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Hue Jackson was never the most popular person in Cleveland. He has now made matters worse by going back on his claim that the Browns paid him to lose games.
Lest we forget, the Cleveland Browns went 1-31 in the two seasons he was the team's head coach before he was fired midway through the 2018 season.
What Hue Jackson said and how to contradicted his first assertion
When Brian Flores announced that he was filing a lawsuit against the NFL alleging discriminatory practices in hiring head coaches, Hue Jackson supported the former Dolphins head coach. He also said that, like Flores, he had been offered financial bonuses to lose. Kimberly Diemert, the executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, suggested they had "records."
When asked by a fan how much money he was offered, Jackson replied:
"Trust me it was a good number!"
He has since gone back on his original claim after the Cleveland Browns, and owner Jimmy Haslam categorically denied the story. He has sought to clarify, saying that he was not paid per game but rather that his payouts were incentivized in a way that rewarded extraneous factors such as the number of draft picks and age of the team so that, in effect, losing made him reach his performance targets more than winning.
If this part is true, it should be construed as an incentive to lose on purpose and therefore must not be discounted. But it is clear that his initial reply on Twitter was misleading. And now Cleveland Browns fans who suffered under his tenure have not held back.
Some straight-up accused him of being a joke, both as a person and a coach.
Others referenced his constant excuses when he was losing with Cleveland and said they did not find it remotely surprising.
Still, others pointed out that Jackson was given a chance for a third season after going 1-31 in his previous two seasons. No other coach would have been given that much leeway in any other organization. They pointed out the real victims of the era were the Cleveland Browns.
Fans also pointed out that based on the clarification he provided, it meant that not only was he not set up to fail. Management understood the roster's limitations and set targets to build a roster capable of winning in the third year of his tenure.
Other Cleveland Browns fans pointed out that Hue Jackson had made some baffling decisions during his tenure. Playing Carlos Hyde over Nick Chubb counts as one.
And it looks like Jimmy Haslam agreed about Jackson not taking personal responsibility. In a statement, as one fan put it, he "brutalized" his former coach.
Some fans said that if Hue Jackson indeed had the goods, he should spill them out or leave them alone.
While the fan above called Jackson a clown, other fans were poking fun at the former head coach and putting out, one suspects, a statement that the Browns would have dearly loved to put out.
Whatever finally comes of this whole tale, Hue Jackson has done his reputation no favors. In the process, he may have done harm to possibly address a genuine grievance about the underrepresentation of minority coaches in the NFL.
