Jets head coach fires back at Sean Payton, tells him to “hate away”

New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh fired back at Broncos boss Sean Payton on Thursday.

Hours after Payton destroyed the 2022 Broncos and Nathaniel Hackett in an interview with USA Today, Saleh said his piece. Hackett is the Jets offensive coordinator after getting canned by Denver thanks to 15 miserable games a season ago.

“Well, I’m not going to acknowledge Sean on that. He’s been in the league awhile, he can say whatever the hell he wants,” Saleh said.

But Saleh eventually did acknowledge Payton, unable to help himself on the biggest story of the day in the NFL.

“I kind of live by the saying ‘if you ain’t got no haters you ain’t poppin.’ So, hate away. Obviously we’re doing something right if you got to talk about us when we don’t play you until Week 4,” Saleh said.

Saleh is wrong about one thing, as the Broncos and Jets don’t play until Week 5. He went on to praise Hackett and the rest of his New York coaches.

“Really excited about what’s going on. I think Hackett’s doing a phenomenal job. The coaching staff is doing a phenomenal job and we’re focused on us,” Saleh said.

He concluded by talking about crows, spreading his wings and letting crows fall off until they suffocate and can’t breathe. It’s a strange analogy, but he was clearly ticked off.

You can watch the full answer below:

Grab your popcorn 🤣 #Jets HC Robert Saleh said ‘I’m not going to acknowledge’ the comments made by #Broncos HC @SeanPayton criticizing NYJ & OC Nathaniel Hackett, ‘he’s been in the league awhile he can say whatever the hell he wants’ 😳 said he lives by a saying, ‘if you ain’t… pic.twitter.com/uo5SeDuREO

— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) July 27, 2023

As the tweet says, get your popcorn ready. Week 5 was already big with Hackett returning to Denver and Aaron Rodgers coming to town, but now it looks even bigger.

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