Hue Jackson: I Was Never Offered Money To Lose Games

Earlier in the week, former Browns HC Hue Jackson implied that he was incentivized to lose games from owner Jimmy Haslam like the claims made by former Dolphins HC Brian Flores against owner Stephen Ross. 

Jackson explained to CNN that he was never offered money to lose games.

“No, I was never offered money like Brian had mentioned,” Jackson said. “I think this is a totally different situation but has some similarities.”

Jackson maintains that ownership still wanted them to lose games. 

“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,” Jackson said.

Jackson was asked why he doesn’t produce those documents if he has them.

“Those things will come to light at the right time,” Jackson replied. 

Haslem said recently that Jackson for never taking responsibility for the team’s shortcomings during his tenure as the team’s head coach.

“Hue Jackson has never ever accepted any responsibility for our record during that time period,” Haslam said, via Knox News. “He’s been masterful at pointing fingers but has never accepted any blame. I have accepted a ton of blame, and rightfully so. There are a lot of things I could’ve done better. Hue has never accepted blame for one thing.”

Haslem strongly dismissed the accusations that Jackson was paid to lose games for the Browns in an effort to expedite a rebuilding process.

“Unequivocally, Hue Jackson was never paid to lose games,” Haslam said. “That is an absolute falsehood. 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.’ In the 15-minute ESPN interview that he did, for approximately 14-and-a-half minutes it was about how he was treated so poorly with the Browns and lots of claims he had.”

Jackson, 57, began his NFL coaching career back in 2001 as the Washington RBs coach. He worked for the Bengals, Falcons and Ravens before he was hired by the Raiders as their offensive coordinator in 2010.

Jackson was later promoted to head coach but lasted one season at the helm. After four years with the Bengals, Jackson was hired as the Browns head coach in 2016 but lasted just over three years in Cleveland.

The Bengals hired Jackson as a special assistant to Marvin Lewis before parting ways with him in 2019. Jackson signed on to become the head coach at Grambling State in 2021. 

During his time as the Browns’ head coach, Jackson led them to a record of 3-36-1 (8.8 percent) and no playoff appearances.