Ever since Tennessee truck stop magnate Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns, they’ve had a run of luck that’s nothing other than Brown-ish.
But he said Wednesday he wasn’t feeling buyer’s remorse after a ridiculous run of luck.
Since he’s taken over, the Browns have lost linebacker Chris Gocong for the season with a torn Achilles, found out first-round pick Trent Richardson needs knee surgery and found out that cornerback Joe Haden’s facing a suspension for failing a drug test.
“I think that’s part of football,” Haslam said, via Tony Grossi of ESPNCleveland.com. “You’re going to have some bad breaks and some good breaks. But I’m confident listening to everybody that we’ve got a good, young team that’s headed in the right direction.”
Haslam spent eight hours in meetings with his new employees, catching up on the work to be done, before heading to practice at Cleveland Browns Stadium to meet fans and watch a little football.
“I was telling some of my friends back home who asked what were my two main impressions [of Cleveland],” Haslam said. “First, I’ve never seen people who like football as much as this community does, and second of all, we need to win. That’s actually 1. and 1a.”
Asked what he told fans who asked when they could expect to see the winning, Hasalm replied: “I don’t know any more than you do.”
“I think the Browns are heading in the right direction, but they were 4-12 last year,” he said. “They’ve had two really good drafts in a row. I think Tom [Heckert, the GM] and his team have done a really nice job. But we’ve probably still got a ways to go.
“What I’ve told every fan tonight is hang in there, be patient. We’ll work our hardest to bring a winner here. I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight, but I do think we’re heading in the right direction.”
Of course, questions about direction — as it applies to Mike Holmgren, Heckert and coach Pat Shurmur — are among the first he’s going to have to decide.