Browns HC takes on Lake Erie after falling short on promise to city of Cleveland
While most Cleveland sports fans likely want to throw J.R. Smith into a lake, they’re forced to settle for Browns coach Hue Jackson jumping into one on Friday.
After the 2016 season, which saw the Browns go 1-15, Jackson vowed things would be better in 2017.
“We’re not going 1-15 next year,” Jackson said in January 2017, per ESPN. “You can write it if you like. Hue Jackson said it. It’s the way it is. … I’m not going 1-15. No. I’ll be swimming in that lake over there somewhere. That’s not happening.”
Well, Jackson was technically right, and the Browns didn’t go 1-15. They finished 0-16 instead.
Yet, since Jackson didn’t improve on his win total in his second season, he’s still following through with his promise to jump into a lake, and the lake chosen is Lake Erie.
The jump was set to be held in a private location, and only club employees were allowed to attend, according to the team’s official website. About 100 Browns staffers joined Jackson, and he promised to donate $100 for every Browns employee that jumps with him.
The donations will go toward the Hue Jackson Foundation which was founded by Hue and his wife Michelle in 2017. The foundation, according to its website, is dedicated to “supporting non-profit organizations that embolden and offer hope to victims of sexual exploitation and coercion.”
“It’s going to be a fun time, it’s going to be something that’s special to me and the organization and everybody involved,” Jackson said Wednesday, “because this is going to turn the page on a lot of things that have gone on here.”
The timing of waiting until June to make the jump instead of January is no coincidence.
Cleveland.com‘s Mary Kay Cabot said Jackson has a stent in his heart and doctors wouldn’t let him jump into the frigid water until the weather was warmer.
Jackson has proven to be a man who loves to make promises, and he made another promise about his chances of surviving the plunge.
“We’re going in, and we’re going to come out, too,” he said. “I promise you that.”
Browns fans and beat writers alike were wondering exactly how Jackson was going jump into the lake, and one reporter even started a poll on it.
In other news, Hue Jackson jumps in the lake this afternoon. How should he go in?
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) June 1, 2018
“Belly flop” was leading the way Friday afternoon with over half of the votes. Surprisingly, Jackson wouldn’t be the first NFL head coach to belly-flop into a body of water, as Chip Kelly did it in 2014.
https://twitter.com/StrikeTwiceWoTB/status/502485141277921280
Despite the absence of a livestream of Jackson jumping into the lake, the coach has made yet another promise of a follow-up video covering the plunge.
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