Jets' Robert Saleh clarifies story on Brian Kelly when they were at Central Michigan
Brian Kelly speaks after being introduced as the head football coach of the LSU Tigers during a news conference at Tiger Stadium on December 01, 2021 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Credit: Getty Images/Jonathan Bachman
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Robert Saleh said he felt badly about a story that blew up on social media Tuesday and tried clarifying it after it portrayed new LSU coach Brian Kelly in an even more negative light.
Kelly has been vilified for the way he bolted Notre Dame for LSU this week.
Saleh spoke very highly of Kelly, calling him "a phenomenal man." But Saleh didn’t come across as complimentary of Kelly in an ESPN.com article in 2019.
When Saleh and Matt LaFleur were graduate assistants under Kelly at Central Michigan, they were invited to a party at Kelly’s house. But they weren’t guests. Saleh said in the article that they shoveled snow and were valets, parking and retrieving cars. Saleh said he and LaFleur decided they "were not going to treat people the way we got treated" if they became head coaches.
Saleh said Wednesday that he was trying to tell a funny story in the profile on LaFleur, the Packers coach, and that he tried to work with Kelly again when he was hired by Notre Dame in 2009.
"There is a right of passage when you’re a GA and [Quality Control coach]," Saleh said. "It was a funny story and not an indictment on how Brian treated us. Brian is a phenomenal man. He really is. It was just one of those deals that was supposed to be a funny story that people took in a negative light. Maybe shame on me, I should have worded it better.
"He’s a really good man," Saleh added. "He treats people the right way. I know people are probably upset with him now. There’s never a right way to do things of that nature. I’m always one of his biggest fans. I feel awful that it was taken in that light."
