In April 2013, just six months after purchasing a majority stake in the Cleveland Browns, Jimmy Haslam’s offices were raided by the U.S. Department of Justice. Investigators were searching for evidence that Haslam’s company, Pilot Flying J, had deliberately withheld rebate payments to trucking companies from 2007 to 2013.
Pilot Flying J accepted responsibility for the criminal conduct of its employees (10 pleaded guilty) and was forced to pay a $92 million fine and $85 million in restitution to the trucking companies it victimized. Today there are still multiple legal battles with the trucking groups that didn’t settle.
Haslam claimed he had no idea that his company’s sales department was committing the crime and has, as of right now, avoided prosecution.
In light of all that, concocting a pretend team rules violation to screw wide receiver Josh Gordon out of incentive money and unrestricted free agency status seems downright pedestrian. But that’s the Cleveland Browns under Haslam. Nothing is so insignificant that it can’t be turned into a circus or serious legal fraud.
Choosing His Quarterback
A team’s owner being involved in the draft day operations of an NFL team is not strange by any means. On any given year on War Room cams across the country, NFL owners are seen in heated discussions with their team’s general manager and coach on draft picks, strategies and trades. This is how it works.
For instance, when the Jeff Fisher, head coach of the St. Louis Rams, decided to draft openly gay defensive end Michael Sam last May, he mad a call to Rams owner Stan Kroenke. According to ESPN, Kroenke told Fisher, “I trust you guys. Go for it.”
Owners are involved, and especially when it comes to bigger deals, they most likely have the final say. That’s why it was no big deal when Cleveland QB coach Dowell Loggains told a radio station that, after receiving a text from Manziel on draft day asking the team to draft him, Loggains forwarded it to head coach Mike Pettine and Haslam.
“I’m like, ‘this guy wants to be here. He wants to be a part of it,’” Loggains told ESPN radio in Arkansas. “As soon as that happened, Mr. Haslam said, ‘Pull the trigger. We’re trading up to go get this guy.’”
Fast forward to the end of the football season and Johnny Manziel looks like a disaster and suddenly nobody wants to take credit for trading up to draft him. Especially Haslam. So Browns GM Ray Farmer had to come out Wednesday and officially fall on the sword for Haslam, stating that the team’s shady owner in fact did not make the call to draft Manziel.
“At the end of the day, Jimmy did not make the call,” Farmer said in his season-ending press conference. “I know a lot of people want to stick it on Jimmy, but for the world to hear, Jimmy Haslam did not make that call. He didn’t try to influence the decision, he didn’t try to push it in a different direction. He did none of those things.”
Team-wide Problems
The stories on Gordon are in conflict. There’s rumors that he was out partying with Manziel before missing last Saturday’s walkthrough. Gordon is fighting the suspension, and the accrued free agent year it cost him, with the player’s union. Gordon has most likely played his last down for Cleveland, even though he said all the right things on Twitter two days ago.
A lot of things didn’t go the way I’d like them to this season, but I wouldn’t want to go to war with any other group of guys or coaches.
— Flash Gordon (@JOSH_GORDONXII) diciembre 29, 2014
The business move of suspending Gordon made sense if the team had no intention of keeping him. By making him a restricted free agent next offseason, they raise his trade value from next to nothing. While Gordon is one of the most talented wide receivers in the league, his off-the-field issues have cost him and the team valuable playing time, including a 10-game suspension this season. Nobody is going to give up a high draft pick for Gordon, but his new RFA status may turn a fifth round pick into a fourth. Still, it’s a salt-the-earth way to treat a player that the team would be much better off keeping in 2015.
Manziel wasn’t the Browns’ only first-round disappointment, as No. 8 pick Justin Gilbert underperformed and was late for a meeting Saturday and ended up inactive Sunday. The Browns aren’t the first team to guess wrong on draft picks, especially guys that were both consensus first rounders. Yes, they’d be better off with Aaron Donald and Teddy Bridgewater, but no one thought that on draft day. Those Manziel jerseys that were ordered in record-number from the NFLShop didn’t go to North Korea. So though its easy for Haslam to hide behind Manziel’s propensity to party and not admit his own failure in drafting a player that was surrounded by red flags, the fact is he’s the one profiting handsomely off the rookie.
King Jimmy Has No Clothes
For someone who supposedly makes no team or personnel decisions, Haslam was awfully vocal about team and personnel decisions when he met with the media after Sunday’s loss to the Ravens.
When asked about his problem players, Haslam said, “I think a player who can’t show up for meetings, can’t make practice, can’t make weight lifting, disrespects himself. But I think more importantly… they disrespect the team, the coaches, the staff and the fans.”
He then said that the Browns would have to “figure out” their quarterback situation. A situation that Haslam has no say in, apparently. Even though he can’t seem to shut up about it.
The NFL salary cap should be around $140 million in 2015 and the Browns only have $104 million worth of players under contract for next season. With two first round picks and $36 million in cap space, there’s no excuse for Cleveland not to make sizeable moves in free agency and the draft to improve on that 7-9 record this season. The main problem they’ll have in luring players to Northern Ohio is the guy sitting in the big chair – Haslam. After seeing his dirty dealings with the Browns and with his own billion-dollar oil company, would an NFL player of worth (that had a choice) entrust his livliehood to Haslam and his lackies, Farmer and Mike Pettine? We’ll find out in March.
