Getty New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh and Ex-Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly have a very weird history.
New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh has brought a passionate personality to his team since being hired back in January.
That has led to several qualms with prominent head coaches in the media.
It started with ex-Jets head coach and current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan. The longtime defensive guru eviscerated Saleh during an ESPN radio appearance and Saleh returned with a jab of his own when asked about it.
Ultimately the two were able to bury the hatchet and now Ryan is Saleh’s No. 1 fan. Although I don’t believe the latest squabble will lead to an amicable end.
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Wait, What Happened?!
Coach Saleh got into the profession when he was a 23-year old graduate assistant for the Michigan State Spartans from 2002 through 2003.
Following that two-year stint, he was hired for the same position at Central Michigan by then-head coach Brian Kelly.
After grinding it out and doing the dirty work for a few months, Saleh and good friend Matt LaFleur, who was also on the staff, thought they were invited to their boss’s home as a token for their excellent work.
Except they weren’t invited to hang out at the party, they were instead brought there to work.
The pair spent all night shoveling snow out of Kelly’s driveway, parking the guest’s cars that attended, and then at the end of the night, they were expected to go get those cars back for the guests.
When Saleh and LaFleur left that night, the now Jets head coach said, “We decided that when we’re in that position, we’re never going to treat people the way we got treated.”
This story resurfaced this week with Kelly back in the news for all the wrong reasons.
I’m Not Sure Which One Is Worse…
The 60-year-old veteran let his old team, Notre Dame, find out he was leaving through several media outlets and social media.
Then to add insult to injury, the coach texted his team that he would explain his decision to the team the next morning in person.
According to Pete Sampson of The Athletic, that meeting lasted all of about 120 seconds. Kelly then turned around and walked out, he “did not take questions from the players.”
Multiple sources indicated that Brian Kelly’s address to the team on Tuesday morning lasted less than two minutes, then he turned around and walked out. He did not take questions from the players.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, the Fighting Irish are right on the outside of the College Football Playoff and have a legitimate shot of being one of the final four. Yet despite that fun fact, Kelly is already gone to his new destination with the LSU Tigers.
You have to feel for all the players he abandoned in the middle of their season. The CFP committee even added on Tuesday night that Kelly’s departure from the team is “part of the criteria” for evaluating the Irish. In other words Kelly’s decision to leave in the middle of the night could end up costing ND a spot in the playoff, absolutely brutal.
Barta time. On ND: “(Kelly’s absence) is part of the criteria” for evaluating the Irish. Long story short: at No. 6 and without their coach, ND is up against it.
While Kelly may be getting raked over the coals for that blunder and the one from over 17 years ago on how he treated a young Saleh, at least he made a ton of money with his decision.
The former Golden Domer signed a 10-year $95 million deal and the incentives in the deal could push it to over $100 million.
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Jets’ Head Coach Robert Saleh Swears He’ll Never Be Like Brian Kelly