HASLAM TAKES STEPS BACKWARDS WITH MOVE AGAINST ESPN

By STEVE KING

Just when Browns owner Jimmy Haslam gets the opportunity to begin working himself out of the muck where he has been stuck for about the six years, he jumps right back into it – feet-first.

It comes with his decision to have his company, Pilot Flying J, pull its advertising from ESPN in retaliation for the magazine publishing a lengthy article recently about the dysfunction in the Browns front office almost from the day he purchased them in 2012.

What a dumb move. Whoever is advising him – if there is anyone doing so – ought to have head examined. And if Haslam is operating on his own accord, then he needs to have his examined.

Why do it? It is beneath him. It makes him look small, petty, insecure and childish.

It makes him look really, really bad – and then some.

First of all, the article is right. There has been tremendous dysfunction in the team’s front office.

But here’s the kicker: the piece was hardly the blockbuster that it was portrayed to be. It was simply rehashing stuff that had been known for years. There was nothing new in it – nothing at all, except perhaps for the reaction of head coach Hue Jackson to John Dorsey when the general manager walked into his office and fired him midway through last season, and that was easily predictable.

As I wrote when the piece came out, if you needed it to realize that there was dysfunction, then you have had your head in the sand.

The Browns are getting much, much better. With a franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield in tow, and with a head coach in Freddie Kitchens whom everyone believes will do a good job, they are the talk of the NFL – in a good way – in many respects. When’s the last time that’s happened? In 2007, maybe?

Why spoil that by acting like the little kid who gets mad and takes his ball and goes home?

Haslam can do much, much better, and he must do much, much better.