There was tension on the turf after Sunday’s NFL matchup.
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen and the San Fransico 49ers’ defensive coordinator Robert Saleh exchanged words after the Jaguars defeated the 49ers at Levi's Stadium Sept. 28.
Tensions were high as the payers and coaching staff took the field to shake hands, according to a video shared across social media, with Coen seemingly being held back by Jaguars players as he shouted in Saleh’s direction, “Keep my name out your mouth,” before being ushered into the tunnel.
And while the exchange shared on social media seemed one-sided, Sports Director for Jacksonville affiliate stations WFOX-TV and WJAX-TV Brent Martineau, whose stations shared the original video, reported Selah fired back.
“‘I will f--k your world up,’” Saleh responded in the original transcript from the confrontation, according to Martineau’s Sept. 28 X post. “‘You don’t want to f--k with me. I will f--king end your f--king life.’”
Coen—who made his debut as the head coach this season—subsequently downplayed the situation.
“Not a big deal,” he told a reporter asking him to elaborate on the confrontation in a post-game press conference. “We’re gonna keep that between us right now.”
As for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, he shrugged off the incident.
"I didn’t see what happened so I’m not sure,” Shanahan said to reporters. “I don’t think he [Liam] should be that sensitive about it, but that’s the way it is.”
However, it appeared bad blood between the teams began brewing days earlier when Saleh spoke unprompted about Coen and other NFL coaches use of the "sign stealing" strategy.
“Liam and his staff, a couple of guys coming from Minnesota, they've got—legally—a really advanced signal-stealing type system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” Saleh said during a team press conference Sept. 25. “They do a great job with it.”
“And there's nothing illegal about it,” he continued. “I'm not suggesting that. It's just you can tell that they've got a system that's getting them into a very advantageous position multiple times during the course of a game.”