After 13 years of constant suck, after multiple coaches staffs and GMs and complete roster turnover, there was only one constant with the team. Disinterested owner Al Lerner. The Browns finally purged themselves of him in the middle of last season. I don’t know how much an owner can affect a franchise, but he hired the wrong people and certainly showed no interest or skill as an owner. He was a constant through years of suck and it’s hard to imagine changing owners and totally cleaning house wouldn’t offer some sort of hope.
In comes Jimmy Haslam, owner of a chain of gas station/rest stops (Flying J), who seems the part, inspires some confidence. Well it turns out he’s been cheating his customers out of millions for years. The feds raided his businesses and it seems the evidence implicates that he personally oversaw a program designed to withhold rebates from - I’m not sure who exactly, franchisees? Anyway, to the tune of millions a month. Very shady stuff.
So what happens now? I don’t know. Do they freeze his assets? Does that shut the team’s spending down? Does the NFL vote to force him to sell or otherwise strip him of ownership? What happens to the day to day operations of the team?
Being a Browns fan is probably worse than having aids. At least there are effective treatments for that.
This doesn’t make Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (Jimmy’s brother) look very good either, since he was active in running the company until running for governor a few years ago. He hasn’t been directly implicated yet as far as I know, though.
Wow. You know, in a division that features the Ravens and the Stealers, it has become extremely difficult to muster up any kind of hatred for the Browns they have sunk so low.
And as a Bengals fan, I understand what you’re going through. The Browns of the 2003-2013 era are pretty much the Bengals of 1993-2002.
How sad is it that my first thought was “Well, it can’t make the Browns any worse, can it?” Sorry, dude. I’ll never say that Bills fans probably have it worse ever again.
Well you know if you slapped a self adhesive Browns logo on an orange prison jumpsuit you could look properly attired for a press conference. So Jimmy has that goin’ for him, which is nice. [/Carl Spackler]
I wouldn’t wish being a Browns fan on Steeler fans, I hate you all but the slender bonds which tie us all together as human beings forbids such malice. One of these years the Browns will put all of this behind them, they will once again be a proud and respected member of the league and all their fans will bask in their reflected glory.
I and everyone I know will be long dead by then but we accept it as our responsibility to keep flushing our money down the ticket buying toilet so the team will survive long enough to redeem every dollar we currently waste on them.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I desperately want to hate Cleveland again instead of always feeling bad for their fans. It’s no fun getting ready to watch a game knowing that the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of a Browns demolition. Sure, luck intercedes every once in a while, but that’s all it is, luck. Anyone can win the lottery.
Alas, once more I am left to feel sorry for you, Cleveland fans. I may never be able to hate you guys again. How can you hate a starving child?
Knowing how much the NFL obsesses over its image, I would imagine that there are contingency rules in place for this kind of situation. My guess is that the team will be placed under some kind of temporary stewardship pending the outcome of Haslam’s case. If found guilty, it’s likely he can be forced to sell his team to the league until another interested buyer is found.
“Everything goes well for the Browns, Haslam a crook”
On the other hand I imagine the owners don’t want to face the possibility of being removed themselves if they get caught in a scandal. I would expect them to act very slowly.