Robert Saleh’s newest coach has ties to Spygate.
The Jets hired Steve Scarnecchia, according to the New York Post’ Brian Costello. He will be work closely with Saleh as his chief of staff.
The son of former Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, Steve Scarnecchia was fired by the Broncos in 2010. An NFL investigation uncovered that he had been illegally filming a 49ers walkthrough practice in London. The NFL fined the Broncos and then-head coach Josh McDaniels $50,000 apiece for the incident after it was determined that Scarnecchia filmed six minutes of San Francisco’s walkthrough.
The league considered Scarnecchia a “repeat offender,” as he worked in New England’s video department from 2001-04 and was implicated in the original Spygate scandal. However, Scarnecchia was not banned from the NFL for his role in two separate videotaping scandals.
After being fired in Denver, Scarnecchia served as Syracuse’s Director of Football Operations until he was hired away by the Atlanta Falcons. He most recently was as an assistant to former Falcons head coach Dan Quinn over the past six seasons in Atlanta.
This will be Scarnecchia’s second stint with the Jets. He was with the team from 2006-08, working as the Director of Multimedia and Production.