The Haslam family fortunes
Browns owner helped build truck-stop empire, now faces federal inquiry
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Sometime after lunch on an ordinary Monday, a marketing meeting slogged on as a procession of police cruisers, FBI agents in bulletproof vests and the IRS made its way up a hill to Jimmy Haslam's family empire.
Haslam sat at the head of the table at that meeting. The CEO of Pilot Flying J, a company Haslam and his daddy built into the largest truck-stop chain in North America, always sat at the head of the table. It was April 15, and he was pressed for time. He had recently purchased the Cleveland Browns, and was splitting his days between Ohio and Knoxville, home of Pilot Flying J. Haslam was tired, riding about four hours of sleep a night, but it was a good kind of fatigue. For years, the sports-obsessed Haslams had wondered what it would be like to own a pro football team. And now here it was, 10 days before the NFL draft, and Haslam's mind no doubt occasionally drifted from diesel sales to outside linebackers.
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When Haslam was elected governor in a landslide in 2010, Big Jim swelled with pride. He filled his office with pictures of his boy on election day. A February 2013 article in Politico called Haslam "the most important Republican governor you've never heard of," a man who makes government work. The article said Haslam had a 68 percent approval rating at the time.
But he has his share of critics. They bristled when Haslam refused to disclose his personal ownership stake in Pilot. They wondered why one of Haslam's advisers has also been working with Pilot's public handling of the FBI investigation."The Haslams have done some wonderful things in the community," said Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson. "[Bill] might be a nice family man and all of that. But unfortunately as governor, he's appointed Pilot board members to high-powered government jobs and given preferential treatment to businessmen and lobbyists with ties to Pilot."
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9791018/hot-read-haslam-family-fortunes (very long article)