Hue Jackson Says Browns Owner Never Offered Bonus for Losses

Jackson’s words on CNN on Friday differ from what he implied earlier in the week.

Former Browns coach Hue Jackson said Friday that he was not paid to lose games while with the franchise.

“No, I was never offered money like Brian (Flores) had mentioned,” Jackson said to CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I think this is a totally different situation but has some similarities.”

Brian Flores, who was fired from the Dolphins in January, filed an explosive lawsuit seeking class action status on Tuesday against the NFL and three teams, alleging racial discrimination. In the suit, Flores also claims that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him a $100,000 bonus for each loss during the 2019 season, which Ross vehemently denies. 

Jackson, on the other hand, admitted he wasn’t compensated for losing games, but alleged that there was a “four-year plan” that benefited certain people within the Browns organization when the team didn’t perform as well.

“When you talk about incentivizing a four-year plan that led to the team not being able to play as well, that people benefited off of that—that’s different. But at the same time, it has some of the same similarities to it,” Jackson said, referring to Flores’s situation.

Jackson’s remarks on CNN come after he said in a tweet Tuesday that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam was “happy while we kept losing” during the 2016 and ’17 seasons during which Cleveland posted a combined 1–31 record.

In response to a tweet saying Haslam wasn’t offering Jackson $100,000 for every loss, Jackson said, “Trust me it was a good number!”, implying that he was paid to lose.

The Browns owner fired back, telling the Knoxville News Sentinel on Thursday that he “unequivocally” did not pay Jackson to lose.

“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.’”

A Browns spokesperson also called Jackson’s claims “completely fabricated” and said that he was not financially incentivized to lose games to earn a higher pick in the NFL draft.

Kimberly Diemert, executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, alleged that the Browns made a similar offer to Jackson as the Dolphins did to Flores, tweeting that “we have records that will help” Flores’s case. Jackson then told CNN on Friday that he “absolutely” has evidence to back his allegations.

“I was assured by Jimmy (Haslam) that things would change, and they would get things straight,” Jackson said.

“I told Jimmy that what he was doing was very destructive, to not do this because it's going to hurt my career and every other coach that worked with me and every player on the team. And I told him that it would hurt every Black coach that would follow me. And I have the documents to prove this.”

When asked by Cooper why he hasn’t disclosed that alleged evidence yet, Jackson responded, “Those things will come to light at the right time.”

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

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