Liam Coen, Robert Saleh agree: No beef over sign stealing

PHOENIX — There isn’t any lingering animosity between Liam Coen and Robert Saleh from the sign-stealing dustup the two coaches had last September.

The two have spoken multiple times since they were caught on camera cursing at each other in a heated postgame exchange after Coen’s Jacksonville Jaguars defeated Saleh and the San Francisco 49ers.

Coen, the Jaguars’ second-year head coach, and Saleh both said Tuesday they’ve since reconciled — and are even able to laugh about what happened.

“We’re good,” Saleh, now the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, said during the AFC coaches breakfast at the NFL’s annual league meetings. “I know the NFL probably wants more of a story, but there’s no story. I have an appreciation for Liam. Like I said, I used the wrong word when I was trying to give him a compliment, but all that’s under the bridge.

“We’ve talked and put it behind us.”

It might not have looked that way based on the annual coaches photo taken Monday, because Coen and Saleh were separated by 13 coaches on the back row. There was happenstance, however, and Coen said other coaches have actually been ribbing the two about what happened.

“Sean [McVay] was killing Kyle [Shanahan] and Saleh about sign stealing, and they were killing me about keeping their name out of my mouth,” Coen said. “It was fun. I have a ton of respect for Kyle, for Robert, and those guys.”

The controversy started the Thursday before Jacksonville’s game against the 49ers at Levi Stadium on Sept. 28 when Saleh, then San Francisco’s defensive coordinator, said the Jaguars are good at legally stealing team’s signals. He also said other coaches, such as McVay and Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell — both of whom have either worked with Shanahan or in his system — do the same thing.

“They’ve got, legally, a really advance signal-stealing type of system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” Saleh said at the time. “They do a great job with it.”

Coen took offense, because after the game he was caught on camera by Action Sports Jax shouting, “Keep my name out of your mouth. Keep my name out of your f—ing mouth,” to which Saleh replies in part, “I will f— your world up.”

The heated exchange, however, was a topic of discussion among other NFL coaches Monday.

“We’re all finding those edges in those different ways of trying to motivate your team, motivate yourself, motivate your community,” Coen said. “I mean, we’re all doing that on a constant basis.

“And so when those things may happen, we joke on them after the fact and when we’re here, but we can all appreciate because we all respect what we’re doing and how we are all doing in different ways.”