League looking into latest Alosi development

On Wednesday came the surprising news that the Jets had converted strength coach Sal Alosi’s suspension from a definite suspension through the end of the season to an indefinite suspension that presumably will extend even longer, given the discovery that Alosi had indeed aligned himself and others on the edge of the sidelines in the hopes of narrowing the window within which Dolphins gunner Nolan Carroll could operate.

Previously, the league office had said that the Jets were not being investigated regarding this matter.  In the wake of Wednesday’s development, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told us that, while the most recent action was taken by the Jets, “We will be following up with the Jets as we just became aware of the information [Wednesday] when we had a league meeting in Fort Worth.”

We’ve heard through the grapevine that one or more representatives of the league office could be visiting the Jets’ facility on Friday to explore the matter in further detail.  As we’ll explain later today, the general sense in league circles is that folks don’t believe Alosi came up with this tactic on his own.

33 responses to “League looking into latest Alosi development

  1. I’m no Jets fan, but look at that still you keep posting. all the Jets personnel are clearly (and cleanly) behind the entirety of the white sideline. They are not required to give gunners anymore room than the entirety of the white sideline. That’s why you have a “get back” coach……..and in this case. Nobody is standing on the white sideline paint.

  2. Keep lying jets…keep lying.

    Westhoff opening his mouth was dumb.

    Guess when you are a jet..or a fan…you are not responsible for what comes out of your mouth.

  3. The truth will come out soon.

    Sal Alosi learned about the sideline formation while staying at Matt Walsh’s house and watching the videotapes in Matt’s bedroom.

    The league will also be visiting Mike Westhoff’s favorite pizza place in the Bronx where Sal now works.

  4. Here we go, Tripgate is just getting started. Will it be Ryacheat or Cheathoff that takes the brunt on this one? I seriously doubt that they can slough this one off on the Pats. But I have no doubts that they will try.

  5. I also think creating a ‘wall’ is an ethical and valid defensive strategy. As long as they don’t cross the playing field to trip or injure an active player. So Pats are doing it right, Jets did it wrong.

  6. westhoff, knew nothing about this, but a dfay later he knew other teams were doing it and even accused the pats in specific.

    amazing to notice all these other teams doing it, but not noticing it 5 feet in front of your own bench.

    they are a bunch of liars who deserve tobe penalized for lying which goodell claims he is very against when someone lies to the leaguye.

    and then they broke the rules again by blaming other teams in the media without going through the proper channels with the nfl.

    goodell will probably drop the ball on this like he is purposely doing with favre and proving not all players and teams are treated equal.

  7. I am sure the “spirit” of doing what they did issn’t something the NFL wants in their games, but I am pretty certain there is nothing in the rule books that defies doing what they did. It was the malicious contact with the player that should be punished and made example of, not the positioning on people already allowed on the sidelines (where they stayed). Any time you end up on the opposing team’s bench area, no one is there to help you get back and make a play. What rule disallows what they did?

    More NFL rule confusion and making things up on the fly.

  8. Alosi’s Alignment

    “A LOW, or A LOUSY tactic used to hinder”.

    “A LINE MEANT to disrupt and encumber.”

    Primarily a football term, but can also be applied to checkout lineups, Boxing Day sales, public washroom usage, bus stops, etc.

  9. all the Jets personnel are clearly (and cleanly) behind the entirety of the white sideline. They are not required to give gunners anymore room than the entirety of the white sideline.
    ____________________________

    They are required to stand behind the OTHER white line, 3 feet behind the sideline. THAT’S the job of the “get back” coach, they tell the players to get behind that line. Look at the replay, there’s the sideline, then behind them there’s another white line. THAT’S the line they’re supposed to stand behind. The immediate sideline is for coaches and trainers only. They were not supposed to be standing directly on the sideline like that.

  10. Here is how it will fall out:

    -Jets knew the line was there & coached it

    -Sal Alosi took it 1 step further (sticking knee out to make contact) which will cost him his job & put his career into jeopardy.

    Sal will dive into the college ranks for a while and pop up in the NFL 2 years from now for some other inane thing (like getting hit out of bounds by a ball or player on national tv). Al Michael will make a comment about what happened in 2010 and we’ll say: “oh yeah….remember when….”

    Sal, did you get hit in the head one time too many? Maybe that should be his defense………………. 🙂

  11. the jets sure do set a good example for the kids out there… if you get caught cheating, whether it be red handed taping coaches in foxboro, or tampering, or anything else… simply lie about it and everything will be fine.

    i think its about time this organization and tannenfraud were banned.

  12. Yea, if you watch the replays the Dolphin goes beyond the white of the sideline, that is his own fault.
    If I had been there as a jet, my elbow would’ve been up and I’d have been bracing for impact.

    Thats the reason the white strip is so wide, they cant give the players all the out of bounds area protection too.

  13. What makes this so ridiculous is that the practice of what they did was not illegal, what Sal did was. So by Westoff saying he knew nothing about it either makes him a liar (for reasons unknown) or oblivious to what is going on with the special teams he coaches. It just seems as though he decided to lie about it even though the only problem with the whole practice was Sal’s stupid idea of throwing a knee into the whole thing. In the end it really makes the Jets look like clowns.

  14. stixzidinia says:
    Dec 16, 2010 1:43 PM
    I’m no Jets fan, but look at that still you keep posting. all the Jets personnel are clearly (and cleanly) behind the entirety of the white sideline. They are not required to give gunners anymore room than the entirety of the white sideline. That’s why you have a “get back” coach……..and in this case. Nobody is standing on the white sideline paint.

    ————————————————
    You’re missing the point. The JETS story keeps changing. The question is, was it the aim of this scheme to put JETS coaches and players on the sideline in a position to illegally interfere with a player and possible injure the player to effect an outcome in the game being played to the JETS advantage.

    There would not have been ANYTHING to talk about if Alosi had not tripped the player.

    The JETS keep changing their story. First Ryan and Westhoff claimed there was no attempt to align players on the sidelines, now they admit there was. These coaches are clearly lying about this, so the league is now wondering if Rex did actually give the order to trip the guy. That’s much more plausible than both coaches claiming they new NOTHING about what was going on along their own sideline.

    Rex and Westhoff’s lies are coming back to bite them. This is clearly an intentional attempt by the coaching staff, during a game, to affect the outcome of the game in the JETS favor, AT THE POSSIBLE EXPENSE OF A PLAYER’S safety and career.

    Rex is not going to be able to talk his way out of this one.

  15. Rex is not going to be able to talk his way out of this one.
    —————————————-

    Sure he will.
    Your a dummie if you think otherwise.
    Know your NFL dude …………….

  16. While Alosi clearly was wrong for intentionally sticking his knee out at the precise time the gunner was in front of him, it’s not illegal to stand behind the white area. It was obvious that they created a picket fence withe their staff, but if there is no prohibition to stand there, I can’t see how anything could be done to stop it within the current rules.

  17. alltee says:
    goodell will probably drop the ball on this ……….proving not all players and teams are treated equal.

    ————————————————-
    He confirmed that a couple of weeks ago when he fined the Broncos and McDaniels a hundred grand and no lost draft picks, for doing something much worse than New England did three years prior, when he whacked them 3/4 of a mil and a first round draft pick. Not to mention that this was McDanials second offense and he had hired one of the people filming in Spygate I.

    And he levied that fine the same day the filming story came out!

    If this Alosi incident had happened with the Patriots, you’d all be screaming for Belichick’s head, and you would have gotten it from Goodell on Monday. Rex Ryan and the Jets are getting the “Favre” treatment though.

    Yeah, he’s fair alright.

  18. This is much worse than Spygate

    Stealing play calling, and even filming it was, and remains legal today
    , and is a practice documented going back to the mid-1950s pioneered by none other than George Halas, Lamar Hunt and other football “greats”

    Only the location of the camera was at issue, not the filming itself – teams today still film plays and playcalling from the stands (why else do you think coordinators still cover their mouths even today?)

    While it first it seemed Alosi’s competitive nature got the better of him and this was a literal “knee jerk” response – now we know that’s not the case…

    With TripGate this is an attempt by Jets coaches to orchestrate a trip, fall and possible injury by an opposing team player in the midst of the game – quite blatantly in this case

  19. lets go over it one more time for all the jets fans and supporters of the jest in this argument.

    standing where they were standing isnt illegal and nobody is upset about that. whats alosi did was illegal but that still isnt the issue.

    westhoff, ryand and alosi all have lied in this situation. lying to the league is illegal and according to goodell should be very punishable.

    alosi claimed it wasnt coached, then retracted and said it he coached it.

    westhoff said he knows nothing about this and a day later said he knows other teams are doing it, but knew nothing about it when it came to his own team.

    ryan and westhoff have tried to portray that they knew nothing about it, and thier strength and conditioning coach was coaching strategic sideline allignments. they are jokes and liars.

    furthermore alosi goes from a season suspension to indefinitely. why indefinitely if you are upset fire him, unless you cant let him go for fear of the truth coming out (it was coached by westhoff and ryan)

    claiming the patriots do it as well is illegal according to nfl rules, if you want to accuse any team of doing anything you must submit to the league with proper evidence and let the league decide.

    lastly these coaches are bafoons and morons for letting something that isnt illegal blow up so big with thier lies, denials, and accusations. and for that they should be penalized

  20. why wouldnt the NFL just talk to that cheating scumbag Asoli instead of waiting until he is suspended then going to interview the jets so they can all denied any wrong doing?

  21. @stixzidinia

    I believe you are incorrect. I think they have to be behind the thin white line about 3 feet beyond where they are standing.

    I find it hard to believe a strength & conditioning coach would tell these guys to line up that way. It had to come from somewhere else. If it were all his decision, I don’t think he would still be employed.

  22. You have got to be kidding. Believed Alosi should be fired but thought it was silly for people to post comments about “cheaters” because it was one guy being a jerk.

    Now you’re saying he and the other assistants planned it and may have been instructed to do it by the coaching staff?? To what end? How much leverage did the Jets expect to get from tripping one gunner?

    Unreal.

  23. !. I’d like to know what teams are doing the Alosi alignment. Should not be too hard to watch the video and figure it out. I don’t beleive it’s only the Jets and Pats

    2. Today it’s legal to do but I think the league should discourage it’s use, hopefully without making a rule change.

    3. I don’t beleive Alosi came up with this on his own either. Pretty despicable for the Jets to throw him under the bus.

  24. #
    kimcon22000 says:
    Dec 16, 2010 2:56 PM

    Rex is not going to be able to talk his way out of this one.
    —————————————-

    Sure he will.
    Your a dummie if you think otherwise.
    Know your NFL dude …………….
    —————————————————-
    Ha ha… It’s always good for a laugh when one guy who can’t spell simple words calls another guy a “dummie.” I believe you were trying to say “You’re a dummy”, not “your a dummie.”

    Spelling nazi? Not at all. Just someone who finds it funny when a guy who apparently didn’t make it past 2nd grade spelling tries to own someone else.

  25. Deb says:

    You have got to be kidding. Believed Alosi should be fired but thought it was silly for people to post comments about “cheaters” because it was one guy being a jerk.

    Now you’re saying he and the other assistants planned it and may have been instructed to do it by the coaching staff?? To what end? How much leverage did the Jets expect to get from tripping one gunner?

    Unreal
    ————————————————
    Pay attention Deb, it’s not the posters here on PFT saying that Alosi and the assistants planned it, it’s been confirmed by Alosi and the Jets that it was an organized thing. This, after the Jets and Alosi first said it wasn’t. This is turning into a much bigger thing than that.

    The lies from the Jets organization about this incident are as troubling as the incident itself.

    I haven’t seen anyone of authority state this, but it is being suggested first of all that where these people were standing IS NOT a “legal” area. Rather, there is a thin white line that appears BEHIND these people, and THAT’S where the team is supposed to stand. Violation#1.

    Second, again I have not seen anyone of authority say this, but it is being suggested that some of these people (players not dressed for the game) are NOT supposed to be there period. Violation# 2 And yes, one could further wonder what a strength coach is doing there himself, why he even needs to be near the field on game day.

    Third, under no circumstances should anyone from the Jets – coach or player – be physically impeding an opponent by tripping him intentionally. Violation# 3

    Next, the Jets tried to whisk Alosi away as soon as possible., and at first claimed not to have even known the incident happened (even though they knew enough to try and get Alosi out of there)Why? What were they trying to hide?

    Then they said that it was a single act by a single person, not an organized “wall”. They have since admitted that this is a lie, to the media, to the public, to the league. Violation# 4

    After Alosi admitted publicly that this “formation” WAS an organized thing, we are now left to truly wonder if indeed he did this on his own – a lowly strength coach taking the authority to instruct other personnel to do this – or if indeed it went higher than that, to the actual coaching staff – why would any of these people have followed the whim of a mere strength coach and jeopardized the anger of the coaching staff? And if the team DID order the “Alosi Wall”, then could it be reasonable to wonder if they went to the next level of ordering these people to physically impede (and possibly injure!) opposing gunners?

    Next we had the ST coach – Westhoff – come out and state that even though this occurred during a special teams play, he had no knowledge of it. He went so far as to say he has no idea what goes on on the sidelines. However, even though he said that he doesn’t know what goes on on OTHER team’s sidelines as well, he contradicts himself by pointing the finger at the Patriots and claims that they do this formation as well. Besides exposing himself as a lying hypocrite (“I don’t watch other team’s sidelines, but I’ve seen the Patriots do this thing that I didn’t know WE were doing”), Westhoff is breaking a rule about talking about another team’s possible violations publicly. Violation# 5

    By the way, we are left to wonder; if this “formation isn’t illegal, why is he trying to throw any other team under the bus? Why is he worried that HIS team is being accused of doing something that he supposedly thinks is legal?

    It’s not whether the Jets intentionally lined up in the “Alosi formation”, even this one time. It’s not whether they were standing in a “legal” area or not.

    What it IS about is: are the Jets instructing players and staff members to intentionally impede/injure opposing players, and are the Jets violating NFL rules by lying about who did what?

    Thighgate is picking up speed. As has been said, if the Jets truly believe that Alosi acted alone in orchestrating this, and lied to them about it, and was wrong for tripping a player intentionally……. then they need to fire this guy, not suspend him indefinitely. Suspending him idefinitely instead of terminating him just adds even more suspicion to the whole thing, and there’s already too much as it is to believe this is a one time thing done by a low-level person.

  26. Look this should be investigated! This was a clear intent to injure! I’ve seen knee on knee hits in the NHL.
    What if the Dolphin player lowered his helmet and took out Sals knee??? The player would have been fined and suspended…you can bank on that!
    You can’t tell me that Westhoff and or Ryan didn’t have some culpability in this entire mess!

  27. rich2256 …

    You idiot. I didn’t even read the other commenters–any more than I’m reading your dissertation. I understood from Mike’s article that it was confirmed by Alosi and the Jets. My reaction was You’ve got to be kidding! and Gee–what did they hope to gain?

    That’s still my reaction. You sure wasted a lot of keystrokes.

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