Optimistic slant...
PFT Cleveland Browns built to withstand latest off-field crisis
By Bud Shaw, The Plain Dealer
April 22, 2013 at 3:36 AM
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Bless their tortured souls, sports fans in this town are accustomed to embracing small consolations in the wake of faith-shaking events.
Art Modell ran an end-around to Baltimore, but, hey, we kept the name and colors. So what if elsewhere they have become synonymous with pathetic football. Here, they are considered iconic connections to slumbering glory days.
The most recent example came when LeBron James left town and people found some odd solace in owner Dan Gilbert putting the maloika on him.
How'd that work out?
The latest search for a silver lining in the playbook comes as draft week kicks off in Berea. And it brings the same amount of hopeful rationalization, albeit a more tangible one.
The NFL Draft drumroll has consistently ranked as the happiest time for Browns fans since 1999, but this period comes with news of an FBI/IRS raid on Jimmy Haslam's company and the unsealing of a disturbing affidavit.
The first trucking company has filed suit against Pilot Flying J in response to the details of the affidavit. More will follow.
The consolation for Browns fans: Sure, it sounds ominous. But Haslam's issues shouldn't affect the Browns on the field in 2013, certainly not to the extent that Randy Lerner's selling of the team did last year.
The pending ownership change was felt in the locker room, where everyone knows if it quacks like a lame duck, it's a lame duck.
Even the greenest of players knows the drill: New coaches bring in new schemes and different talent to fit them; new general managers want their own coach; new owners want their own GMs and team presidents.
For now, coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner aren't going anywhere. CEO Joe Banner has probably already logged more time in the office than Mike Holmgren did in a full season. The Browns are better built to handle this storm, provided it doesn't ramp up quickly and enter the category of the one that blew Dorothy and Toto to Oz.
It's a narrow view of the current events, but it's the most hopeful one for a fan base that can pretty much claim to have seen it all since 1999 -- "all" consisting of six head coaches, two Baltimore Super Bowls and now this.
For this issue to outrank "The Decision" as a gut punch -- "The Move" will always stand alone -- Haslam would have to be asked to step aside and then sell his team.
Don't be fooled by Haslam's calm manner in front of the cameras. This is serious, if not the first shift in a coming sea change (should he be found guilty).
Even if the owner is as innocent as he claims, remember the appeal he carried with him into town centered on his business acumen and his laser attention to detail after a decade of Lerner's reluctant ownership.
Pleading ignorance in a rebate scam calls that into question and frames every decision he has made in Berea to date and all the ones to come. He was supposed to be the hands-on owner Lerner wasn't, bringing buckets of sweat equity to the task.
That -- and enforced accountability throughout the organization -- were supposedly what made Pilot Flying J such a success after all.
Haslam's decision to hire the same attorney who represented former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo in a fraud case might well be coincidental. And it might not. That case didn't end well for DeBartolo, who was suspended by the league after pleading guilty.
We're a long way from that. But if the scenario playing out is really happening and it's not a plot change in the upcoming movie about the Browns, the "woe is us" attitude former General Manager Phil Savage complained about is justified.
In the meantime, it's draft week.
Haslam plans to be here Thursday.
We won't be asking if you know where your owner is, just whether your owner has his lawyer on speed dial.
So we have that going for us.
