Not all will be all in

No matter the level, or the sport, the members of the team, or organization, from top to bottom, have to be all in – completely, unabashedly all in – to win.

If someone at the end of the food chain, so to speak, is only half in, or three-quarters in, or, worse of all, just barely in, there’s a chink in the armor commiserate to the percentage in which he, or she, is leaving open.

That’s an undeniable truth.

It’s especially the case in pro sports, where the seasons are so long and the stakes, financial and otherwise, are so high.

Understanding all that, then, I wonder how many Browns coaches and front-office people who, in having to at least delay if not completely forego vacations this summer because of being forced to stick around to learn of the NFL’s decision on quarterback Deshaun Watson’s punishment and the adjustments that will have to be made to the roster, are not going to be all in.

There will be some, of that we can be sure.

I had a relative who was an executive with a big Akron company. He said, in so many words, minus those that can’t be repeated here because of their vulgarity, “They can mess with my salary and working conditions and responsibilities and my workload all they want, but I’ll be darned (again, he didn’t say “darned”) if I will allow them to mess (he didn’t say “mess,” either, for the second time) with my vacation.”

He never smiled a whole lot, but when he said that, he was much less cheery than usual.

His vacation was sacred. It allowed to trade work concerns for beach concerns for several weeks per year.

So, as a young guy who was kind of – or, more honestly, completely – scared to death of him, I got the message in no uncertain terms.

That will be something to watch for here as we go forward, if not by the fans, who don’t see the behind-closed-doors stuff, but by the Browns’ very top men, and women, who do, and are responsible for fixing it.

Steve King