A National Football League investigator has spoken to the Cleveland Browns about the 2016 and ’17 seasons, which former coach Hue Jackson said saw the team intentionally lose games.
A couple of months ago Jackson took to social media and claimed the team incentivized him to lose games. He eventually recanted those statements.
The NFL is now probing those claims.
Spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed the league engaged former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White to look into Jackson’s allegations.
“The review is ongoing and is expected to conclude soon,” McCarthy said in an email to The Associated Press.
Cleveland went a combined 1-31 in the seasons in question. Jackson, was fired eight games into the 2018 season with a 3-36-1 mark with the Browns.
Reached by Sports Illustrated for comment, Jackson, who is the head coach at Grambling State, said, “Two years ago I tried to do this the right way, through the bylaws and constitution of the National Football League, to ask them to investigate the Cleveland Browns for all the allegations that I’ve made. So why open an investigation now?”
The Browns say they are cooperating with the investigation and released a statement.
Even though Hue recanted his allegations a short time after they were made, it was important to us and to the integrity of the game to have an independent review of the allegations,” a team spokesman said. “We welcomed an investigation and we are confident the results will show, as we’ve previously stated, that these allegations are categorically false.
“We have cooperated with Mary Jo White and look forward to the findings.”