Report: Jimmy Haslam silent on Mike Pettine’s future
By Thomas Moore
With one game remaining in the regular season, has Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam already made a decision on head coach Mike Pettine’s future?
The only certainty currently surrounding the Cleveland Browns is that they will conclude the 2015 NFL Season tomorrow against FirstEnergy Stadium against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
After that it is anyone’s guess as to what owner Jimmy Haslam plans to do with a front office and coaching staff that has overseen the team’s 11th double-digit loss season in the past 13 years.
One person certainly wondering what is on Haslam’s mind is head coach Mike Pettine, who has dealt with rumors of his impending firing almost since he took over the job.
“We’re not going to blow things up, OK? I think we’re on the right track, so we’re not going to blow things up.” – Jimmy Haslam, August 2015
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, in an attempt to gain some clarification of his job status, Pettine reportedly asked Haslam face to face about his job status and was met with silence.
“Mike Petting specifically asked Jimmy Haslam if he is coming back and Haslam did not answer and that led to some worries from the coaching staff,” Rapoport said on NFL Network. “At this point there are a ton of questions inside the organization from the coaches if they will be back in 2016. There have been no firm decisions from Jimmy Haslam and one is not expected to come until after Sunday.”
That meshes with another report from NFL Media’s Rand Getlin that there is a “sense” within team headquarters in Berea that Sunday will be the end of Pettine’s tenure with the Browns.
In speaking with multiple sources, there's a sense within the #Browns org that Sunday will be the last time Mike Pettine coaches the team.
— Rand Getlin (@RandGetlin) January 1, 2016
If Haslam does decide to fire Pettine it will make Pettine the fourth consecutive Browns coach to last two years or less on the job, which has to be some kind of NFL record and would cement Cleveland as the graveyard of coaches.
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When asked on Thursday if he believed he should be back, Pettine pointed out that trying to fix a mess like the Browns realistically needs more than two years.
“It’s a bottom line business, and if I just pull myself back from it and put myself elsewhere and look in, the record is not good,” he said. “But given the circumstances that we were in when we got here, and given the history of when you look back at what had occurred before we got here and kind of the state of things, I don’t think anybody thought it was going to be a quick turnaround based on where we are.
“I’m competitive – just like our players, we want them to be competitive, prideful. I absolutely want to be able to finish out and then some, but again, that’s out of my control. I feel like we’ve planted seeds for growth for the future. That foundation is here, but we’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.”
While no one knows what Haslam has planned, one thing is certain: we are only about 48 hours or so away from finding out the answer.