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 foundation's website doesn't have any public events listed in 2021 or 2022. The last annual report about their work is from 2018.
— Dan Murphy (@DanMurphyESPN) February 28, 2022
“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. 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!
— HueJacksonFoundation (@HueJacksonFDN) February 28, 2022
“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.
Hue Jackson's lawyer & head of his foundation, @KimberlyDiemer1, joins @SpainandFitz NOW to talk about Hue's claims the Browns asked him to lose games. https://t.co/H7cQZE3xt2
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) February 3, 2022
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.
“Casually confessing tax evasion” is a heck of a way to defend a defense of hiring Art Briles https://t.co/DtB4LfLTjI
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) February 28, 2022
As your unlicensed attorney: keep this tweet, it’s fine https://t.co/NitYlcwEgs
— ¡BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL! (@edsbs) February 28, 2022
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
This all started because someone wanted to launder Art Briles' terrible record through a charity account. https://t.co/FDePJwUc5S
— Jane McManus (@janesports) February 28, 2022
Man there is an accountant somewhere firing off "PLEASE DELETE THAT TWEET" text messages in rapid fire https://t.co/vu0I3c2N49
— Josh Moon 🇺🇸 (@Josh_Moon) February 28, 2022
"When keeping it real goes wrong." https://t.co/yoFAOyn0r0
— Josh McCuistion (@Josh_Scoop) February 28, 2022
Who would’ve thought that hiring Art Briles would lead to crimes coming to light in less than a week. https://t.co/KUtA0tPgTB
— Kyle Bandujo (@kylebandujo) February 28, 2022
Guessing their accountant did not approve this tweet. https://t.co/I3FEZ6pkpr
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) February 28, 2022
Enjoy the Hue Jackson era at Grambling while you can. We’re thinking it might not last that long.
[Dan Murphy/Hue Jackson Foundation]
