NFL Owners: The 5 worst in professional football

3. Jimmy Haslam, Cleveland Browns

Before we start, it’s worth pointing out that the Browns changed hands two years ago and went from one bad owner, to possibly an even worse one. Randy Lerner was bad enough on his own. After his father — Al, who helped move the first Cleveland team to Baltimore — had repaired his own image by buying rights to the Browns name in 1998, Randy inherited the team in 2002. His tenure in Cleveland was brutal, the Browns seemed to flit from one PR snafu to another. Whether it was his GM conducting feuds with players and fans or his coaching hires being unable to keep some of the more unruly players in check — Lerner’s entire tenure was painful for the fans in Cleveland.

Ten years later, when he sold the team to Haslam, fans figured things had to improve (after all, they couldn’t get much worse).

The early returns on the new owner, however, are not good. In the two years since taking over the team Haslam has been quick with the pink slips. He fired Mike Holmgren and hired Mike Lombardi. He fired Pat Shurmur and hired Rob Chudzinski. Then he fired Chudzinski and hired Mike Pettine. Then he fired Lombardi — and pretty much his entire front office — and promoted Ray Farmer. The man bought the Browns on October 16, 2012. It hasn’t even been two full years yet. That’s an insane amount of turnover.

Then there’s the other things that have come out about Haslam’s business dealings and the company he owns, Pilot Flying J. Namely, a 120-page federal court filing in which Special Agent Robert H. Root alleged a “conspiracy and scheme to defraud executed by various Pilot employees to deceptively withhold diesel fuel price rebates and discounts from Pilot customers … for the dual purposes of increasing the profitability of Pilot and increasing the diesel sales commissions of the Pilot employees participating in the fraud.”

Haslam was alleged to have been “in the know” about the fraudulent activities his company stands accused of. Though the NFL recently decided Haslam has not violated the ever-subjective “NFL conduct policy” and will not be punished, having massive claims of fraud associated with your football team’s owner is also not a good look in most places.

Well, except maybe in Florida, where massive accusations of fraud won’t even stop you from being elected governor.