Browns owner Jimmy Haslam

Jimmy Haslam speaks during his press conference after firing Ray Farmer and Mike Pettine in January.

(Dan Labbe, Cleveland.com)

BEREA, Ohio - When she's not tackling league issues or assisting in a coach's search, Browns co-owner Dee Haslam runs a production company specializing in reality television.

If only she knew the NFL's most impatient owner and got him to agree to a total franchise makeover under the direction of a football outsider. Now, that would be entertaining.

Jimmy Haslam has hung onto flip phones longer than some of his head coaches. He's fired more people than Donald Trump before the latter became a presidential candidate and had his hand size scrutinized like a quarterback at a scouting combine.

So it's noteworthy that an owner who's changed regimes three times during his four years with the Browns is leading the most audacious experiment the NFL has witnessed in recent memory. He's entrusting his team to a Harvard-educated, analytics-driven front office that many around the league want to see fail.

Other than that it's just business as usual in Berea.

As Paul DePodesta and Sashi Brown begin to tear down the roster and build through the draft, it's anyone's guess as to whether the plan succeeds. Maybe the biggest test, however, will be Jimmy Haslam's patience.

How will a man who becomes more red faced than Chief Wahoo after a loss in September handle a long-term project that should carry the slogan: Check Back With Us In 2018. (By the way, you should see my ugly rose-colored mug on deadline. I resemble a walking hockey goal light.)

Owner Jimmy Haslam with his flip phone at the 2014 NFL scouting combine.

Haslam spent months criss-crossing the country last year talking to top sports executives, learning the best ways to build an organization. Jimmy and Dee have put lots of work and thought into their non-traditional approach and it takes courage on their part to go this far against the grain. But does Jimmy have the stomach to sit through two or three years of losing while other owners he respects tell him privately: "Get rid of those geeks."

DePodesta's confessions about overhearing disparaging remarks aimed at him and the Browns' methods should come as no surprise. Cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot shared similar sentiments from league personnel in January.

The Browns have been pitied, mocked and ridiculed since their 1999 return. This reaction, however, is different. While analytics has been part of football for years - Joe Banner started a deeper dive here in 2013 -- it's never been employed on such a grand scale. Or, spearheaded by an executive with a baseball background.

If it works in Cleveland, it could make some in the NFL's old guard look as obsolete as Haslam's flip phone.

You can bet there were plenty of surreptitious fist bumps among general managers when word leaked out the Browns might have bungled the last-minute negotiations to retain right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who opted to sign with the Chiefs.

Meanwhile, the hiring of coach Hue Jackson received almost universal praise, as well it should. But unlike his predecessors in the Haslam era, the new coach didn't make any free-agent splashes, a la Paul Kruger, Desmond Bryant, Ben Tate, Karlos Dansby and Donte Whitner. Jackson saw his front office allow Schwartz, Alex Mack, Travis Benjamin and Tashaun Gipson to walk. It also cut ties with Dansby, who despite being 34, remains productive. Who knows what happens in the hunt for Colin Kaepernick, or if that pursuit remains ongoing.

DePodesta told Baseball America last week he received assurances from the Haslams that they were willing to endure the growing pains while essentially starting over.

"I said, 'I need someone who's going to want to get on the roller coaster with me knowing that it's not always going to be fun,'" DePodesta said.

Jimmy Haslam also said he didn't plan to "blow things up" about his last regime before admitting, "I don't think any of us anticipated going 3-13" on the Jan. 3 night he blew things up.

The Browns could be facing a string of 3-13s before fortunes start to turn. We have no idea whether the men in charge can orchestrate such a massive overhaul and make the right choices with their war chest of draft picks. Maybe. Maybe not.

Many believe the rebuild will take several years, perhaps as many as four or five.

All eyes will be on Jimmy Haslam. Wouldn't you like to hear some of his conversations with DePodesta and Brown on Monday mornings after the club gets boat-raced by the Steelers and Bengals next fall?

If only there were someone with the access and ability to produce a reality show.