Hue Jackson jumped back into the Cleveland Browns spotlight this week with a testy ESPN850 interview.
And the first thoughts many of us had were “Who?” and “Why now?”
The “Who?” might be in a mocking manner as memories of Jackson’s 3-36-1 tenure all but faded away with last season’s success.
But the “Why now?”, more than two years after Jackson was fired amid controversy midseason, was legitimate.
The answer is actually quite simple.
Jackson’s contract with the Browns didn’t expire until after the 2020 season.
If he shared his recent derogatory comments before March 17, the Browns might have tried to void it early.
And although Jackson says he wrote a book about his Browns experience, he wasn’t confident enough in its success to risk losing his Cleveland salary.
So now Jackson is a free agent, so to speak, free to speak his mind without financial risk from Cleveland.
His attack could limit future NFL job opportunities for Jackson, but that appears to be a minimal risk, too.
Why the comments are … surprising
Jackson might or might not have some legitimate gripes about the situation in Berea.
It is difficult to imagine 3-36-1 being the fault of one man, although most honorable head coaches would accept it.
Paul DePodesta admitted he had no business making football decisions when he first came to Cleveland.
But he was smart enough to know that and hired “football people” around him while he studied up.
The former coach says the Browns were not upfront about the plan to tear down and start over.
Sashi Brown took a lot of heat from Jackson, but most fans knew exactly what he was doing to the Browns roster.
For Jackson to claim he was lied to about it doesn’t sound very credible.
Gregg Williams stepped in and boasted a winning record after Jackson’s termination with the same roster.
To a man, players cited improved direction and focus and played inspired ball as soon as Jackson was gone.
That seems to be more telling than anything coming up in Jackson’s new book.
Will there be repercussions?
Usually, when head coaches are fired but remain on the payroll, we can refer to the time as a cooling-off period.
Coaches have time to reflect on what they could have done better.
Teams can see what the new coach does differently and judge their own decision.
But Jackson still talks about his tenure like it ended yesterday.
This is despite Williams’ success with the exact same team over the second half of Jackson’s abbreviated season.
And even after the same analytics guys he complains about, sans Sashi Brown, delivered the 2020 season.
Jackson complained the atmosphere was football guys versus analytics guys, not working in harmony.
But story after story during that period indicated it was Jackson creating the most controversy.
There were very few decisions that went his way and worked out.
Jackson does not have a publisher for his book yet.
Perhaps that is because publishing companies don’t believe there is anything there, either.
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