Jimmy Haslam: The hard way is the right way

Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam continues to say he is a changed man and his actions reveal that might be the case.

Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam admitted something on Saturday that should warm the hearts of Browns fans everywhere.

Patience is a virtue and Haslam is learning to be a more virtuous man, according to clevelandbrowns.com:

"“I am an extremely impatient person. I think we have learned the hard way that if you want to do this and do it right, building through the draft and being patient and getting the right people in place is the right way to do it. It is hard, but it is unequivocally the right thing to do.”"

It is wonderful to hear that from Haslam, but the more cynical Browns fans in the audience can be excused if they rolled their eyes at the comment because, candidly (to use one of Haslam’s favorite words), we’ve all heard this before.

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But dig a little deeper and you can see the progression that Haslam has made in recent years.

Two years ago he vowed that he would not “blow things up” because the team had a solid foundation in place. But a 3-13 season later, he indeed blew things up, firing general manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine.

It was a different story at training camp last year, however, as Haslam presented a more realistic grasp of the situation facing the franchise. That day Haslam talked about being realistic, accepting that the repeated draft mistakes were killing the team, and that while winning would be nice, he was willing to be “cautiously optimistic” about where the Browns stood in the NFL landscape.

It may not sound like much at first, but Haslam has been humbled, and the past few years have helped him grow into the type of owner that may not make every decision fueled simply by emotions. And Haslam deserves some credit for realizing that this has been harder than he ever imagined, according to the team’s website:

"“The learning curve has been extremely steep. It has been way harder than we thought. It is tough. It is hard. I think I have said it is embarrassing. At the same time, we have learned a lot. In life, I have learned you learn a heck of a lot more through the hard experiences than you do the easy ones. I now think we are positioned to, like I said, put the organization, the team in a much better place than we have been.”"

This is a familiar path for Browns fans as Haslam has repeatedly said he has learned from the past and won’t repeat his mistakes. But ever since putting the team in the hands of executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown and head coach Hue Jackson, Haslam has stayed out of the way and let the football people run the show.

Next: In defense of being an optimistic Browns fan

Haslam’s willingness to continue to be open about his mistakes should give Browns fans continued hope that he is truly growing as an owner.