The New York Jets have suspended Sal Alosi indefinitely after the team got “new information” that the strength and conditioning coach “instructed” five players to stand in a wall before he tripped Dolphins player Nolan Carroll on Sunday.
Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum announced the punishment after Alosi was suspended for the rest of the season and fined $25,000 on Monday
Now, the embattled assistant coach could be looking to save his job.
Alosi, New York’s strength and conditioning coach, was suspended indefinitely by the team Wednesday after he acknowledged that he told five inactive players to stand next to each other for a punt return, during which he tripped a Miami Dolphins player.
“As we continued our investigation, we discovered some new information,” general manager Mike Tannenbaum said in a conference call from the NFL owners meetings in Dallas, “and the players at the Miami game were instructed by Sal to stand where they were to force the gunner in the game to run around them.”
That was information Alosi did not initially volunteer Monday, according to Tannenbaum. The team suspended Alosi for the season without pay and fined him an additional $25,000 after he stuck out a knee and tripped Miami’s Nolan Carroll, who was covering the punt in the third quarter of the Dolphins’ 10-6 win Sunday
“Over the course of the next couple of days, more information came out that really doesn’t sit well with us,” Tannenbaum said.
During a news conference Monday, Alosi fought back tears as he called his actions — tripping Carroll — “inexcusable and irresponsible.” He also said no one was instructed to stay up on the sideline to prevent Dolphins players from running out of bounds on kicks. Miami’s Reshad Jones was penalized for doing that earlier in the game.
However, tight end Jeff Cumberland, who was inactive Sunday, said it was nothing new for the players to line up next to each other as they did against the Dolphins.
“Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been instructed to line up behind the (white) line,” he said, adding that it was only Alosi who has told them to do so.
Coach Rex Ryan and special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff both have denied they ordered anyone to do what Alosi told the players.
“It caught me off guard,” Ryan said
Westhoff said he doesn’t teach the technique and reviewed every return by the Jets this season with assistant special teams coordinator Ben Kotwica.
“For the most part,” Westhoff said, “we didn’t see it.
