00:00Jimmy Haslam was speaking in the media.
00:02Jimmy was asked a couple of questions.
00:03First thing Jimmy was asked about, if I can get my sheet out here and get it right,
00:07what are the expectations this year, sir?
00:10Well, I don't know about high expectations.
00:13Let's say improved expectations, okay?
00:16We're always careful, as you know, to set the expectations,
00:19and I think we have made giant strides in our talent level the last two years,
00:24and that takes these young guys a lot of time,
00:26and I think we could have the chance to start double-digit first- and second-year players,
00:31and I don't care how good you are.
00:33It takes a little bit of time to improve,
00:34but we're really excited about the roster we've assembled.
00:38So he's asked about the over or the under,
00:40and this is what got everybody hot and bothered.
00:42Here's Jimmy on whether or not you should take the over or the under this year.
00:46I think the odds are for us to win five and a half games, I'll take the over.
00:51So some people got in a snit over that.
00:54But he's trying to be relatively optimistic while being relatively realistic
00:58about what the season is going to be, is he not?
01:00Did you run to the window like I did, like in the movie The Sting?
01:04Oh, you gambled? I didn't gamble.
01:06Oh, I just threw everything on it.
01:08So that's it.
01:09I haven't told my wife yet.
01:10She's finding out about this for the very first time.
01:12But, yeah, honey, we are big Browns.
01:14We've got plenty of listeners who can help you with that.
01:16We are big Browns fans.
01:17We are big, big Browns fans starting in September against Jacksonville.
01:21So, I put him at six.
01:23Did you put him at five?
01:25I said four or five, yeah.
01:26You said four or five?
01:28Four or five?
01:29Once they traded Miles.
01:30Now, the Jared Verst stuff, I got to tell you, Coach Riz on Friday,
01:34he had me starting to rethink everything.
01:38You talked to him for, you know, four hours.
01:41He had me pretty pumped up about what that defense could be,
01:44even without Miles Garrett.
01:45If they had the chance to bring in Jadeveon Clonty, I was going to say less.
01:49Oh, yes.
01:50I'm glad that he chose the Houston Texans.
01:54He did.
01:54I know that all this is, it's very weird when I come back
01:57and there's like everything's a revelation because I don't like to tweet
02:00while I'm gone.
02:01You weren't going to throw a party for Jadeveon Clonty?
02:03No.
02:04We weren't going to be doing, here we go again?
02:07My first reaction was.
02:09It would have been, here we go again with Jadeveon Clonty.
02:11There was a near riot in a locker room after a game to which he had reportedly caused.
02:17They left him on the roster to sit there and stew and brew for the rest of that year.
02:22Anytime you can get a guy that makes everybody feel worse about coming to play for the Cleveland Browns,
02:28you've got to bring that guy back.
02:29I couldn't believe what I was hearing last week.
02:32There's so many Browns fans that put it all on Myles Garrett.
02:35When I saw, because he ain't here no more.
02:38That's why.
02:39You want to know why that, oh yeah, we'll take Jadeveon back while he had nine sacks last year.
02:42That was all Myles' fault last year.
02:44People were saying just the fact we had him in and showed interest and made an offer and
02:49Andrew Barry at the press conference even reiterated that they were hoping, they were
02:54standing by the phone, hoping Jadeveon would sign and be a member of the Browns.
03:00They thought just by virtue of all that, it proved that Myles was the bad guy in the whole
03:05situation.
03:05I really hope it was just niceties and not that, because they have, and I'll tell you
03:13something coming up here at 643, because I'm kind of going off the same reports as you
03:17guys here, because I got smashed online for something a couple of months ago.
03:21We'll talk about this coming up, but I hope it was just niceties, because there were a
03:26lot of people who have been discussing, people who know the NFL, people who work in the NFL,
03:31people who still work in a formerly GM capacity, now online.
03:36I'm not talking about Michael Lombardi.
03:38There's a totally different conversation to have there, but there are people who are looking
03:42at this going, man, they're operating with a lot more common sense over the last couple
03:46of years.
03:46Why is that?
03:47And I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that it was just, hey, he's free.
03:52He has an agent.
03:53So that agent obviously has other clients.
03:56So you're not going to just sit there and rip on one of his clients because you have
03:59these other guys.
04:00So if you're just going to go through the niceties of it, fine.
04:03I hope that's what the case was, because it just is nonsensical.
04:07It would have been totally classic Browns if they were to go, yeah, let's bring him
04:13back.
04:13Let's bring him back with all this stuff.
04:14Not a chance in hell.
04:16I wouldn't want to deal with any of that.
04:17Not a chance in hell.
04:18I would feel so much worse about a season that I don't feel that great going into.
04:23Like, it's like, hey, let's see if we can find a quarterback.
04:25And if not, there's a plethora of quarterbacks.
04:27Now it's only August, but there's a plethora of quarterbacks that are coming out in the draft
04:31next year.
04:31Let's see if we have a quarterback.
04:33Let's see year two of Carson Swessinger.
04:35Let's see year two of Mason Graham.
04:37Let's see if Mike Hall can get it going.
04:39Like, there's so many let's see this, let's see that, that I can attach myself to and find
04:44interest.
04:44And if they would have brought Jadavion Clowney, I'm like, what would have, why?
04:47To me, it would have smacked.
04:51I thought it was nine.
04:51Excuse me.
04:52I gave him too much credit.
04:54To me, it smacked of the old Paul DiBodesta, like, lack of awareness of anything going on.
04:59Like, you have no idea to read a room.
05:02And you agree with me.
05:03See, I think you thought I was going to try to find a way to rationalize this.
05:06There ain't a chance at hell.
05:07Because Friday, I said, I cannot believe that they would even entertain this.
05:11And people were like, but it was Miles.
05:13It was clearly Miles.
05:14They got rid of Miles.
05:14Now they want Clowney.
05:15I'm relieved but disappointed that he's going to the Houston Texans because if I say that
05:22before he signed, it means more.
05:25Now I can say whatever I want because he ain't here.
05:27But I'm telling you right now, one of the things that I've been holding onto the seat wanting
05:32to say, and I'm going, save it for the show, is that I can't, no.
05:36If you're not, I mean, you hear the owner.
05:39The owner's saying take the over on five and a half.
05:41We're addressing five and a half.
05:43Take the over.
05:44Okay.
05:45What?
05:45Find six.
05:47If we know, and he's being realistic about it, that, hey, we're trying to see who we
05:52got, see if these young guys can really play.
05:55You know, we got a couple of good moves here over the last week.
05:58You know, Denzel Ward signs an extension.
06:00He's as Cleveland as it gets.
06:02You got Grant Delpit, who's been taken care of now.
06:05That's a nice relief because, as you know, I find him to be a wonderful player who I would
06:09pay money to go see.
06:10There's some good vibes that are going here.
06:13And to invite that cancer back to your locker room would be not just one step forward and
06:21two steps back.
06:22Like, you are doing a running leap into a pond of back if you were to invite that back into
06:28your locker room.
06:28With the way that ended, with the way everything went, no.
06:31This needs to be a year where everybody, they're grown men, they have jobs.
06:36I understand not everything's going to be great.
06:39Not everything's going to be kumbaya.
06:40But man, you've got to do what you can to make sure that the locker room can get together
06:44in some fashion.
06:45Like, hey, what Jimmy said about the owner, or about the over, whatever.
06:49I think he's trying to be somewhat realistic about everything.
06:52But when it came to the Genevieve on Clowney stuff, I was like, please don't do this.
06:56Please don't do this.
06:57Please don't make me have to go on in August and rip this move and think how silly this
07:04is to bring back a guy who we know was bad for our locker room and bad for our culture
07:09and we're entertaining bringing him back.
07:11Please.
07:12No.
07:13No.
07:14It was a great first year.
07:15It was a disastrous second year.
07:17And I'll give credit where it's due.
07:18When they signed him, what did Zach say?
07:20The beginnings are always great.
07:22The endings are horrific.
07:23And it was absolutely horrific.
07:25To find out that we went from October to December with that going on after that Ravens game
07:31for another, what, two months?
07:33Two months?
07:34And let that all permeate was absolutely ridiculous that year.
07:38And also, the fact that he had two different stretches of four teams in four years.
07:43Exactly.
07:43We've never heard of something like that.
07:45That's what I'm saying.
07:46And the thing is, he is productive.
07:47He's always productive.
07:48But that's the stuff you see on the field that has nothing to do.
07:51Who doesn't take inventory of the stuff going on in the locker room.
07:54And we found that out firsthand.
07:56If this was a team that had AFC championship aspirations.
08:00Because if you do, you already have leaders in that locker room you trust.
08:03If they had AFC championship game aspirations like the Texans do,
08:08I would be more open-minded to it.
08:10I don't need to have these young guys in and having this epiphany with this goofball
08:16in this locker room sitting there going,
08:18this is what everybody warned me about.
08:20Now I'm getting the full Browns experience.
08:22That's the last thing we need.
08:25I need, now that we've moved on and made the trade with one guy who refused to take leadership.
08:31Not a bad guy.
08:32Not talking trash about him out the way out the door.
08:35I'm saying the same stuff I said the nine years he was here.
08:37All right?
08:39When we've moved on from one guy who refused to take leadership,
08:42it becomes so much more important to get where you're going to go.
08:45It's still the ultimate team game.
08:47That would have been something that was ridiculous to me.
08:49I'm glad to get that off my chest.
08:51I'm glad to get that off my chest.
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