Last Thursday night, Browns coach Hue Jackson bristled at the notion that a key two-point conversion wasn’t borrowed from the Eagles in Super Bowl LII. This Thursday, Browns offensive coordinator Todd Haley contradicted his boss.
“Absolutely,” Haley told reporters regarding whether he took the Philly Special. “I have no shame.”
“We did not steal that from them,” Jackson said last week. “Please. I know everybody wants to think that. We have had that in our back pocket for a while. Go check my tricks from before, and go check [offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s] tricks from before. We all have them. It is just when you pull them out and use them. That is what that is.”
Apparently, that’s not what it is. And even as the Browns finally seem to be finding their way toward winning a game more frequently once than every two seasons, the vague stink of dysfunction still hovers. It invites curiosity, however the season ends for the Browns, of how much better it could have been if everyone were truly on the same page, all the time.