CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cleveland Browns have denied allegations made for former head coach Hue Jackson that the team paid him to lose games while he served as the team’s head coach from 2016 through the midway part of the 2018 season.
Jackson made the allegations on Twitter Tuesday night and Wednesday morning while responding to tweets directed at his account. He also retweeted additional commentary from users.
Although the @huejack10 account has not been verified by Twitter, it is widely accepted that it is the account owned and managed by Jackson.
The team says Jackson’s allegations are untrue.
“The recent comments by Hue Jackson and his representatives relating to his tenure as our head coach are completely fabricated,” a team spokesman said in a statement to 92.3 The Fan. “Any accusation that any member of our organization was incentivized to deliberately lose games is categorically false.”
Jackson’s allegations come after Brian Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins who was fired in January, sued the Dolphins, Broncos and Giants for discrimination. Flores accused the Giants of conducting a sham interview with him only to comply with the NFL's Rooney Rule to clear the way for them to hire former Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll. He accused the Broncos, who ended up hiring Vic Fangio, of doing the same thing in 2019.
Jackson, now the head football coach at Grambling State University, offered his unconditional support for Flores’ lawsuit.
Among the allegations contained within Flores’ lawsuit was that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered Flores a $100,000 bonus for every game he lost during the 2019 season, which Flores claims he rebuffed, to help the franchise secure the top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
Jackson inferred that the Haslam Sports Group, owners of the Browns led by Jimmy and Dee Haslam, did something similar while responding to a tweet.
Kimberly Diemert, executive director of The Hue Jackson Foundation, also took to Twitter and claimed they have proof to back up Jackson’s claims of incentivized losing in a series of tweets while also implicating former executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown, chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta and general manager Andrew Berry in the scheme.
Diemert claims that Jackson pleaded his case to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and that a “gag order” has since expired allowing Jackson to speak freely.
Jackson has claimed since his firing on October 29, 2018 that he was hired by the Haslams under the false pretense of winning only to see Brown, who was fired by the team on December 7, 2017, and the front office dismantle the roster to position the team to lose.
Jackson went 3-36-1 during his tenure as head coach with the Browns, including a 1-15 season in 2016 and going 0-16 in 2017, netting the Browns the No. 1 pick in the 2017 and 2018 NFL drafts.
The Browns used those selections on All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett in 2017 and quarterback Baker Mayfield in 2018.