Report: Browns Ownership Let Front Office Have It After Mess Up Of McCarron Deal

The Browns continue to be the joke of the NFL based on their huge screw up on Tuesday as they were in the midst of getting themselves a quarterback, that being Cincinnati Bengals backup A.J. McCarron.

We all know the story of how the Browns were too late getting their paperwork in on the deal, and today Adam Schefter on Rich Eisen’s show confirmed the Browns turned in the paperwork (as he says it) at 4:00:30, 30 seconds too late for the NFL, who wouldn’t allow the deal to go through.

There’s a new element to the story now, that being the aftermath and the boom that was reported to be lowered on the Browns front office by one Dee Haslam, one of the Browns owners.

Pro Football Talk reports that the Browns front office took a lashing at the hands of Haslam for messing the deal up, feeling her wrath after the screw up.

Per a league source, ownership (specifically Dee Haslam) went “nuclear” on the front office in the aftermath of the failed effort to consummate a trade for Bengals quarterback A.J. McCarron.

The reaction comes even as the Browns spent much of Wednesday trying to persuade multiple media members that the Browns didn’t screw up the trade that was indeed screwed up. The Browns contend that they signed the appropriate paperwork to reflect their agreement to the deal, that they sent it to the Bengals for signature and submission to the league office, that the Bengals sent documentation signed only by the team, and that by the time the error was detected it was too late to rectify it.

It’s true the Browns have tried to talk those that will listen into thinking that it was the Bengals that messed the deal up, but as PFT also reports, the Browns clearly were in the wrong, as they should have known better that they needed to notify the league right away of the deal.

Meanwhile, multiple teams (the official number now stands at seven) have told PFT that the Browns and Bengals should have separately informed the league office of the terms of the trade. As one source put it via email to PFT, “Only requirement is for both clubs to separately notify the league office via email of trade terms. If trade terms match, deal done. No need to sign paperwork and submit prior. Have 15 days to submit trade papers (with terms that identically match emails).”

It’s just another day in the world of the Cleveland Browns, a team that continues to prove new ways in messing up even little things like making a trade.