Former Browns coach Hue Jackson suggests team paid out bonuses for tanking

In the proposed class-action lawsuit Brian Flores filed against the NFL, one of the most explosive allegations was that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered Flores $100,000 to intentionally lose games to improve draft positioning. Flores may not have been the only one.

Former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson hinted that franchise owner Jimmy Haslam did the same.

Jackson, currently the head coach of Grambling State University, went on Twitter to voice his opinion and express support for Flores. When responding to a tweet that said Haslam wasn’t offering Jackson $100,000 per loss, Jackson replied: “Trust me it was a good number!”

Jackson went 3-36-1 in two-and-a-half seasons with the Browns, including going 1-15 in his first season and 0-16 in his second. The Browns ended up with consecutive No. 1 draft picks in the 2017 and 2018 NFL drafts, taking defensive end Myles Garrett and quarterback Baker Mayfield, respectively, with those selections.

That was just one of several comments Jackson made about the claim and Flores’ case in general. In another thread, Kimberly Diemert, listed as the executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, posted a tweet that said she had records that would help Flores’ case. Diemert claimed that the Browns paid bonus money to Jackson and front office executives Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta and Andrew Berry to tank and claimed that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league knew about it and covered it up.

In response to that comment, Jackson said he could “back up every word” he was saying.

“Dude if you knew the truth you would swallow everything in your mouth,” Jackson continued. “Enough. Truth just starting to seep out of what really happens in the NFL. Trust me there are some great owners out there and there are some people you better dig deeper and see the truth.”

When other Twitter users asked Jackson why he didn’t say anything, he pushed back and said that he did.

“Nah, i didn’t stay quiet!” Jackson wrote. “Nobody wanted to listen. If i’m lying tell them to prove i am and then you guys can break the internet, but if its true are you just gonna keep dismissing this like everything else?”

Jackson, 56, has been out of the NFL since the middle of the 2018 season, after the Browns dismissed him.

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