Cleveland Browns Owner owner Jimmy Haslam had a nickname for former V.P. of Football Operations Sashi Brown that many felt was racist, according to a report. Haslam referred to Brown as, “Obama.”
The Browns owner allegedly thought the nickname was pretty funny, but it made others uncomfortable, according to Pro Football Talk.
“Haslam laughed at the nickname,” ESPN’s Seth Wickersham says, “but it offended many in the building as racial stereotyping — a sentiment that became even more amplified in 2018 after a secret recording of Mark Hazelwood, a person close to Haslam and a former president at Pilot [Flying J], was made public. On the recording, Hazelwood used a racial slur to describe football fans in a meeting of Pilot executives at which Haslam said he wasn’t present.”
Reportedly Brown says that he does not think that the nickname was meant to demean. The football executive reportedly said that he “didn’t think Haslam was being disrespectful with the Obama nickname, even if it caused others to cringe.”
But some suspected it had a racial tinge and the nickname made people uncomfortable.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.