After sealing a deal this week to buy a majority share of the Browns from owner Randy Lerner for a billion dollars, Jimmy Haslam III says he’ll run the front office like his half-century-old family business. Haslam heads Pilot Corporation, which manages more than 600 roadside travel plazas in the U.S. and Canada.

“If you look at our main company, Pilot Flying J, it’s been in business 53 years. We have a very senior group of individuals, a very set culture, and that’s how we plan to do it here. And we’re going to devote whatever time is necessary to get things right here in Cleveland. I believe they’re on the right path, but we’ll take whatever steps necessary to bring winning football to Cleveland.”

Lessons learned from the Steelers
On the field, Haslam concedes he still has a lot to learn about building a winner, but he says he has learned something from his four-years as a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. One thing is that the Steelers succeed because they build from the draft.  Haslam credits Browns President Mike Holmgren and General Manager Tom Heckert with doing a much better job drafting players recently than past team officials.

“Of the last 10 first-round draft picks only two are here. Your first-round draft pick has to not just make the team and start, they need to be All Pro. So the key is the draft-pick decisions, those are the most important decisions. It looks like over the last two years they’ve done a really nice job.”

Change is a constant for Browns fans
Since the team returned to the league as an expansion team in 1999, Browns fans have seen a revolving door of coaches, and a consistent losing record. Some fans, like Alex Kip of Medina, see Haslam’s purchase of the team as a mostly positive development.

 “I think he’ll be a good owner, he spent a lot of money on the team so he’ll be motivated to bring in some good personnel, good players and improve the team. Randy Lerner was hands-off, he tried to hire the right people to put a winning product on he field, but he didn’t make the best decisions. I’m a little concerned about what the new owner might do in the short term regarding keeping the front office personnel or not. If he gets rid of them we’ll be facing another rebuilding phase. I like the players they’ve chosen.”

Holmgren is a questionmark
Kip is talking about Holmgren and Heckert. Haslam is not saying what he plans to do with the Brown’s front office until at least 24 of the 32 NFL owners approve the sale.

“Randy still owns the team and there’s league protocol where the owners have to vote on the sale and that’s in October. Until then Randy owns the team, so it would be very presumptuous and poor form for us to make any personnel decisions or comments.”