Browns executor says he has documents to prove his claim
Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson clarified in an interview with CNN Friday night that he was never paid to lose games, but evidence that the team’s owners and executives intended to lose during the 2016 and 2017 seasons “will come to light at the right time.”
“No, I was never offered any money as Brian mentioned [Flores]”, Jackson agreed to CNN. “I think this is a totally different situation, but it has some similarities.”
On Wednesday, Jackson and Kimberly Diemert, executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, which works to prevent human trafficking, began tweeting in response to Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL and three teams: the Miami Dolphins, the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants — alleging discrimination regarding his interview processes with Denver and New York and his firing last month by Miami. In the lawsuit, Flores also claimed that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross wanted to incentivize him to deliberately lose games soon after he was hired in 2019, allegedly offering Flores $100,000 for each loss that season.
Jackson tweeted that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam “was happy as long as we lost” and “trust me, it was a good number,” while also referring to the number of dollars he allegedly received from Haslam for each loss.
Later Wednesday, Jackson told SportsCenter of ESPN that the Browns had a “four-year plan” that incentivized losing for the first two years: extra money was available if certain measurable indicators were met, such as rankings, being the youngest team, and having multiple draft picks. He said that plan led to his 1-31 mark during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, giving Cleveland the first overall pick in the draft in consecutive years.
Haslam responded to Jackson on Thursday, telling the Knoxville News Sentinel that Jackson “has never accepted blame for anything” and called the claim that he paid Jackson to lose “absolutely untrue.”
Jackson told CNN that he wasn’t paid to lose games, but he had evidence to support his claims that the Browns’ owners and executives intended to lose games.
“I told Jimmy that what he was doing was very destructive, not to do this because it would hurt my career and all the other coaches that worked with me and all the players on the team. And I told him that I would hurt all the African-American coaches who followed me. And I have the documents to prove it.”
Jackson replied, when asked why he hadn’t disclosed such evidence: “Those things will come out at the right time.”
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