Browns Owner Says Hue Jackson’s Allegation of Being Paid to Lose Is a ‘Falsehood’

The former Cleveland coach claimed the team had a “four-year plan,” which incentivized losing.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam told the Knoxville News Sentinel that “unequivocally” he did not pay Hue Jackson to lose games.

“That is an absolute falsehood,” Haslam said. “And it’s also an absolute falsehood that I laughed while we were losing. Most people who know me would say, ‘That’s not how Jimmy would react to losing.’”

The former Browns coach and his foundation alleged on Tuesday that the franchise paid him to lose games during the 2016 and ’17 seasons. Jackson then clarified his comments Wednesday on ESPN’s SportsCenter, saying that the team had a four-year plan which incentivized losing. 

Jackson said if certain measurables were met, such as being the youngest team or having a lot of draft picks, bonuses were available. 

“Teams that win are just not the youngest team, not that the youngest teams can’t win, so I didn’t understand the process,” Jackson told ESPN. “I didn’t understand what the plan was, I asked for clarity because it did not talk about winning and losing until Year 3 and 4. So that told you right there that something wasn’t correct but I still couldn't understand it until I had the team that I had.”

He added that he told Haslam he was not interested in the bonus payments but rather wanted the money to be used to improve the Browns. 

“And I remember very candidly saying to Jimmy, ‘I’m not interested in bonus money,’ because I’ve never known that to be a bonus. I was interested in taking whatever that money was and putting it toward getting more players on our football team because I didn’t think we were very talented at all,” Jackson said on SportsCenter. “I know what good football teams look like, play like, what they act like and we didn't have a lot of talented players on the team at that time.”

Jackson was fired in 2018 after posting a a 3-36-1 record over two-and-a-half seasons. The franchise sat at 2-5-1 when he got the boot that season, going on to win five of its last eight games. The Browns selected defensive end Myles Garrett and quarterback Baker Mayfield with its back-to-back No. 1 draft picks thanks to the consecutive abysmal records: 1–15 in 2016 followed by 0–16 the next season. 

Earlier this week, former Dolphins coach Brian Flores sued the league, three franchises (the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos) and unidentified individuals, alleging racism in hiring practices. The complaint was filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, seeking class-action status.

Among the allegations listed in the filing, Flores claims Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him a $100,000 bonus for each loss during the 2019 season, and Flores says he didn’t comply with the request. Ross made his first public comments concerning the lawsuit on Wednesday night, calling the former coach’s claims “false, malicious and defamatory.”

• Browns Digest: Former Browns Coach Hue Jackson Hints at Jimmy Haslam Paying Him to Tank

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