EX-CLEVELAND Browns coach Hue Jackson said on Wednesday the team incentivised losing during the 2016 and 2017 seasons, a day after former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores made similar allegations in an explosive lawsuit.
Jackson told ESPN that the Browns had a four-year plan which effectively encouraged the team to lose. The Browns went 1-31 in the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
The Browns have denied Jackson’s claims.
Jackson said bonuses were paid if certain targets were met, which included aggregate rankings and having the youngest team.
“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,” Jackson told ESPN.
“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.”
Kimberly Diemert, the executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, wrote on Twitter that the Browns had paid executives if the team lost, stating that Jackson had been “the fall guy.”
The Browns strongly denied the tanking claims in a statement on Wednesday.
“The recent comments by Hue Jackson and his representatives relating to his tenure as our head coach are completely fabricated,” a spokesperson said.
“Any accusation that any member of our organization was incentivized to deliberately lose games is categorically false.”
Jackson’s comments come after former Miami coach Flores said in a lawsuit on Tuesday he had been offered $100,000 per loss by the team owner in an attempt to strengthen the club’s draft ranking.
“Take a flight, go on vacation, I’ll give you $100,000 per loss — those were his exact words,” Flores told ESPN in an interview on Wednesday.
“To disrespect the game like that, trust was lost, and there were certainly some strained relationships, and ultimately, I think that was my demise in Miami.”
