Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh exchanged words following the Jaguars’ 26-21 win on Sept. 28, three days after Saleh went public about the Jaguars’ ability to legally “steal” offensive signals.
Saleh obviously meant the statement as a compliment in how the Jaguars and previous staffs connected with Coen were able to decode pre-snap defensive signals, but Coen clearly didn’t take kindly to basically having his integrity questioned.
The Coen-Saleh dust-up occurred on the field and Coen had to be led off by center Robert Hainsey.
In the postgame press conference, Coen was given three chances by The Times-Union to address the situation.Coen’s responses …
“It was not a big deal. Just keep that between us.”
And …
“I’m going to keep that between us.”
And …
“Nope, we’re just going to keep that between us right now. That’s it.”
Said Hainsey: “You saw after the game what this meant to Liam.”
A Jaguars source added: “When you use the term ‘stealing,’ — I didn’t know making adjustments or changing the play at the line of scrimmage was stealing.”