From ESPN Reports
Former Cleveland Browns coach and current Grambling State head coach Hue Jackson told ESPN’s SportsCenter on Wednesday that the team had a “four-year plan” that incentivized losing during the first two years with the NFL franchise.
Jackson and the Browns recorded a 1-31 record during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
Jackson said that bonus money was available if certain measurables were met such as aggregate rankings, being the youngest team and having so many draft picks.
He said he told Browns owner Jimmy Haslam that he wasn’t interested in bonus money and instead wanted that money used to improve the team.
“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 told ESPN. “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 added later in the interview that, “I do know that (any) head coach is going to survive if you lose a lot of games.”
Jackson appeared on SportsCenter after he and the head of his foundation implied on social media that he had been paid to lose games during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
This all comes in the wake of former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filing a lawsuit against the NFL and three franchises – Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and 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 alleged that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross attempted to incentivize him to purposely lose games shortly after he was hired in 2019, allegedly offering Flores $100,000 for every loss that season.
Jackson told ESPN he has talked to the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell about the Browns’ plan, “so this is not new.”
“I went to arbitration in this case against the Browns where I didn’t win anything,” Jackson said. “People don’t understand that I tried to sound this alarm.
Grambling State hired Jackson to be its head coach in December.
