Mark Hazelwood leaving the Joel W. Solomon Federal Courthouse in Chattanooga Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018 where the former Pilot Flying J employee is on trial for fraud. (Photo: Michael Patrick/Knoxville News Sentinel)Caught hurling racially offensive insults at his boss' football team and its fans, former Pilot Flying J President Mark Hazelwood threatened to drag the team into a legal fight when his boss decided to fire him, records show.
In May 2014 - 13 months after Pilot Flying J's Knoxville headquarters was raided - the truck stop giant decided to fire Hazelwood after the board and its chief executive officer - Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam - learned Hazelwood had been captured on secret recordings using racial epithets to impugn the team, the fans and the city and mocking Pilot Flying J's board.
After learning of the recordings, Pilot Flying J immediately invoked what is known in the financial community as a "bad boy clause" in Hazelwood's employment contract to oust Hazelwood, records obtained by USA Today Network- Tennessee showed.
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