Browns owner Jimmy Haslam thinks his team has taken some unfair heat in the media.
Haslam says he was hurt by a story from Jason La Canfora of CBS titled, “Browns’ mess with Gordon, Manziel starts with owner Haslam’s mismanagement.”
“I feel very good directionally about where we’re headed,’' Haslam said, via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “That’s why [the article] was like getting sucker-punched when it kind of came out of left field - ‘whoa, that’s not what we’re seeing.’ Now, I also accept that until we win and win consistently which we have not done - they didn’t do before we got here - and we haven’t done, we don’t have any credibility. We don’t have any equity with y’all. We accept that. We have to prove we can win and win consistently and we accept that.”
As for the charge that he meddles too much, Haslam insisted that he lets the football people make the football decisions. Specifically referencing the drafting of Johnny Manziel, Haslam says that was General Manager Ray Farmer’s call.
“Let me say, I have never watched tape,’' Haslam said. “That’s not my skill set. I’m supposed to get the right people in the right place and I think in Ray Farmer we have the right person and [personnel executives] Bill Kuharich and Morocco Brown and all of the other scouts, I think we’ve got the right people in the right places, so Ray has all of those final calls.’'
What Haslam needs now is for Farmer to make the right calls with the Browns’ two first-round picks this year. Just as soon as the Browns show they’re on track, they’ll stop getting sucker-punched by the media.
