A few years ago
Seth Wickersham of ESPN wrote a piece that exposed the inner workings of the Browns organization. The article was extremely embarrassing for Browns owner Jimmy Haslam because it exposed his failings. That was the day that "alignment" became a priority for the Browns. Why? To find that answer, simply ask yourself what the primary benefit of alignment is. The biggest payoff of alignment is nobody outside the Browns organization knows who in Berea decides what. Hence the spotlight is off Browns owner Mr. Haslam. But if you look at the organization not much has changed. Haslam did hire a couple of smart and mature adults to run his team in Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski and those gentlemen have done a solid job, however things have once again fallen off the rails in Berea in 2024.
Why has 2024 been so bad? Well let's look at the key milestones leading up to the 2024 season and speculate what undercurrents might have led to these decisions:
- Punish Kevin Stefanski for not producing more with Deshaun Watson by forcing him to fire trusted confidant and Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt and arrange a new marriage with Ken Dorsey because you believe that Dorsey knows how to scheme an offense to fit the talents of Deshaun Watson. This impulsive move to bet the farm has Mr. Haslam's fingerprints all over it. You have a coach who just won Coach of the Year and you force him to fire a member of his inner coaching circle? Why? Makes no sense whatsoever unless Paul DePodesta was whispering in Haslam's ear that the only reason Haslam's move to sign Watson was failing was because AVP wasn't scheming up enough chunk plays. It's exactly the narrative that fit Jimmy Haslam's need to feel he is smarter than pundits give him credit for. And feeding Jimmy Haslam a narrative that makes him feel good about himself is exactly how to influence him.
- Speaking of impulsive. Signing Deshaun Watson to that $230M fully guaranteed contract is the Grassy Knoll of Cleveland Browns history. The entire Browns org drove the Watson decision? OK..... After all 27 year old franchise QB's almost never become available. Nevermind that the Houston Texans were willing to say goodbye to Watson, because your impulsive nature won't let you take a realistic view of why the Texans were willing to move Watson. So spend $230M and assume the Houston Texans were fools for giving up on Deshaun Watson.
The above decisions have everything to do with the 2024 nightmare of 3-12, soon to be 3-14. And the failure of the Browns starts and ends with Jimmy Haslam. But there is one major issue with correcting this problem. That is that Mr. Haslam has NEVER been held accountable in his entire career. Did he do a good job running Pilot Flying J. It's hard to deny that Pilot Flying J was well run, one need only witness their success and the premium Warren Buffett paid to own it. However the visionary of Pilot Flying J was Jimmy Haslam's father, Jim Haslam and I have no doubt Jimmy Haslam was a hard driving aggressive CEO who produced results. But I also have no doubt that in a family business, the son NEVER gets fired and the son has the benefit of extraordinary mentoring. I kept on top of the infamous rebate scandal at Pilot Flying J and what is clear is that leadership in Pilot Flying J did not understand that a rebate program has to be carefully accounted for with provisions and strong oversight. This is Business 101 stuff but I honestly think that Pilot Flying J leadership believed they were doing nothing wrong by playing fast and loose with rebate accounting. Any decent manager in a major corporation should understand those basic accounting standards, yet in Pilot Flying J nobody apparently did. Jimmy Haslam was the CEO of that organization, he damn well should have created a culture that enabled sufficient governance. Instead that organization was driven by profit motive. Profit is a good way to run a business, but your accountants need to have teeth and assure that rules are followed.
Conclusion - Jimmy Haslam has probably rarely been held accountable the way normal folks are nor does he particularly relish admitting to his own mistakes. The Browns do NOT need to fire Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski to right their ship. What needs to be done is that Jimmy Haslam implement an organizational structure like that implemented by Sheila Ford when she took control of the Detroit Lions. Ownership must be separated from Football Operations. Give Haslam a liaison to operations like Sheila Ford Hamp has in Chris Spielman but please, for the love of God, remove Jimmy Haslam from any direct reports who run the football operations. Today, Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski both report to Haslam, End that as soon as possible and Haslam will have held accountable the one executive who has presided over most of the major issues this team has, himself!
