms, “Enough already!”
 
In yet another example of the discord and angst that exists between Farmer and Pettine, and the dysfunction it continues to cause in the organization – all of which the Browns, from the owner to the GM to the coach. vehemently deny with every fiber of their being – Pettine said Wednesday that wide receiver Dwayne Bowe is no better than the team’s fifth wide receiver and intimated that he has about as much chance of playing in the foreseeable future as Rush Limbaugh does of being invited to the White House by President Obama.
 
This is the same Dwayne Bowe who was signed in free agency in the offseason to a two-year, $12.5 million contract, with $9 million guaranteed.
 
This is the same Dwayne Bowe who sat out all of training camp and preseason, and some of the regular season thus far, with hamstring problems.
 
This is the same Dwayne Bowe who, at 31 years old and in his ninth NFL season, is near the end of his career, if he isn’t already there.
 
Clearly what has happened here is that Farmer, who, according to his contract, is in charge of player acquisition and determining the 53-man roster, signed a guy in Bowe who Pettine, according to his contract, is in charge of determining who plays and who is active on gamedays, did not want on the team in any way, shape or form.
 
So Pettine, who obviously is still upset at Farmer for trying to undermine him last season by illegally texting down to the sideline during games wondering why quarterback Johnny Manziel wasn’t playing, is hitting back by putting Bowe so far away from the action that he needs binoculars to see it.
 
Wait a minute, didn’t Pettine and Farmer go to a retreat with Haslam and other top members of the organization in the offseason so they could eradicate all this in-fighting and get on the same page?
 
Well, guess what? It was a waste of time and money – yes, still more money being frittered away – because it didn’t work.
 
If you’re Haslam, then you’re saying to yourself, or perhaps even to Pettine and Farmer, “I’m paying 9 million bucks for a guy at the bottom of the depth chart when we could have gotten someone for that role in the NFL Draft and, because of the rookie salary cap, paid him next to nothing? I know I’m filthy rich and this is just a relative drop in the bucket for me, but I’m still not going to spend millions of dollars to get absolutely nothing in return.
 
“You two are supposed to be football experts. You’re supposed to know better than this. You’re embarrassing me, you’re embarrassing the organization, you’re embarrassing all the assistant coaches and personnel people, you’re embarrassing Bowe, you’re embarrassing your families and you’re embarrassing yourselves.
 
“Look, we’re 2-4 and heading nowhere with you, so we can sure as heck be 2-4 and heading nowhere without you.”
 
Indeed, every day it seems, there’s another dysfunctional – there’s that word again – thing involving the Browns that comes to light, forcing the club to have to move its focus away from football and preparing for the next game – this time, against the St. Louis Rams on Sunday on the road.
 
Here’s the way it works — or at least the way it should work – in the NFL: The head coach and GM must be joined at the hip. They have to be in complete concert with one another. It is like a professional marriage. They have to be able to finish each other’s sentences.
 
In addition, they must be selfless. They have to check their egos at the door. It’s not about their own personal agendas, or those of anyone else. It’s all about what’s best for the organization. And what’s best for the organization is anything and everything that will help get victories and ultimately championships.
 
The Browns, as evidenced again by what happened today, are light years removed from meeting these requirements. It’s another reason – in the big picture, perhaps the biggest reason – why the club doesn’t win.
 
This is so disappointing. You expect this kind of thing from Farmer, who is a cancer to the organization. But you don’t expect it from Pettine.
 
So now Pettine, who heretofore seemed to be above everything that was being thrown at him by Farmer in this never-ending skirmish, is down in the mud fighting with him.
 
And, worse yet, he has dragged the good of the Browns – and thus their fans – down with him.
 
Just one question: When will all this junk stop?