DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Why should the fans support or believe in Haslam?

Depo has been a baseball General Manager. I figure, after being a GM of the Dodgers and Mets, he should know about pressure to win and the kind of person needed to succeed.

I'm just remembering back to Whisenhunt's interview with us before Pettine was hired, and I kinda have that stuck in my head.

Generally, a GM-type person and others from the FO can "talk shop" with a coach and challenge him in his area of expertise to help get useful info about the candidate. We just fired a bunch of those guys. Other than Wolf and the coordinators that are about to get fired, I don't see anyone in the building that has anywhere near the chops/cred to try to make a top NFL HC candidate sweat in an interview.

There's a big difference in wanting to win and how to accomplish that.

I highly doubt anyone questions his desire to win, but his track record strongly implies he doesn't have a clue how to go about that. Even his wife said as much.

"We bought this team because we thought it would be fun to have an NFL team," Dee said. "I don't know why we thought that, but we thought this will be a really fun, great chapter in our life."

"We didn't have a clue what we were doing"

Haslam: “Clearly not where we wanted to be.”

Bingo! Want to win? Who doesn't? Know how? NO CLUE. Nice to know that the Browns are basically "fun to own". What a bunch of incompetent dipshits. Only in Cleveland. SMH

And only in Cleveland do we cherry-pick quotes from a reward ceremony for women making a difference in Cleveland. Dee Haslam doesn't just write checks, she's hands-on and sees things through til she makes a difference. Not that any of that matters when we can have a good laugh about her being honest and candid about the struggles with the Browns.

Cracks me up. When these guys are PC everyone throws stones, when they speak from the heart - everyone plays the "dumb, rich, hillbillies" card.

/rant

Carry on.

https://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180707/news/167421/dee-haslam

I'm glad she was honest about it. I'm glad she does charitable work within the city.

But none of that actually changes what she said. Those quotes are directly connected with what they thought about buying the team and exactly how lost they were when it comes to building a team. I'm not sure why that would upset you.

At least people weren't trying to quote someone from Twitter with 11 followers.

I agree.

These same people talk about Haslam not having a clue how to hire a coach, as if they have any idea what goes into it. They give sermons on who should get the job like they are experts. Haslam could be like Brown in Cincy and just stick with what is not producing, instead he puts his reputation on the line by doing what he thinks is right. He has made mistakes, and I can guarantee you it hurts him more than us fans. Being the owner of a franchise full of failures has got to be trying. He's not giving up, I got to hand that to him.

He owns the team and has doubled the value of his investment in the short time he's owned the team by fielding an inferior product. Why would he give up?

I ain't upset bro! I find it knee-slappin' hilarious!

The quotes are also the truth. The sentiments would align nearly exactly with any billionaire who buys a team and then goes through as much adversity as the Haslams. What the heck is wrong with just being honest??

This wasn't an ESPN interview, it was the ice-breaker to get the "Browns thing" out of the way at an awards ceremony.

At least the Haslams give a damn and are trying....

I understand that. And I also understand that when most billionaires buy a team, they're not quite sure how to go through the process of building a team. But one would hope that they have at least some football background and a basic grasp of how to go about it with which to grow from.

Actually with him previously having been a minority owner of the Steelers I felt that may be the case here. And the way the NFL sort of teamed him up with Joe Banner certainly didn't help things.

I understand that the Haslam's want to win and I hold nothing personal against them.

I actually admire the honesty that Dee displayed by telling it the way it is. We get enough BS from people trying to cover their own asses and not being up front.

While that's true, who would invest a billion dollars in an NFL team and not try?

I suppose the Bengals owner was given his team and not necessarily invested a billion... And I wouldn't say they aren't trying to win, but they're definitely very content being average.

Some who grew up in "Football Owner Families" have problems too. Look at Mike Brown and the McCaskey's.

I'm not certain they're content with it. But Mike Brown is not and never will be Paul brown. That much is certain.

Oh some of them certainly do. But the "hope is" that someone has a foundation of football with which to build upon. It's not always the answer but I think someone would prefer to begin with that rather than someone who doesn't.

There's no standard answer or fool proof plan to any of this obviously.

sounds like Freddie cried a lot about not reporting to the owner.

this is a terrible idea. we have proven it time and time agian.

the owners need to see that they are not capable of running an NFL franchise and should not have the HC report to them.

he didn't do anything to increase the value. It would probably be 5x more valuable if he stopped meddling with it.

Happy Bday!

I think they all pretty much report to the owners anyway. I doubt they have to call jimmy and Dee on what plays to run and who starts over who.

j/c:

I am concerned with the approach of the coach being hired before the GM. Although it didn't work out because we had the wrong people in place to build a sustainable organization, I normally prefer the GM (or equiv. title) to be hired first and then the coach after. If a coach is hired first, it can sometimes lead to think that their opinion in player evaluation is more important because they came first. Sometimes that can lead to power struggles early on.

I'd prefer the search committee identify their top talent evaluator first, then go for the coach.

But Haslem is gonna Haslem.

thank you!

I'm sure they do however, I'm sure Dorsey shut up Freddie more than he could cry baby Huie.

I just think it's silly that they are trying to run multiple companies and have a head coach reort to them. they can't be hands on and that's what got them in trouble before.

This is why McDaniels could be considered the frontrunner. He can bring Ziegler or Caserio over as his pick. Although...they may ask Stefanski and McCarthy if they mind working with Andrew Berry. That's not so much of a coach pick as the McDaniels scenario though.

Gonna be interesting...

I didn't say he "did anything" to increase the value. Just that it did. Like I plainly stated, he put an inferior product on the field and the value of the team still doubled in value. And just as you say, if he could put a competitive team on the field the value would be even greater. So I'll go back to my question. Why would he give up?

j/c...

Here we go again! As Jimmy Haslam prepares for another coaching search, we look back at some of his previous statements in similar situations.

I don't think we know what Josh McDaniels wants.

its honestly like deja vu every year or 18 months or whatever. You can almost write the script of his pressers

Give him a break already! Haslam hasn't gotten back with that Homeless Man yet, and can't find a business model for using him internally at Berea yet.

That went as well as anything has for quite a while now. And it didn't make more sense, but it was understandcdable in its shakeout.

Other than Al Lerner (for helping bring the team back) I have never been a supporter of the Browns owners. What I am is a HUGE supporter of the Cleveland Browns

Normally I would agree. However, this time I feel that this is a good approach. The most important piece of the puzzle, franchise quarterback, we already have here. It's far more important, in my opinion, to find the right coach for Baker. We don't need a GM to come in here and find us a franchise quarterback. That's just one aspect.

I also believe we have people in place who will ensure we will have the right gm working with the HC. I think Dorsey also left a bad taste in Jimmy's mouth. And I also believe we won't have another Mangini-Kokinis incident. However this type of setup seems top be working for the 49ers and Raiders...

Im not overly concerned about hiring HC first... however, I do think we are better off not announcing how we are planning on doing things and just rather do them. Do other teams announce that they will hire HC first? Just seems odd, plus you never know what the process will bring... seems like this could limit a lot of decent GMs...

Think about this. it took Pittsburgh about 30 years to get it right but when they did, they went crazy with wins.

It's a marathon, not a sprint

The problem is, we have two turned ankles and our shoes are on the wrong feet.

That is exactly what an owner should be doing. Especially one that is not experienced. He is seeking out others for their advice. That's actually a great quality in a leader. I suggest you take a leadership development course.

I am not a fan of Micromanaging myself - however it is a managing style, and can be successful if done correcting and in certain instances:

1.
A strategy is changing. When a company or unit changes strategy or major operations, leaders generally need to provide close direction until everyone involved understands and buys into the new direction. Which is exactly what is going on with the Browns.

2.
There's a new leader, employee or unit. It's a common mistake to fail to recognize that even very talented and accomplished leaders can use advice and mentoring when they're placed in a new role or company and have to adjust to it.

3.
An employee or leader fails to execute, or a project continues to linger. Too often things simply don't get done. Leaders then often wait patiently for something to change or results to be produced.

4.
Results are disappointing. There are many critical areas in a company where results are paramount. If they aren't as expected, week after week, a leader must ask those responsible for more information about why. Perhaps even more important, you must ask what is being done to turn around the situation.

So, I ask - do the above sound like the Cleveland Browns at all?

This is just battered fan talk. First, the guy is a Billionaire - you don't become or stay one by being "clueless". Second, your statement is just flat out plain wrong. The dude is literally paying mistakes salaries for people he has fired. You realize that firing HC like Kitchens, he is ADMITTING his mistake, and he is trying to CHANGE to rectify it right? Refusing to change his methods - would have been to keep the idiot coaches he had hired.

I think you need to learn a little bit more about management, leadership, and admitting and correcting ones mistakes.

You want to lambast him for hiring Freddie - cool, but that was on John, which is why he was let go. You wanna lambast him for Hue, go right ahead. You can complain our coaches stink and then get mad when we fire them. You don't get it both ways.

Case Closed.

J/C

Everyone is mad that we fired Dorsey, I get it, he got a lot of names in here.

But other than being good at a talent evaluator, what did he do well?

No one can answer that, because we have no idea what he was like on a day to day basis. Reports are he was brash, hard to work with, "his way or the highway", and overall was not really great at managing a cap. We know hes crap at picking a HC, reports are he let Baker do whatever he wanted, and other reports are if you didn't get brought in by him or drafted by him, he didn't want you here.

He sucked at parts of his position plain and simple, and his employer wanted to take away those parts from him, which he refused.

But to act like the guy was perfect is well - not logical.

The more I look into him and read repots, the more I think we can do better.

Haslam even kinda said yesterday: there’s more than just evaluating. JD came up short in other areas

He made several comments that I thought pertained strictly to him.

he said "its not going to just be my way or the highway" with the guy we hire (which I think was pointed at John as well)

He mentioned the evaluating thing like you said

And there's a reason he kept talking about LEADERSHIP. I don't think that was particularly concerning Freddie, and I think that was pointed at John.

You can be great at an aspect of your job, and complete blow at another. But being a GM, you have to be a great leader. John was not. We saw that with how he handled Callaway for instance. He let AC roll right over him because of his talent.

Good points, I thought it was kinda damning too

Dorsey may not have been great but I had a lot more faith in him than I do Haslam, despite the Freddie Kitchens debacle.

About the only hope we have left is Depo actually nailed the last two head coaching debates. Does he have a third excellent recommendation in him (maybe Stefanski again?)

If we don't get the head coach right, we are totally screwed.

Look at the talent we have on this roster. A turtle could coach it to 7 or 8 wins. I think you are underestimating the "Freddie Debacle". Literally any other hire, and we are probably in the playoffs.

And reports are John wanted to keep him another year. John was very bull headed about analytics, and it was John controlling the roster and depth chart, sitting guys that he didn't draft or acquire I would bet (like Higgins and Chief). I think there is a lot that went on behind the scenes with John we don't know about. Read reports from KC and why he was fired there, it will paint a bigger picture for you.

John was an egomaniac. Plain and simple if you read all the reports.