You may have heard by now that San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen had a little tete-a-tete following Sunday’s game in which the Jags won 26-21.
Saleh said before the game that Coen and his team are good at “advanced signal stealing.” That kind of thing is heavily frowned upon in the NFL – and in sports in general – so you can imagine that it didn’t sit well with Coen, so he approached him after the game.
https://twitter .com/Coach_Yac/status/1972442084247560697
On Tuesday, Saleh said it was no big deal, because of course it wasn’t.
“It is all good,” Saleh said. “Whatever happened on Sunday doesn’t change how I feel. In my heart, I genuinely was trying to give a compliment, and I own the fact that I probably used the wrong choice of words, but however you want to word it.
“I mean, they’re really, really good at putting their players in position to be successful. As coaches, we’re always chasing leverage. They’re trying to have winning leverage. We’re trying to take leverage away and everyone in the league is trying to find every avenue they can.”
Saleh was complimentary of the overall job Liam Coen is doing
If one had to guess, Coen doesn’t really care much about Saleh’s “apology” following the game. It wasn’t really an apology per se, but it was somewhat contrite given the words that were supposedly uttered on the field after the game.
“I think Liam’s doing a hell of a job,” Saleh said. “I really do. You can tell that that team’s really taking on his personality and I hope they came out of the game healthy, and I wish him the best of luck throughout the rest of the season. I wish I could have found a better choice of words, but my intent was always to compliment that football staff.
“As a coach watching their tape, I recognize the amount of hours that must be spent to be able to build formations and define every little indicator they can to give their players a chance to be in a successful position. That’s exhausting and every team does it. Some do it better than others and it was my way of acknowledging that these guys are really, really, really good at it.”
The exchange between Liam Coen and Saleh isn’t fit to print
In a video captured after the game of their dispute, it shows a lot more than I’ll share here, but you get the point.
Coen apparently shouted, “keep my name out of your mouth. Keep my name out of your f—ing mouth,” to which Saleh replied, “I will f— your world up.”
From what I’ve heard, there wasn’t a bro hug following the exchange. And after what Saleh said to start the whole fight, it’s not surprising.
“Liam [Coen] and his staff, a couple of guys coming from Minnesota, they’ve got a—legally—a really advanced signal stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” Saleh said before the game. “They do a great job with it. They formation you to try to find any nugget they can. So we’ve got to be great with our signals and we’ve got to be great with our communication to combat some of the tells that we might give on the field.”
The two teams don’t play again for another four years unless they both make the Super Bowl, so yeah, they don’t play again for another four years.