As I discussed on The Editors yesterday, I was elated, as a long-suffering Jets fan, that the owner decided to fire head coach Robert Saleh after early results showed the team to be on the trajectory of having another season with high expectations go down in flames.
But because Saleh is Muslim and of Lebanese descent, this immediately produced a series of absurd conspiracy theories.
One of them is the insinuation that his firing was linked to his having worn a Lebanese flag patch when the Jets played in London on Sunday. This is absurd — Saleh has worn the patch on the sidelines before, including last season, just weeks after the October 7 attacks, and there were no consequences. Also, the conspiracy makes no sense. Israel is not at war with the nation of Lebanon, but with Hezbollah, which is a terrorist group in control of southern Lebanon. It’s not as if he wore a Hezbollah flag.
The other charge relates to Saleh being escorted to his car by security after his firing. The Council on American-Islamic Relations said that “no one should jump to conclusions” about this report but then proceeded to jump to conclusions:
The report that Jets security physically escorted Saleh out of the building does raise concerns about the possible motive for such unusual hostility—especially given that Saleh wore a Lebanese flag pin at a game just days ago and that owner Woody Johnson is a former Trump administration official who has been accused of making racially charged remarks. We encourage the Jets to thoroughly explain its unusually hostile reported treatment of Coach Saleh.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini, who has been a Jets beat reporter for decades, explained:
The Saleh/escorted-out-by-security story is a little off base. From what I gather, the head of security walked with him to his car, which is protocol. It’s not like they had to forcibly remove him from the premises or anything of that nature. #Jets
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) October 8, 2024
Some have argued that there wasn’t evidence that Adam Gase, the previous head coach to be fired by the Jets, was escorted out by security. But Gase was fired after the season had concluded. Saleh was fired in the middle of the season, on a day in which he was in the Jets facility holding meetings. It’s not the same at all.
For anybody who has actually followed the Jets during his tenure, there is no big mystery surrounding Saleh’s firing. His 20–36 record represented the worst winning percentage of any Jets coach in history who coached at least 40 games — and let me tell you, the Jets have a long history of really bad coaching. Saleh’s teams constantly came to games unprepared and got off to a slow start every week, rarely going into halftime with a lead. They have been the most penalized team in the NFL for two years — a sure sign of sloppiness and lack of accountability.
The only frustration for Jets fans is that it didn’t happen sooner. With Aaron Rodgers going down with his Achilles injury four plays into last season, Saleh was given a chance to see what he could do. But owner Woody Johnson was clear all along that he wanted to see results for the team with the longest playoff drought, at over 13 years, in the NFL. The Jets had Super Bowl hopes heading into this season, given their solid defense, the return of Rodgers, and the addition of other players. There was no doubt Saleh would be gone if he didn’t get results this season. Had Johnson given Saleh a few more weeks, the Jets could be looking at 2–5 and out of realistic playoff contention. The Jets are in win-now mode, and there needed to be a major shakeup to have a chance of salvaging the season.
Now, there are some legitimate debates that Jets fans are having. For instance, Saleh was good at defense, and the problems were on offense, where the abysmal offensive coordinator Nate Hackett remains. Another question is, are the Jets giving too much control to a 40-year-old quarterback in Rodgers?
But the idea that the firing of Saleh had anything to do with his wearing a Lebanon patch is completely absurd.