“No one had the hunger to win games” – Jason McCourty reveals details about his worst career season with Cleveland Browns in 2017
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Jason McCourty
Jason McCourty was selected in the sixth round by Tennessee Titans in the 2009 draft. After playing with the Titans for 7 seasons, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns. This was the worst season of McCourty’s career.
The 2017 Browns had the worst season in NFL history. Cleveland went 0-16 in 2017 and former head coach Hue Jackson alleged that Browns’ owner Jimmy Haslam incentivized him to lose matches.
Jason McCourty said time with Cleveland Browns taught him ‘winning isn’t hard’
“I was in Cleveland in 2017,” McCourty said on his podcast. “There’s no way we were trying to win. It was very obvious. That is to no surprise to anyone. You don’t need me to corroborate the story and say ‘We were tanking, we were trying to lose.’
“Duh. I said this when I got to New England, you realize winning in the NFL is not easy, so you don’t want to take it for granted, you celebrate your wins. But the year I spent in Cleveland also taught me, winning ain’t this hard either. You don’t just go 1-31. It’s not that hard to figure out on the other end of it.”
McCourty said many NFL owners are accused of losing matches on purpose. Even the NFL incentivizes losing by giving the first overall pick in the NFL draft to the team with the worst record. “So maybe there needs to be a lottery or something like the NBA does,” McCourty said.
As long as NFL incentivizes losing with the No.1 overall draft pick and subsequently the draft order teams will try to lose. After the 2017 season, The Cleveland Browns had the No. 1 overall pick where they drafted QB Baker Mayfield. So, maybe the NFL needs to create a lottery system to stop incentivizing losing.
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Yash Karandekar
(1023 Articles Published)