Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has gotten a lot of credit, and rightfully so, for inviting Jim Brown back into the fold when he bought the team in 2012.

It corrected the egregious act several years before by Browns team President Mike Holmgren when he turned Brown, who had been a senior advisor to the team for years, into basically a greeter.

Indeed, for all the things Haslam has done wrong in the last decade or so, that was one thing that he definitely got right. Credit to him for that.

But two decades before Haslem bought the team, it was another individual who did something just as important involving the late Brown. That would be Bill Belichick, who, in 1993 in his third year as head coach of the team, reached out to Brown and started having him return to the team as an advisor or mentor of sorts. It started out as just an informal role, and then grew into one with an official title of advisor.

For, without that occurring, there would’ve been no need for Holmgren to get rid of Briwn, or for Haslem to reinstate him.

Leave it up to Belichick, who, even back then, was well ahead of the curve on so many things, to do something that should’ve been done years before.

So, then, just as credit needs to be given to Jimmy Haslem, as we said, credit also needs to be given to Bill Belichick.

Steve King