Hue Jackson is ready to go jump in a lake.
The Cleveland Browns coach said he would keep the promise he made last year and jump into Lake Erie if his team went 1-15 again, ESPN reported.
“Who’s going to jump in the lake with me?” Jackson asked at his Wednesday news conference.
The Browns are 0-15 and finish their season Sunday in Pittsburgh. If Cleveland loses, it will become the second NFL team to go 0-16 in a season, matching the 2008 Detroit Lions.
Cleveland went 1-15 last season, and Jackson said if it happened again, people would find him “swimming in (Lake Erie).”
If the Browns lose Sunday, Jackson is technically off the hook; after all, they would not have a 1-15 mark, although 0-16 is less palatable. But the coach said he would keep his word regardless of Sunday’s result..
“I made that statement,” Jackson said. “I got to back it up.”
While Jackson said he would jump in the lake, he did not specify when. The forecast today in Cleveland calls for snow showers and a high of 18 degrees.
“That (jump is) going to be at my convenience and hopefully I can get a lot of people to come out,” Jackson said. “It'd be something that we're going to make special.
“I don't like it. Don't like to do it for the reason why I'm having to do it, but I have to make do on my word. I just think that's what you do.”
Jackson said he will make it an event that will benefit the Hue Jackson Foundation, which supports efforts to combat human trafficking in Cleveland, ESPN reported.
“I never said I could swim,” Jackson said. “There will be some people down there to rescue me pretty quickly. So we'll make it fun. It's for the right reason. Again, I don't take light to things that I say that I put out there. I like to back them up.
“I haven't been able to.”
