What we wanted to hear – and needed to hear, really – from Jimmy Haslam, we didn’t hear from the Browns owner as he met with the media on Sunday at training camp.
But it really wasn’t his fault.
Haslam was asked if the Cavaliers winning the NBA championship six weeks ago, breaking Cleveland’s 52-year drought without a major pro sports title, and the success of the Indians this summer as they continue to lead the American League Central by 4½ games going into today, “affects the Browns’ mindset and the desire to win for the fans.”
“We couldn’t be happier for the Cavs,” Haslam answer. “(Cavaliers owner) Dan Gilbert was over at our house a couple of Sundays ago. We couldn’t be happier for him and his organization. LeBron (James), just an unbelievable performance.
“The same thing for the Indians. Our hats off to them for the trade they made (Sunday). Those are not easy decisions to make. We’re very happy.
“I think even more when you see that, when the Cavs won on that Sunday night, the first text was from my dad, and before I read it, I had one from Hue (Jackson, Browns head coach). I think all of us when you see the love of sports from the fans — you all appreciate this much more than I do since you all have lived here longer – it makes us want to win even more for these great fans.”
To his credit, Haslam answered the question as it was posed. But the question wasn’t direct enough and specific enough.
It needed to be asked this way: “Does the success of the Cavs and Indians put more pressure on the Browns to win because the bar has been raised in Cleveland? Those two teams have shown that you can win big in this city, so the mediocrity of a 3-13 season like the one the Browns had in 2015 will no longer be accepted.”
That’s the question everyone wants to hear answered by Haslam. And you can bet that it is the question being asked inside Browns Headquarters in Berea many times every single day.
Yes, it will take this Browns regime time to clean up the messes left behind by the last several regimes. It won’t happen overnight. That’s obvious. But the Browns can’t say that publicly. It would be a public relations suicide. Just ask those previous regimes. They all did it, and they paid for it dearly because it lessened the expectations of everybody involved. You just can’t do that.
That’s why Jackson continuing to say that he wants to win – right now, not down the road three years – is so very important. But that declarationneeds to come from Haslam in a more complete form. That chance was there on Sunday, but it didn’t happen, again through no fault of the owner. Moreso it was the fault of the media person asking the question.
Oh, well.
Regardless, it will continue to be an issue, likely for a while, because Haslam isn’t expect to address the media again anytime soon. The sooner Haslam addresses it, the better off the Browns will be. Again, it’s that 800-pound elephant in the room that the Browns can’t ignore. They have to acknowledge it.
We’ll wait and see what happens.
