Ex-Jets HC Robert Saleh Has Nice Comments Despite Jordan Elliott Situation

Reports have indicated that former Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Jordan Elliott went to his car to get a gun after an altercation during practice earlier in October. The altercation reportedly involved youngster JC Latham, a situation nobody ever wants to be involved in. 

It's not common to hear about things like this, and while Elliott made a mistake and has since been released, former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh had an interesting take on the matter. 

Saleh, now the head coach in Tennessee, finds himself in one of the strangest positions in the NFL. 

Instead of continuing to bash Elliott, as everyone on social media has, Saleh took a different route. He said the NFL has to protect its players and that Elliott has never done anything like this before.

“No, here’s what I’ll say, guys… I think the organization in the NFL did an outstanding job with regards to pausing, which I think everyone needs to do in the situation is pause, with regards to the news that Jordan had a had a gun, and the reason why I think NFL and the organization did an outstanding job is because this is a man who is a father, a great husband.

“He’s never committed a crime in his entire life, and he pulled a gun in the parking lot. And the first question that I think everyone forgets to ask is why would a great man, a great father, a man who shows up on time every day, works his ass off every day, contributes the way he’s supposed to contribute, is well liked in the locker room? Why did he go off the rails and grab a gun? And to me, those are small signs of a cry of help, if you, in terms of, obviously there’s something greater happening, and I thought the team in the NFL did an outstanding job with regards to pausing and asking those questions and checking every single box with regards to getting him the help that he needs,” Saleh said of Elliott’s situation, per A to Z Sports.

There are a couple of different ways to look at what Elliott did here. 

For one, nobody can excuse the fact that he was attempting to do something with a gun. There's absolutely no reason for that in professional sports, no matter what happened behind the scenes. At the same time, it's promising that players were able to talk him down, because this could have ended up much worse than it did. 

As for Saleh's response, I have a lot of respect for that. I don't think he could have said anything that would have changed the situation, but this was a great answer and shows there's a lot more to this game than just coaching on the field.