Hue Jackson walks back accusation: Browns 'never offered money' to lose

Former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson said Friday that the team didn't pay him to lose games while in charge from 2016-18.

Jackson previously suggested he was incentivized to tank, a claim the Browns said was "categorically false."

The now-Grambling State coach tweeted that Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam offered him "a good number" to lose games in the wake of Brian Flores' accusations in his racial discrimination lawsuit that the Miami Dolphins tried to pay him $100,000 per loss.

"No, I was never offered money like Brian had mentioned," Jackson said, according to Jacob Lev of CNN. "I think this is a totally different situation but has some similarities."

The Browns fired Jackson in 2018 after a 2-5-1 start to the season. He went 1-15 in his first campaign and 0-16 in his second.

"I was assured by Jimmy that things would change, and they would get things straight," Jackson said.

"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 added that his evidence "will come to light at the right time" when asked why he hasn't disclosed the documents yet.

Cleveland has produced its best stint in 25 years following Jackson's dismissal. The Browns have gone 30-27 and snapped their postseason drought, thanks in large part to the assets gained from their poor 2016 and 2017 campaigns, which earned back-to-back No. 1 overall picks.