News Article
Published
Oct 19, 2026 at 12:10 PM EDT
Aaron Glenn says everyone heard him wrong.
The New York Jets head coach said on Oct. 19 that his sideline remarks to CBS’ Aditi Kinkhabwala were about his offense getting another chance, not about which team would get the ball to start the third quarter, according to the New York Post’s Howie Kussoy.
New York was down 17-3 to the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Oct. 18 when Glenn sounded upbeat about a comeback. “The good thing is, we get the ball. We get a chance to go move it and finish,” he said.
New England received the second-half kickoff. The Jets had already used the game’s opening drive, which ended in a field goal.
That left Glenn open to criticism that he didn’t know a basic piece of the game situation. A day later, he explained what he meant.
“No, I actually talked about just the offense,” Glenn said. “I think they were talking about sustaining drives, and my conversation with them is when the offense gets the ball back, man, we want to be able to sustain a drive and go score. Then when the defense gets back on, we want to make sure we stop them and get the ball back to our offense. That’s what I was talking about when it comes to that. The conversation was talking about the offense at that time.”
The third quarter did follow his script. New York’s defense held, and New England punted, then rookie wide receiver Omar Cooper caught a touchdown pass on the next possession.
The Jets eventually cut the deficit to 17-13. New England closed out a 26-19 win anyway.
The clip landed at a bad moment for Glenn. Cameras appeared to show him dozing off at the NFL Scouting Combine, and his on-field results have done little to earn him goodwill.
Some observers have already argued that New York needs a new head coach. A halftime soundbite about possession, whatever he meant by it, won’t make that argument any quieter.