Browns Executive Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown knows what’s really important.
It’s for the team to win.
Games.
Now.
Right now.
This season.
Enough games, in fact, to win the AFC North championship.
That would get the Browns into the playoffs, and once there, they will take their chances on winning more games and eventually the last one.
Brown said so – all of that, very specifically, spelling it out clearly — any number of times during an interview last week.
Good for him.
Too many times, that – winning – somehow gets lost in the shuffle. It becomes merely a box that has to be checked.
No, it is the only box that has to be checked.
As former NFL head coach turned ESPN analyst Herm Edwards so famously said, “You play to win the game.”
Never have truer words ever been spoken.
It’s not to win the NFL draft.
It’s not to pick great players.
It’s not to accumulate “assets,” as they are termed.
It’s not to hire the right coaches.
Or scouts.
Or trainers.
Or doctors.
Or fan involvement directors.
Or business strategists.
It’s not to market the team.
It’s not to find the right uniform design.
It’s not about making stadium upgrades.
Or training facility upgrades.
Or training camp upgrades.
It’s not even about selling tickets.
Yes, all of those things are important – some more so than others, but all in their own way – but none of them even begin to approach the importance of winning.
When the team wins, all of the other tasks, objectives and goals seem to take care of themselves, as if it were magic.
It’s not magic, though. It never was, and it never will be.
But it can be elusive, at least it has been for these re-born Browns. We all know that.
Winning is the result of the right mindset.
To gear everything toward one thing – and one thing only.
To win.
Are the Browns going to win the Super Bowl this season?
No.
Are they going to qualify for the playoffs?
No.
Are they even going to simply win more games than they lose?
Probably not.
But the Browns need to feel the pressure to win. They can’t go into any day – let alone any season – with the belief that this has to be a multi-year effort where they simply plod along aimlessly, like a ship drifting out at sea.
It has to be a dedication and commitment to do everything possible, all the time, to win.
The guy steering that ship, Sashi Brown, appears to fully grasp that, and of that Browns fans can find some comfort.
