Both men are out of work and both men should be. Still, their unemployed status isn’t helping keep either of their traps shut. Former Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Todd Haley still has a few choice words to direct at former Browns head coach Hue Jackson, specifically about last season’s version of HBO’s Hard Knocks.
The Browns were featured on the show, giving full view to all the dysfunction and disaster that the season would bring. Haley, because he’d actually coached on some good teams, didn’t want to be featured on the show.
“When (general manager) John (Dorsey)] told me they were doing (Hard Knocks), I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Haley told Don Banks, who passed away Sunday morning. “We’re trying to make a drastic change here and turn things around, and this is the wrong thing to happen. I told the Browns owner, ‘Jimmy, this is a mistake. Don’t do it.’ The No. 1 thing in camp is getting the team ready to be able to compete.”
In my debut for @reviewjournal @RJ_Sports, I talked to some who lived the 2018 Browns' memorable "Hard Knocks'' saga, including Todd Haley and Hue J., to see if there are lessons to be learned for the 2019 Raiders, who are about to get their HBO star turn: https://t.co/Sarc8A6PAa
— Don Banks (@DonBanks) August 3, 2019
Hard Knocks might be terrific fun to watch, but it’s a mark of shame in the NFL. To be forced to do it, your team can’t have made the playoffs for two consecutive seasons and you can’t be breaking in a new head coach. The fact is, Dorsey and the Browns probably didn’t have a choice as they were the most compelling team of last offseason that qualified. No team wants to be on Hard Knocks. No quality head coach does either.
“He (Jackson) would come up to me at practice and say, ‘Wait ’til you see ‘Hard Knocks,’” Haley said. “He was like, ‘Wait ’til you see what’s on this week.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about? You’re spending time watching that instead of figuring out how to get the team to win?’ He reveled in it.”
Of course he did. Neither Haley nor Jackson would make it through the 2018 regular season. They were both fired right before Halloween on Oct. 29. No team has hired either man since.
