San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh blamed his own word choice for sparking a postgame tiff with Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen after the teams’ Sunday game.
Days before the contest, Saleh discussed Coen and the Jaguars being adept at “legal signal stealing.”
Jacksonville went on to beat San Francisco 26-21. As the teams met at midfield postgame, Coen sought out Saleh. Video from Action Sports Jax showed Coen saying, “Keep my name out of your mouth. Keep my name out of your f–ing mouth.” Saleh responded, “I will f– your world up.”
Saleh took a much different tone on Tuesday.
“It is all good,” the former New York Jets head coach 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. …
“Obviously, I did a poor job with the words. I mean, if I said the words ‘film study,’ I don’t think we’re really talking about this. But I used ‘signal stealing’ and that’s why I was so adamant about ‘legally.’ I was just struggling for the words, but for Sean (McVay, the Los Angeles Rams’ head coach), same thing. These guys are the best in the world and that’s why they’re there.”
Saleh added of the Jaguars, who are off to a 3-1 start, “I think Liam’s doing a hell of a job. 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.”
San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan added of his assistant, “Saleh’s too nice usually but seemed like someone struck a chord the other day. I don’t think there’s any fights going on. It was kind of comical now to look back at it.”
The 49ers (3-1) are preparing to oppose the Rams (3-1) on Thursday in Inglewood, Calif.
