Last week, Grambling hired Art Briles as its new offensive coordinator. Head coach Hue Jackson didn’t make any public statements or meet with the media, lending a sense that the school knew it was crossing a line by hiring the disgraced coach who hasn’t worked in college football since the Baylor sexual assault scandal.
The only media appearance was Briles himself appearing on a local TV station to say he had been exonerated and was trying to move on.
Monday, Hue Jackson finally made a public comment on the hiring through the Hue Jackson Foundation. The statement attempted to paint Briles as some kind of victim who deserved forgiveness and came off about as poorly as you’d think.
While there were lots of negative reactions to the statement, ESPN’s Dan Murphy did some digging into the financials of the foundation and found some interesting numbers.
“The Hue Jackson Foundation collected $158,000 in 2019 (the most recent tax info available),” wrote Murphy. “It paid out $115,000 to its sole paid employee and spent another $15,000 on travel. It looks like they gave out roughly $4,000 in grants.”
That’s not a great look for any charity and could potentially be a sign that something’s not exactly kosher. As the tweet gained traction, the foundation responded and, at first glance, appeared to casually admit to tax evasion.
“What you failed to report is where that money came from,” read the response. “Hue Jackson was the LARGEST donor and he PERSONALLY donated over 75% of the funds, I personally donated from my salary back into the organization as well. Our records are clean!”
The employee in question appears to be Kimberly Diemert, who was identified as “Hue Jackson’s lawyer & head of his foundation” in a recent appearance on Sarah Spain’s podcast to discuss his claims that he was offered money to lose games while with the Cleveland Browns, something he would personally refute a few days later.
The tweet’s admission that Jackson gave most of the money (roughly $120,000 going by what it says) to the foundation which in turn gave most of that money back to its lone employee could be interpreted as a way to keep that money tax-exempt and avoid paying taxes on it.
That’s certainly how a lot of people read it.
The Hue Jackson era at Grambling is going up in flames and we haven’t even reached the spring game.
— Andrew Hammond (@ahammALDC) February 28, 2022
https://twitter.com/SeawrightSays/status/1498367780487315461
Enjoy the Hue Jackson era at Grambling while you can. We’re thinking it might not last that long.
[Dan Murphy/Hue Jackson Foundation]