Is Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam really impetuous?

Jun 16, 2015; Berea, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam (left) and Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine during minicamp at the Cleveland Browns practice facility. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

We are only four weeks into the 2015 NFL season and we’re already hearing and reading about the temperature of the office furniture at Cleveland Browns headquarters in Berea.

Depending on who you read or listen to, either general manager Ray Farmer or head coach Mike Pettine (or both) will be looking for a new home come the off-season, if not sooner.

We started thinking about this more after making the mistake of checking out Sunday’s Hey Tony column at ESPN Cleveland, where “analyst” Tony Grossi handpicks questions to answers from readers:

"Hey Tony: If Haslam doesn’t fire Farmer something smells in Berea. That odor may be the residue of Haslam instructing Farmer to set this year’s team up to purposely fail in order to be able to draft a QB high next year. The 2015 Browns are a smelly mess at the top and Pettine is up to his neck in it. What do you think? – Dale, Barberton, OH"

"Hey Dale: They aren’t losing on purpose to set up the next draft. Haslam has been criticized heavily, and rightfully, for pulling the trigger too quickly on previous regimes. So now he is trying to exercise patience and give the current one time to show progress. Sadly, his patience is not being rewarded."

Actually, it’s not just lately that the chatter surrounding Farmer and Pettine’s future has started up, it dates back to even before the season started when Sports Illustrated tapped Pettine as one of seven coaches in trouble, writing in part that:

"The Browns started out 6–3 last season before everything fell apart and they finished 7–9. Another collapse like that, and Pettine could very well be gone. He’s a stand-up guy and a very good coach, but Cleveland’s front office won’t win any points for stability."

It is the last part of that sentence – Cleveland’s front office won’t win any points for stability – that is really the impetus of all this talk and it centers around owner Jimmy Haslam.

“We’re not going to blow things up, OK?” – Owner Jimmy Haslam

Shortly after Haslam bought the team – much to the delight of many fans who had grown tired of former owner Randy Lerner’s hands-off approach ownership – the media created a narrative that portrayed Haslam as a quick-fingered, headline-grabbing owner. (It is really amazing that some can complain about an owner can be hands off and then complain when the new owner gets involved.)

It is an image that, almost three years later, Haslam has not been able to shake. But is it an accurate one?

Outside of drafting quarterback Johnny Manziel and overseeing the creation of one of the worst uniforms sets in the NFL, what headlines has Haslam or the team chased? Haslam has not handed out team-crippling contracts or defended a player who knocked his future wife unconscious in a casino elevator.

Is that the kind of owner that Browns fans should want?

As far as Haslam having an “itchy trigger finger,” which of these moves would Browns fans really want to undo:

Firing Pat Shurmur, who was 9-23 as a head coach, and will never get another head coaching job in the NFL unless Mike Holmgren is involved?
Firing Rob Chudzinski, admittedly not a good look after one year, but who was 4-12 and will most likely never get another NFL head coaching job?
Firing Mike Lombardi, who no one outside of Jason La Canfora believes is capable of being an NFL general manager?
Firing Joe Banner, a snazzy interior decorator (just don’t look too closely at those quotes on the wall at team headquarters), who outside of hoodwinking the Colts out of a No. 1 pick for Trent Richardson did little in his time with the team? (Unless you are a fan of Leon McFadden, Jamoris Slaughter and Gilbert Gilkey.)
Letting offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who wasn’t tough enough to make it in Cleveland, walk at the end of last season?

So what say you, Browns fans? Which of the moves do you want to turn back time for and stop Haslam from making them?

This isn’t to say that Haslam is a perfect owner – we’re not sure such a thing exists, actually – but rather to point out that the facts don’t match the myth created of what Haslam is an owner.

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Haslam addressed all this prior to the start of the season when he said in no uncertain terms that patience is a virtue.

“We’re not going to blow things up, OK?” Haslam said after the Browns’ third practice of training camp. “I think we’re on the right track, so we’re not going to blow things up. [I] Understand why people might ask that after a couple bumps in the road the first couple years. I think we’re putting in place a good foundation.”

Once the season ends there will most likely be some changes to the Browns, but that is only natural. Those changes should not be of the “headline-grabbing” nature, though, as Pettine and Farmer need more than two years to fix a mess 15 years in the making. (Although, down the road, you may be able to sell us on making a move on Farmer.)

There are those who will believe otherwise about Haslam, no matter what anyone says, but the reality paints a different picture.

All Browns fans have to do is take a look.

Next: Evaluating the Browns at the quarter mark

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