Hue Jackson is keeping good on a year old promise. The Browns head coach made the rather bold proclamation that he'd leap into Lake Erie if his team didn't improve upon their 1-15 record last offseason, and after going winless in 2017 he's set a date to make the leap.Cleveland became just second team in history to post an 0-16 record, and Jackson is now paying for failing to live up to his guarantee of improvement.The rather bizarre stunt won't just be for entertainment purposes though as the 52-year-old has involved a charitable benefit to the event. Jackson will pledge $100 to his foundation, which works to combat human trafficking across Northeast Ohio, for every Browns employee that takes the presumably freezing plunge with him."Fortunately I'm not going alone. Many members of the Browns organization have agreed to jump with me." he said. However, the benefit of the event still doesn't make it appealing, and with average water temperatures in the lake in June sitting around 12 degrees celsius you cant blame him for being slightly apprehensive."I don't like it," Jackson said back in December upon realising he'd have to take the plunge. "I don't like to do it for the reason I am having to do it, but I have to make do on my word. I just think that is what you do. I do get that. I made a statement. I have to back it up. That is the type of person I am, so that is what we have to do."

The longtime former Bengals OC is hopeful the jump will act as a kind of ceremonial fresh start for an organisation that has been in the doldrums of the NFL world for well over a decade now.

“It's going to be a cleansing of the Cleveland Browns,” Jackson said at the NFL Combine back in March. “That's what it will be."

Aside from the impending jump, which will be a private team event, new GM John Dorsey has been making his own efforts to kick start a successful period in Browns history through a splashy free agent period and the draft. 

Jackson hasn't made any similarly bold claims regarding their win total in the coming season, but after the vast roster changes Browns fans have good reason to be hopeful that they'll atleast usurp the one win they managed in 2016. 

Having added Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield to their quarterback room, and a plethora of weapons to surround them including Jarvis Landry, Carlos Hyde and Nick Chubb, Jackson should be able to push their record at least up to around the .500 mark.