Stating the Obvious: The Jets Fired the WRONG Coach

Well, they did it. Even worse, it happened sooner than I feared.

So I woke up to the news that the New York Jets fired Robert Saleh as their head coach. I knew this would happen. The only thing I was guilty of was believing that they'd actually give him a full fourth season. So let's look at Saleh's history, shall we? He's only 45 years old, yet he's been in the NFL as a coach for 20 years. After four seasons coaching at the collegiate level, Saleh--at the age of 26--joined the Houston Texans as a defensive intern in 2005. He spent six seasons on Houston's staff before joining the Seattle Seahawks as their defensive quality control coach. Saleh spent three seasons with Seattle before spending another three as the linebackers coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

It was in 2017 that Saleh joined the San Francisco 49ers as their defensive coordinator, and that tenure included an appearance in Super Bowl LIV in the 2019 season. The job lasted four seasons until Saleh received his big break and became the head coach of the New York Jets in 2021. The Jets, who were coming off being wrecked by Adam Gase's terrible coaching, went 4-13 in 2021, but 2022 saw some promise from the Jets, as they were alive in the playoff race until the penultimate week of the season, and ended up 7-10. Even so, hope was alive for Jets fans.

And then, he joined the team.

Aaron Rodgers. The man who would save the Jets. Unfortunately, fans would have to wait another year. Injured and out for the year after four plays. Even so, the Jets repeated the same record as 2022: 7-10. This year was a bit tumultuous, with Rodgers missing practices to do, well, whatever, while poor Saleh was doing damage control and insisting that all was well between the two sides. Rodgers did get that fifth play that was denied him last year. Even so, things were a bit up and down, and after a 2-3 start that saw Rodgers totally shit the bed in London, Saleh was canned.

I said before the season started that I feared that one of two things would happen. Either Rodgers would get hurt again, the season dies, and Saleh gets scapegoated, or Rodgers stays healthy, the team still struggles, and Saleh gets canned and scapegoated. The latter happened, but it happened during the season, which makes this even more infuriating. Saleh was not the problem, no matter how many idiot Jets fans want to blame him. Here's who should have been canned.

This slack-jawed yokel is Nathaniel Hackett, the Jets' offensive coordinator/Aaron Rodgers' sponsor. Seriously, I do not know why Rodgers love this guy so much. Hackett's the moron who took the ball from Rodgers during that NFC Championship against Tampa Bay. 4th and goal, down by 8, yet we kick a chip shot field goal. We saw Hackett's stupidity in full form while he coached the Broncos. Yet Rodgers decided to take him after Denver fired him. The results have been hideous. Look at the game before the London game. A 10-9 loss that saw the Jets score no touchdowns and lose to a Broncos team whose QB had a terrible start to the game. That is not on Saleh. That's on Chrome-Dome Nate.

But wait, here's another factor:

This old buzzard, who looks like a plantation owner, is Jets owner Woody Johnson. Everything I needed to know about Woody was shown in one statement. Years ago, he said that he would "rather have the Jets go winless than have Obama in the White House any longer." The man is a racist. That's why I was worried about Saleh. It's a known fact that coaches of color get fucked over too much in the NFL, and it's mainly because of old bigots like Woody Johnson. So yeah, Saleh was screwed. Woody said that the decision was his and his alone. Yeah, bullshit! You know how I know Woody Johnson's lying? Because his lips were moving. But it's more than that. Here's why:

The word on the street is that Saleh was preparing to fire Hackett, yet Saleh's the one gone. I think Rodgers is behind this somehow. He dropped dime on Saleh just to save his buddy. Seriously, why does Rodgers love Hackett so much? I still remember Rodgers venting about that NFC Championship blunder while he was hosting Jeopardy!, yet Rodgers sold out Saleh just to keep that idiot around. Seriously, does Hackett have some dirt on Rodgers or something?

And of course, their interim coach is a White guy with as much head coaching experience as I do. Jeff Ulbrich. Never heard of him. Here's the thing. Despite all of this, the Jets have a decent shot. The AFC East is on the verge of collapsing upon itself. The Bills have lost back-to-back games, and Josh Allen is a bit banged up. The Dolphins have a shot, and they're a week or two away from Tua returning. Even the Patriots aren't that far behind. The Jets still have a chance here, but here's what they better not do if they make the playoffs somehow. They better not give Ulbrich the credit and use this to give him an extension. They will, though. Woody's happy that he has a White coach. Rodgers is happy that his buddy's still there. It's a shitty situation for sure.

As for Saleh, he'll get hired somewhere else. At least I'd like to hope so. If the Jaguars actually do fire Doug Pederson, I could see Saleh back with that team as their HC. He definitely deserves another head coaching job for sure.