Though it wasn’t on the agenda — between rubber-stamping Super Bowl sites and giving each other money — yesterday’s NFL owners meeting also included an apology.
According to Jarrett Bell of USA Today, new Browns owner Jimmy Haslam offered an explanation to his business partners about the recent federal investigation of his trucking business, and told them about steps he was taking to fix the problem.
“I thought it was important,” Haslam said. “We’re partners in the NFL. I wanted to address them face-to-face.”
His fellow owners were apparently touched by the five-minute talk, in which he apologized for any negative attention he brought to the league.
“I know he feels a sense of embarrassment,” Patriots owner Robert Kraft said. “He said they’re going to do everything they can to get it under control and put it behind them, and that he felt bad for the attention that it brought to the Cleveland franchise and the NFL, and he was going to make it right.”
“He is the new kid in town in terms of NFL ownership,” Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said. “And to sort of deal with an issue like this in the first quarter is impressive.”
The league passed him through a vetting process before he was allowed to buy the Browns, and nothing came up then. And it sounds like his business partners were impressed by his willingness to open up to them, which included an offer for private explanations if anyone needed them.
