49ers DC Robert Saleh gets into altercation with Jaguars HC Liam Coen following his recent sign stealing comments

Tempers flare after a close game.

Adam Holt — NFL News Writer
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The NFL is full of energy, frustration, excitement, and everything in between. At the conclusion of games, sometimes emotions can get the best of some people involved in the matchup. For the Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers, tempers flared after the Jags defeated the 49ers in Week 4.

The “discussion” reached quite a level between jaguars head coach Liam Coen and 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. The two coaches had to be separated during the postgame.

Heated altercation after Jaguars beat 49ers

The broadcast didn’t catch the entire altercation, but Saleh and Coen were both sharing their displeasures with each other. Saleh made comments about a potential signal-stealing strategy that Coen’s team uses earlier this week. That was certainly bulletin board material.

After the win, Coen said that the comments made between the coaches would stay between them. No more details outside of that, but he did relay that it was not a big deal. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan shared his thoughts on the altercation following the game, too.

Saleh’s comments during the week about signal-stealing

The 49ers defensive coordinator was brutally honest about what he thought of the signal-stealing that he believes Coen’s team has been deploying. Clearly, he believes there’s some sort of advantage to what they are doing in some capacity.

“They’ve got a really advanced signal-stealing system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation. They’re almost elite in that regard.” — Robert Saleh

The entire league has a way of distributing signals to call plays, make adjustments, and nearly everything else during games. With crowds, other players, and staff members, there has to be ways to get information across without using a vocal route. For the 49ers coordinator, he thinks that the Jags are doing something legal with stealing said signals.

That being said, this altercation proves that he doesn’t necessarily think the legal activities are supposed to age a part of the game, either. That’s a tough grey space for anyone to have a strong opinion on, especially when you just suffered a frustrating loss to the team you accused earlier in the week.

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