NFL Finds No Evidence Supporting Former Coach’s Allegation He Was Told to Throw Games – Opinion

Today (May 2nd), the NFL released a statement declaring it had completed its investigation into former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson’s allegations against the organization. Specifically, Jackson accused the Browns of telling him to throw games to enhance the team’s position in the next year’s NFL draft. According to the statement,

​Following a 60-day independent review into comments made by former Cleveland head coach Hue Jackson that the Browns paid or otherwise provided incentives to lose games during the 2016-17 seasons, former U.S. Attorney and SEC Chair Mary Jo White and a team of lawyers from the Debevoise firm determined that none of the allegations could be substantiated.

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.

Comprehensive review of all aspects of the investigation included interviews with Jimmy Haslam, current and past members of the organisation and full cooperation from the Browns. Although Jackson initially offered to meet with investigators, Jackson ultimately declined.

The Debevoise team was able to access Coach Jackson’s public statements as well as his testimony and filings in an arbitration proceeding. The club also produced thousands of pages of documents, including emails, texts, internal memos and presentation decks as well as other material relating to club operations and the filings and testimony in the arbitration proceeding between the club and Coach Jackson.

Jackson made his charge amid the fallout from former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL alleging racism, personified by exclusionary hiring practices designed to severely limit — if not eliminate altogether — opportunities for black head coaches in the league. The NFL denied all charges.

Now, we at the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState are of the firm opinion that if there’s a sports franchise in no need to lose games deliberately, it’s the Browns. We’re talking about the franchise that this year alone backed up the draft pick truck to Houston Texans headquarters in exchange for Deshaun Watson and the accompanying 22 sexual misconduct civil suits against him without any assurance the league won’t go Trevor Bauer on him. Meanwhile, Cleveland can’t give away its now-former starting quarterback Baker Mayfield, thus making it quite likely he’ll still be on the roster come training camp time. That’ll ensure team unity.

There’s another possibility here. Perhaps Hue Jackson was really terrible at his job. Incompetenty doesn’t care about skin color. It should not be easy to try and cover up your incompetence with racism. In fact, it should be almost as embarrassing as making allegations, then refusing to meet with the people investigating said allegations, and … oh, wait ….

The last thing the NFL wants to do is come off as a good ol’ boys club, even though it is one. It is aware that most of its players are African-American. There isn’t a team in the league that doesn’t hope to find the next Tony Dungy to lead its on-field effort. NFL owners and decision-makers can be dumb, but they’re not stupid. It is foolish to play the race card, even if it makes you look stupid. Hue Jackson did not do anything for anyone who is pursuing true racial equality.