LESS JIMMY AND DEE AND MORE JOHN DORSEY
By STEVE KING
In one respect, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was right – at least technically so — on Monday when he said the fault for the team’s history of top executives having dysfunctional relationships with one another since he took over, lies squarely at his feet.
After all, he’s the top guy. He is, on the organizational flow chart, the man at whose desk the buck stops for everything – everything — that happens with the Browns.
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But I’m going to give him a pass on the dysfunctional stuff since, I am convinced, those guys didn’t respect the Browns because of all the losing. They took advantage of Haslam, and that’s not right. It’s not right in any business, including a pro football team.
At the same time, though, Haslam – and also his wife, Dee, for that matter – are wrong for meddling too much with the football end of things. He’s not a football guy, and neither is she. So they don’t know what they’re doing.
He and Dee should stick with what they know – business, marketing and all those things.
The Haslams need to leave all the football stuff up to their general manager, John Dorsey. He knows football. And he has the resume to prove it.
In fact, you could argue – and you’d be right – that he’s the most important person in the organization. He drafted who he thinks will be the team’s franchise quarterback – and I agree – in Baker Mayfield. That’s a big, big, big piece of this rebuilding puzzle.
Jimmy Haslam said on Monday that finding the new head coach will be a collaborative effort. That is, he – and no doubt Dee, too — will be involved.
That’s a bad idea. Finding the right coach is, obviously, another big, big, big part of this recruiting puzzle. The Haslams, again, don’t know football. They should have virtually no say in this. It should be Dorsey’s call through and through because, again, he’s the football guy – the football expert.
If the Haslams get involved to any great extent, then they could – in fact, they probably would – mess it up.
If the Haslams want to win – and they certainly do – then they need to check their ego at the door, head out the door and go over to the business side of things and make themselves useful.
Will the Haslams do it? I don’t know. I have my doubts.
But at the same time, I sure hope they do, for the Browns have to get this coaching search right. If they do, then they’ll win. And if they don’t, then they won’t. It’s really that simple.
And to get it right, it has to be Dorsey’s decision.
All the Haslams need to do is sign off on it.
Are you listening, Jimmy and Dee?
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