New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh was fired Tuesday after his team’s disappointing 2-3 start to the season. Some fans, however, say Saleh was dismissed because he made a political statement on the sidelines when his team lost to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Hopes were high for the Jets entering the 2024 season, which saw veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers return after missing last year with a torn Achilles. When Saleh’s firing was announced, some — including ex-NFL player and sports commentator Shannon Sharpe — felt Rodgers may have influenced the decision to fire the head coach.
But at Sunday’s game in London, Saleh — who is Lebanese-American — wore a Lebanese flag decal on his shoulder as Israeli forces attacked the country. Saleh had worn the badge before at NFL-sanctioned events. But because of the recent Israeli attack in Lebanon and Jets’ owner Woody Johnson’s personal views, however, some think the decision to move on from Saleh could be politically motivated.
Johnson’s history of controversial statements
There’s no concrete evidence that Jets owner Woody Johnson fired Saleh for wearing the badge. But in an X post, Hamid Bendaas, a self-described football fan and communications director of IMEU Policy Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group, pointed out that based on Johnson’s past comments and controversies, the decision would not be out of character.
Johnson — a Trump supporter — has also been accused of asking whether a job candidate was Jewish, commenting on female employees’ appearances at work meetings, and making race-based comments on several occasions, including blaming Black fathers for abandoning their families.
Being let go reportedly blindsided Saleh, who had a 20-36 record in his time with the team, but firing Saleh was “my decision and mine alone,” Johnson said. “I just felt that the best way to go forward was a new direction,” Johnson told reporters in a conference call, according to ESPN.
Johnson added, “Taking [Defensive Coordinator] Jeff Ulbrich and making him the interim head coach, I thought that would get the most out of this team and give us the best chance that we all want to have, which is going to the playoffs.”
Did Aaron Rodgers make it happen?
At the same time, NFL insiders and fans — including Shannon Sharpe — think Aaron Rodgers, 40, had a hand in getting Saleh fired, either directly, through his subpar performance on the field, or — as Sharpe pointed out on ESPN — by undermining the head coach when Rodgers failed to report to the Jets’ mandatory minicamp and trip to Egypt last summer.
But in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers denied he played any part in the personnel move. “Any of the ridiculous allegations out there, I’m not going to spend more than one sentence in response to it, and that is I resent any of those accusations because they’re patently false,” Rodgers told McAfee. “It’s interesting the amount of power that people think that I have, which I don’t. I love Robert, and it was one of those days yesterday,” Rodgers said.
