It was Saturday afternoon, the end of a long, tumultuous, emotional week for Jeff Ulbrich, who’d been promoted to Jets head coach after Robert Saleh, the man who brought him to the Jets, was fired five days earlier.
It was at the end of his final news conference of the week in advance of Monday night’s game against the Bills at MetLife Stadium when a reporter asked Ulbrich this question: “At what point did you know you wanted to be a coach?’’
Ulbrich was an NFL linebacker for 10 years with the 49ers, from 2000–09 and amassed 501 tackles, 5 ½ sacks, two interceptions, six forced fumbles and one safety.
He began his coaching career with the Seahawks in 2010 as an assistant special teams coordinator, then worked at UCLA before joining the Falcons staff in 2015. It was from Atlanta where Saleh hired Ulbrich as his defensive coordinator in 2021.
And here we are now: Ulbrich in the first head-coaching role of his career, at home, against the AFC East favorites, under the lights on national TV.
So, back to the answer to that question he was asked on Saturday.
“Yeah, it was really late in my [playing] career, because I remember early in my career saying, ‘Why would I want to do that?’ ” Ulbrich said. “And, later in my career … we had drafted [linebacker] Patrick Willis. I became the backup and, in doing so, I spent a lot of time with him. We watched a lot of tape together. We did a lot of extra [work] on the field.
“I still remember it was just like yesterday, we were playing the Cardinals and I’m on the sideline looking on. I remember he makes a play in the Cardinals game and snaps his eyes to me and I look at him. [The play] was something we had worked on and focused on that particular week, and that felt better than any play I ever made for myself. And it was like, ‘I’m hooked.’ ”
Ulbrich’s romantic recollection of how he fell for coaching got me thinking about all the Jets head coaches I’ve covered in my 40 years around the team.
Ulbrich is the lucky (?) 13th Jets coach I’ve covered since the first one I covered, Joe Walton.
Saleh’s shocking and untimely demise was the latest evidence that it never ends well for Jets head coaches.
Walton was serenaded in 1989 with “Joe Must Go’’ chants from angry Jets fans who showered him with cups of beer on his final trot through the stadium tunnel.
Bruce Coslet was arrogant and combative until his end, after no winning seasons in his four years and one playoff appearance (a wild-card loss after finishing 8-8).
Pete Carroll, who succeeded Coslet, got only one season and, when he was fired, then-owner Leon Hess stood before reporters in a rare public appearance and, as he introduced Rich Kotite, famously ranted, “I’m 80 years old and I want results now.”
The front page of The Post the next day read: “Dumb and Dumber” with photos of Carroll and Kotite.
The Kotite era needs no instruction. He’s widely regarded as perhaps the worst head coach in NFL history, going 4-28 in his two seasons.
Enter Parcells, who (temporarily) changed the losing culture in the building, but turned out to be a tease, coaching for only three years before stepping down after the 1999 season when he lost Vinny Testaverde to a torn Achilles in the opener.
Then came the bizarre Bill Belichick resignation as the “HC of the NYJ” on the day he was to be introduced as Parcells’ successor. Belichick’s reason for resigning was Woody Johnson. He viewed coaching for a neophyte owner was an unstable situation and orchestrated his way to New England.
So, Al Groh took over for 2000, went a respectable 9-7 and bolted immediately after the season to coach his alma mater, Virginia, for a less pressurized life.
Groh was replaced by Herm Edwards, who coached five seasons and got the team to the playoffs three times and then decided he’d had enough of Johnson’s meddling and left for Kansas City.
Eric Mangini coached the Jets to two winning seasons in his three years and was fired by Johnson after going 9-7 in 2008 with a failing and ailing Brett Favre, whom Johnson forced on him at the beginning of the season and promised him job security.
The six-year Rex Ryan era was perhaps the most entertaining of all — two AFC Championship appearances and a lot of bluster and drama. But eventually he wore out his welcome with Johnson and was fired after going 4-12 in 2014.
Todd Bowles lasted four years, one playoff season followed by three clunkers and was replaced by Adam Gase, who was skewered before he coached his first game for his awkward and bizarre introductory news conference.
Then came Saleh, and you know how that ended.
With that … Godspeed to Ulbrich.
If he’s done his research, he knows these things never end well.
