Browns Owner Jimmy Haslam Discusses RGIII Injury, Josh McCown, and More

The Cleveland Browns are a franchise that has been awful for the last decade. This team just wants to begin a winning formula and that all starts with a head coach and a general manager.

Former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson was named the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in January. The team picked up veteran quarterback Robert Griffin III in hopes that he will finally be the quarterback that will succeed with this organization. After week one Griffin was placed on the injured reserve with a fractured coracoid bone in his shoulder.

This franchise just can’t catch a break and it’s upsetting to not only the fans but for the owner Jimmy Haslam. After buying the franchise back in 2012, Haslam has seen his fair share of horrific years.

In hopes of starting a brand new and successful franchise, he hired who he thought were the correct people for the job.

Head Coach: Hue Jackson

Head of Football Operations: Sashi Brown

Chief Strategy Officer: Paul DePodesta

Jimmy Haslam talked recently on ESPN Cleveland WKNR (850-AM) radio about Robert Griffin’s injury and how much he likes Josh McCown not only as a leader but more importantly as a person.

Monday night when things calmed down, I called Robert first to just tell him, hey, we’re thinking about him because I didn’t see him here in the building. It’s a tough day. He had worked really hard to come back from injuries and played well, had been voted team captain. We had a great conversation. I think he accepts it. He’s going to work hard to get back.

I then called Josh, who was hanging out that night with [wide receivers] Terrelle Pryor and with Josh Gordon, which made me feel good for a lot of different reasons. Josh McCown is as good a person as I’ve ever met anywhere. He’s just incredible, and I see how unselfishly he works with the other quarterbacks and that’s the reason we kept him around. We didn’t anticipate Robert getting hurt in the first game and Josh maybe having to play the rest of the 15 games, but I told his mom and dad who came to watch one of our practices, ‘You’ve done a great job raising a good athlete but an even better job raising a good person.’

He’s as good a person as I’ve ever met anywhere, anything. We’re fortunate to have him step in, and he’s a good football player, too. So we’re disappointed for Robert, disappointed for the team, but we’re excited to get Josh back on the field, anticipate him doing some good things. And, hey, it’s not his first rodeo, and if you look, he’s generally played well against Baltimore, so we’ll knock on wood and hope that happens again.

Haslam talked about the younger athletes on this team. He believes the future looks extremely bright.

What’s encouraging, (Carl) Nassib played extremely well, but what was even more encouraging to me is to see how he competed. It was hot, you’re on the road, you’ve all been Philadelphia, it’s a hard place to play. It’s a loud crowd, and I thought as the game went on, he got stronger and competed harder, which is not easy for young people to do, so that was exciting. I thought Emmanuel Ogbah got off to a good start going against a very good left tackle for Philadelphia, so I thought he played well.

Joe (Schobert) played well. Joe is used to winning games. He won a lot of games at Wisconsin and I always go to the locker room afterwards and shake hands with the guys. He says, ‘listen, this is unacceptable. We’re going to win games, I promise you. I don’t like losing’ so it’s good to hear that, and Derrick Kindred, we think is going to be a very big player. He has some things to learn, but he had a couple of big hits out there and he’s going to be a good football player. So when four of your 11 are either starting or in the rotation and playing a lot, that’s encouraging and of course what we’re looking to see is do they get better week by week and are they a lot better football players toward the end of the year than they are now, and we’re optimistic they will be.

It’s great that Haslam and the people within this organization believe in McCown and these younger athletes. Change is coming and they seem to be ready to overcome this adversity.

Fans of Cleveland… Be patient.