Hue Jackson’s legacy will forever be connected to the Cleveland Browns organization. If that wasn’t true before this week’s allegations, it has been cemented by them.
First, Jackson made some claims on social media that insinuated that the team gave him bonuses for losing. Then the Browns addressed those claims with their own statement. Jackson followed that up with an appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter and seemingly backtracked his allegations of getting paid bonuses for losing.
From that interview, it seems clear that Cleveland presented Jackson with a four-year plan that focused on youth, draft picks and the development of players for the first two seasons before expecting winning to start in years three and four.
In his first two seasons, Jackson went 1-31. While the team was young and draft picks were the focus, there was very little development of the young talent on the team. He was fired during his third season after going 2-5-1.
Owner Jimmy Haslam fired back at Jackson in an interview with the Knox News:
“Hue Jackson has never ever accepted any responsibility for our record during that time period,” Haslam said in an exclusive interview. “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.”
Haslam went on to make it clear that the former head coach was never paid to lose games. Haslam’s remarks continued:
“I can’t think of any individual that I’ve worked with over the past 45 years that I spent as much time trying to help be successful as I did Hue Jackson,” Haslam said. “His third year, when our roster began to pretty dramatically improve, the eight games he coached we were 2-5-1. After Hue was dismissed, we went 5-3.”
One of the final remarks noted in the piece is the Browns owner noting that winning consistently is the goal but the team has not done that yet “… but we are getting closer.”
