Jimmy Haslam’s $1 billion Cleveland Browns deal expects NFL owners approval this month – NFL News
Cleveland Browns’ new owner truck-magnate Jimmy Haslam has ruled out a possibility of introducing major changes at any position of his franchise until the end of the season.
Contradictory reports have emerged since Haslam reached a billion dollar deal with former owner Randy Lerner that he might let go coach Pat Shurmur, president Mike Holmgren and some of other high and low-ranked staff from the front office in post-deal cleansing,
which could be as rash as Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay had done.
Irsay has parted ways with all former coaches, general manager, vice president and some of key players in the so-called rebuilding of the team which had ended the 2011 season with the poor 2-14 record, although the Colts were not sold.
Haslam’s approach appears to be similar to the one Jacksonville Jaguars new owner Shahid Khan has applied since taking over the franchise in January this year.
Shahid’s cause was helped to an extent by former owner Wayne Weaver who had sacked coach Del Rio and some of his junior coaches just before selling the franchise to the present owner who has been patient with all the staff so far despite the fact that his
team stays in the same phase of slump.
Some commentators see an assessment of the team by Shahid at the end of this season and abrupt and may be rash changes might follow.
The same expected from Haslam and the owner is trying to utilise the time until the end of the season for learning skills of the trade. He has spoken to coach, president and some other key members of Browns’ organisation to know their perspective of the
team and their performance.
Also, the owner is probably waiting to take over the franchise formally, after going through all the regulatory hurdles. The transactions is expected to be approved by the league’s 32 franchise ownership committee later this month and after fulfilling some
other requirements, Haslam will formally become owner of the team.
Until then the owner, who has previous held minority shares in the Pittsburgh Steelers and is a boasted Steelers’ fan, appears to be okay with Browns’ performance, irrespective of his concerns about 0-4 record of this season.
He said:
"I don't think anybody thinks 0-4 (is acceptable) and certainly Mike Holmgren and Pat Shurmur don't think it is and we don't think it is. But we've got a young team. We're building. I think we're heading in the right direction. We don't officially own the
team yet and we've said all along that we're not going to make any comments on personnel until after we own the team. That's in about two weeks.”
The owner added:
"And candidly we'll be halfway through the football season then, so any personnel decisions we'd make would be toward the end of the year."
So with the assurance from the owner, the threat to prospects for the coach and president has subsided at the moment but is certainly not over. Some analysts believe these two officials will be first target of the new owner’s revamp drive.
The coach is struggling to guide the Browns to a respectable record, while the president seems to be completely alienated from the team affairs. His departure looks even more imminent given the new owner has talked the possibility of bringing back former
Browns’ player and advisor Jim Brown in a yet unknown capacity.
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