Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam speak for first time since August
PHOENIX — Jimmy and Dee Haslam had been relatively quiet.
The Browns owners last spoke to the media last Aug. 18, when they addressed the 11-game suspension quarterback Deshaun Watson had settled with the NFL. Since then, they two have been seen plenty — either at the team’s Berea facility or at Browns games home or away — but had said very little.
The Haslams broke their public silence on Monday evening. They sat down with a small group of Northeast Ohio media, including the Beacon Journal, for a 25-minute conversation while at the NFL’s annual meetings at the Arizona Biltmore Resort.
The couple discussed Watson a year later — both the trade for the quarterback and the fully-guaranteed deal they gave him to complete the trade — as well as their expectations for the team and, specifically, general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski. However, those topics weren’t the only ones which have arisen over the last eight months.
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The Haslams also addressed the dispute currently swirling in Cleveland regarding the future of FirstEnergy Stadium and whether or not they want a new stadium built for them. They also talked about their pending purchase of a percentage of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Here’s a look at some of the bigger points which the Haslams hit during their conversation.
Jimmy Haslam stands behind Deshaun Watson’s fully-guaranteed deal
At last year’s meetings in Florida, the Haslams’ decision to hand Watson a fully-guaranteed $230-million contract was the thing which seemed to rile up other owners more than any of the quarterback’s off-the-field allegations. Most notably, Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti took aim at the deal, saying it would “make negotiations harder with others.”
Others, in this case, no doubt included Bisciotti’s own quarterback, former MVP Lamar Jackson. A year later, the Ravens and Jackson are in the midst of a contentious negotiation, one in which led Jackson to put out a trade request on Tuesday at the exact same time Baltimore coach John Harbaugh was speaking to reporters in Arizona.
Jackson, who was given the non-exclusive franchise tag by the Ravens as he enters free agency, has been reportedly seeking a fully-guaranteed deal similar to the one Watson received a year ago. Jimmy Haslam declined to talk about the Jackson-Ravens dispute, saying it was “inappropriate to comment,” but did stand by the contract his own quarterback received.
“Every team, every business, has to look and do what they think is in the best interest of their team,” Haslam said. “We did what we thought was in the best interest of our team. We still feel that way. So, we’re excited to if you will have the stuff behind us. This time last year, how many games is he going to play? Is he going to play? Is he not going to play? He’s going to be there the whole season [now] and barring injury, heaven forbid, he’s going to play all 17 games and hopefully more. That I think alone is a bigger leap to the organization, to Deshaun, to all of us.”