Jimmy Haslam’s Pilot Flying J sale will have no effect on Browns

Pilot Flying J owner Jimmy Haslam is selling the majority of his company to billionaire Warren Buffet, chairman, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaires announced on CNBC.

The transition will be gradual over time and will happen in two increments.

Berkshire will acquire 38.6 percent equity immediately, with Haslam for now remaining the majority owner with a 50.1 percent majority stake in the company. In 2023, Haslam will hand over significantly more shares, and his partner FJ Management — 11.3 percent ownership — will surrender all of its shares. At that time, Berkshire will own 80 percent of the company. Haslam will retain 20 percent of the business.

The takeaway here is that this will be a gradual changing of the guard at Pilot Flying J, and it is not presumed to have any kind of impact on Haslam’s ownership and management of the Cleveland Browns.

That’s true, at least according to an anonymous team spokesman, per The Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot:

This is the point where you’re either feeling disappointment or relief. Haslam has not done very much from his leadership position to change the losing culture of the Browns franchise. But then again, the turmoil and uncertainty of a team’s sale is not welcome, either.

The last thing the floundering Browns franchise needs is more uncertainty.

Love him or hate Haslam, be indifferent towards him, it matters not, because it doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.