The NFL has cleared the team, but internal Browns documents viewed by SI raise questions.
A Cleveland-area trial lawyer sits in a conference room of a midtown Manhattan skyscraper, prepared to argue for the reputation of a former professional football coach in a hearing the public was never meant to know about.
Joe Stafford had arrived with a cache of evidence he believes shows that the Browns’ front office misled Hue Jackson during the coach’s hiring process, and that the team set out to intentionally lose games over a two-year span, set up Jackson as a dupe, and scapegoated and defamed him in public comments by prominent members of the organization.