NFL probe into Hue Jackson’s Browns tanking claims finds nothing

Hue Jackson’s tanking claims against the Cleveland Browns were unable to be substantiated by an independent review, the NFL announced Monday.

The league said in a release that a 60-day investigation found no evidence to back up remarks the former Browns head coach made on social media in February that alleged the team incentivized him to lose with bonuses. Jackson, who went 3-36-1 over this three seasons in Cleveland, later softened his stance, saying the team’s four-year plan put an emphasis on losing games. The probe found nothing of the sort.

“The investigation found no evidence to suggest that the Browns’ Four-Year Plan or the club’s ownership or football personnel sought to lose or incentivized losses and made no decisions deliberately to weaken the team to secure a more favorable draft position.” the NFL said in a press release.

It also stated that Jackson did not meet with investigators after originally agreeing to. The league did have access to his filings and testimony in a prior arbitration proceeding and produced thousands of pages of documents to make its case.

Jackson, currently the head coach at Grambling State, said in February that the Browns had no interest in winning during his tenure.    

“There was a four-year plan that was crafted,” Jackson said in February. “I have documentation of that I think any coach would cringe at if he saw it, because it talked about things that had nothing to do with winning — aggregate rankings, being the youngest team, having so many draft picks. None of those things are what lead to winning.”

His comments came after former Dolphins coach Brian Flores field a lawsuit against the NFL and all 32 teams for racial discrimination in hiring practices. He also alleged Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him a $100,000 bonus to tank and move up in the draft, which Ross has denied.