The N.F.L. said that it was unable to substantiate claims made by former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson that the team provided incentives as part of a plan to deliberately lose games to improve their position in the draft in coming years.
Former U.S. attorney Mary Jo White led the league’s look into the claims, reviewing thousands of pages of documents including emails and internal memos related to the team’s four-year plan to revitalize the club, which overlapped with Jackson’s two-year stint as head coach in 2016 and 2017.
“The investigation found no evidence to suggest that the Browns’ Four-Year Plan or the club’s ownership or football personnel sought to lose or incentivized losses and made no decisions deliberately to weaken the team to secure a more favorable draft position,” the league said in a statement.