Browns deny incentivizing losses during Hue Jackson era

The Cleveland Browns denied Hue Jackson's suggestion that they incentivized losses during his tenure as head coach.

"The recent comments by Hue Jackson and his representatives relating to his tenure as our head coach are completely fabricated," the team said Wednesday, according to Ari Meirov. "Any accusation that any member of our organization was incentivized to deliberately lose games is categorically false."

Jackson previously tweeted that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam offered him "a good number" to lose games, presumably so Cleveland could get a better draft pick. Jackson posted in light of Brian Flores' discrimination lawsuit, which includes an accusation that Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss in 2019.

Flores is suing the NFL, Dolphins, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos for using racist practices to hire coaches and general managers. His lawsuit says the Dolphins cast him as the "angry Black man" who's difficult to work with because he wasn't willing to tank in 2019 and resisted Ross' pushes to violate anti-tampering rules in 2020.

Kimberly Diemert, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as the executive director of Jackson's foundation, tweeted that the Browns paid Jackson and three members of their front office - including current general manager Andrew Berry - to tank over his first two seasons.

The Browns fired Jackson partway through his third year after he went 3-36-1 between 2016 and 2018.