The Cleveland Browns are the latest NFL team to be accused of offering bonuses for losing games.
Former head coach Hue Jackson and one of his associates said the team offered the bonuses during the 2016 and 2017 seasons when the Browns won just one of their 32 games. The poor run allowed the team to secure the No 1 overall pick in the 2017 and 2018 drafts, which they used to select star players Myles Garrett and Baker Mayfield.
“The recent comments by Hue Jackson and his representatives relating to his tenure as our head coach are completely fabricated,” a Browns spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. “Any accusation that any member of our organization was incentivized to deliberately lose games is categorically false.”
Congratulations #brianflores for your bravery. We have records that will help your case. DM me. @NFL and @nflcommish knew about this and covered it up. They did this @Browns . Paid Brown, DePodesta and Berry bonus $ along with @huejack10 to TANK for 2016 and 2017.@espn https://t.co/YOnqArWlnL
— Kimberly Diemert (@KimberlyDiemer1) February 2, 2022
Kimberly Diemert, the head of Jackson’s charitable foundation, alleged on Tuesday that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam had offered “tanking” bonuses to Jackson, chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, former executive vice-president of football operations Sashi Brown and current Browns general manager Andrew Berry.
“@NFL and @nflcommish knew about this and covered it up,” Diemert wrote on Twitter. “They did this @Browns . Paid Brown, DePodesta and Berry bonus $ along with @huejack10 to TANK for 2016 and 2017. @espn.”
In response to another tweet about tanking allegations, Jackson replied: “Well Jimmy Haslam, was happy while we kept losing.” Another tweet suggested Jackson would be on the Forbes rich list if he had been paid for every game Cleveland lost, to which he replied: “Trust me it was a good number!”
On Wednesday Diemert told ESPN that proof over the alleged offer of bonuses is “well documented” and had been “presented to the [NFL]”.
The Browns’ statement came after former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores said he was offered $100,000 bonuses to lose by the team’s owner, Stephen Ross. The Dolphins have denied those claims.
Flores’ allegations were part of a lawsuit that alleges the NFL and its teams discriminate against Black head coaches and the league is run like “a plantation”. Both Jackson and Flores are Black.
On Wednesday, Jackson told ESPN that “it’s time to take a stand. What I want is what Brian [Flores] wants which is for this BS to change for black coaches. I lived this same crap.”
Tanking is a tacitly acknowledged practice in the league: NFL teams in a rebuilding phase often trade away their best players, something that usually leads to poor results and better draft selections with which to build for the future. However, deliberately losing is a different matter and would be hard to achieve as, aside from their competitive pride, players and coaches know their future employment in the NFL depends on producing results. Deliberately losing in order to fix bets is a federal crime and there is no suggestion that was the case at the Browns or Dolphins.
