The Cleveland Browns have officially been cleansed of their 0-16 season. Hue Jackson jumped into Lake Erie at Huntington Beach in Bay Village on Friday, raising $30,000 for his charity in the process as he was joined by over 100 other Browns staffers who took the plunge. Jackson was emotional about everyone who joined him, taking ownership for the team’s struggles the past two seasons:
“Those people have been with me every day. When you lose a game and you lose as many games as we have and you keep parking your car and walking into the building and have to see those faces each and every day, I carry them with me.
I carry them and their families and this city with me contrary to what anybody believes. It’s on me. I wear it every day. So I just thank them for being a part of this because they didn’t have to do this. They didn’t have to come here and support this. I made the statement, and they said, ‘No, I want to do this,’ and I’m thankful.”
Although many fans were hoping Jackson would take the plunge back when it was still icy colder winter, the temperature of the water was still cold in the low 50s.
Jackson also acknowledged that this was the “turning of the page moment” and that the unwavering support that the Haslams have in him, even after being 1-31 in two years, means everything to him.
NFL Films were at the lake jump too, which means it’s still possible a brief snippet of it could be shown on Hard Knocks. However, since the jump itself is all over YouTube now and the show is all about original content, anything more than a quick 5 second showing of it, accompanied by a voiceover, would probably be redundant.