The lengthy and detailed article from Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com regarding several years of Dawg Pound dysfunction may do nearly as much to dampen the current over-the-top enthusiasm in Cleveland as if they’d re-hired Hue Jackson to coach the team. Wickersham paints a troubling portrait of an owner who, while apparently well-intentioned, pits employees against each other through an incessant habit of gathering information.
It’s a habit that often prompts employees to complain about other employees, fueling the many changes that Haslam has made over the years, often without warning -- and without explanation.
More than six years after Jimmy Haslam bought the team, he’s still figuring out how to own the team. And his wife, co-owner Dee Haslam, who has emerged in recent years as a more prominent figure in the operation of the franchise, reportedly has admitted (repeatedly) that she and her husband remain clueless when it comes to running a football team.
“We just don’t know what we are doing,” Dee Haslam has repeatedly said on multiple occasions, according to multiple unnamed sources who spoke to Wickersham. “If we’d known how hard it would be, we never would have bought the team.” (The team denied that Dee Haslam ever said this.)
So why did they buy the team? Billionaires become tempted by the trappings of billionaire life, and buying an NFL team is a non-braggy way to let everyone know you’re a billionaire. It’s not about showing off; it’s about making a good investment.
And it is a good investment, if the goal is to make money. If the goal is to become beloved or well-known or whatever, it’s a crapshoot.
For every Bob Kraft there’s a Dan Snyder, and the zero-sum nature of the NFL ensures that good teams will be mirrored by bad teams. That each and every franchise that is well run will be balanced by a team that isn’t.
Which once again reminds me of one of the most insightful quotes I’ve ever heard: The only thing better than being rich and famous is being rich.