Browns GM eager for NFL ‘to release findings’ in tanking probe
For the first time, Browns General Manager Andrew Berry addressed former coach Hue Jackson’s pay-to-tank allegations.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy confirmed earlier this week that Mary Jo White, former chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is leading an ongoing investigation into the claims Jackson made in February that he was incentivized to lose games in the 2016 and 2017 seasons while serving as coach of the Browns.
Kimberly Diemert, the executive director of the Hue Jackson Foundation, also alleged in February the Browns had paid bonus money to Jackson, Berry, Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta and former head of football operations Sashi Brown at the end of those two seasons in which the Browns went 1-31. Jackson said the bonuses maxed out at $750,000 and were deposited into his checking account.
“I think we addressed this [Monday] in the team’s statement,” Berry said Friday during a news conference previewing the NFL
Draft, which will run April 28-30. “Again, we will continue to cooperate with the investigation, and we are looking forward to having resolution and for them to release their findings. We feel just as strongly about everything as we did in February.”
The statement the Browns released Monday was from Peter John-Baptiste, the team’s senior vice president of communications.
“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,” John-Baptiste said via text message. “We welcomed an investigation and we are confident the results will show, as we’ve
but also straight about what Mayfield brought to Cleveland. This free bird freed the Browns from embarrassment, helping turn a franchise that went 1-31 in 2016-17 into a 2020 playoff team that nearly advanced to the AFC championship game.
Say what you will about Mayfield, that he usually came up short in the clutch or that he played through an injury when doing so actually hurt the team, but … hey, wait a minute, why make it sound like Baker has left the Browns?
The truth is the Browns left him. Owner Jimmy Haslam and his cast of characters have treated Mayfield like the loyal family dog after the first baby arrives home. Nice*
knowing you, pooch. Now go to your corner.
I’m not saying Cleveland needs to throw a parade for Mayfield but at least throw him a bigger bone. Show the man more respect for having
raised the bar on a beleaguered franchise that just five years ago was the laughingstock of sports.
Before Baker arrived, there was an audition line of Browns quarterbacks wrapping around the Factory of Sadness and out to the Terminal Tower. Cleveland started more than one quarterback in 17 consecutive seasons before Mayfield started every game in 2019. Maybe the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner wasn’t the ultimate answer, but he was a better option than anything offered over the previous two decades.
There I go again, writing as if Mayfield is already gone. He’s not. At least not as of Thursday afternoon. It just feels that way because the Charlie Browns bungle anything they touch. They blindsided Mayfield by going after Deshaun Watson without first telling their starting quarterback, then faced an especially awkward situation when they initially failed to lure Watson from Houston.
Now that they have the massagynist under contract, at $230 million guaranteed, Mayfield is expendable. The Browns would rather take a chance on Watson, who still faces possible league discipline over accusations of sexual assault or misconduct, than give Mayfield more time to prove he can win games when healthy.
The 27-year-old has a 29-30 record and is coming off surgery for a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder. His career passer rating of 87.8 is far from spectacular, but he is more than serviceable for any team in need of a quarterback.
I would enjoy seeing Pittsburgh make a play, to further heat the rivalry. And be honest, Steelers fans, you’d feel more confident with Mayfield than Mitch Trubisky.
The Steelers, with starter
Mitch Trubisky, represent one possible destination for Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, if Cleveland is willing to trade him within the division.
The Browns would never let that happen, but general manager Andrew Berry most certainly is fielding other trade offers as a game of chicken plays out. What will teams give up to take on Mayfield’s $18.9 million guaranteed contract? Or will they all lay off and force the Browns to release their disgruntled quarterback?
No matter what, the Browns should work with Mayfield, not against him. Baker is not the franchise quarterback Cleveland hoped for, but he brought the city’s most beloved team back from the dead. Time to show appreciation by letting this caged bird go free.