Revenge of the Birds
The Arizona Cardinals are knee deep in trying to find their next head coach. There is a list that grows every week. The big debate is whether the franchise should hire another defensive coach, or if the offense needs the most attention and go that route.
RELATED: SALEH GETS LATE-NIGHT INTERVIEW
The DC for the San Francisco 49ers, Robert Saleh, is on the Cardinals’ list. Come to think about it, Saleh is on a bunch of teams’ prospect interview lists. He is a hot commodity this year. After being fired from the New York Jets and back with the Niners, he picked up right where he left off and rebuilt San Fran’s defense back to respectability.
And everyone has taken note. There are numerous media articles stating that Saleh could become the Cardinals’ next head coach. He is not the odds-on favorite – that belongs to Denver Broncos DC Vance Joseph – but he is high on the inventory of names tabulated.
But who is Saleh? Where did he come from? What are his qualifications?
Robert Jalal Saleh, age 46, was raised in Dearborn, Michigan. His heritage is from Lebanon. His grandparents on his father’s side were refugees who were forced out of Lebanon after civil war broke out in the late 1940s. His father, Sam, was born in Michigan. Saleh’s mother, Fatin, was born in Lebanon and then emigrated to America.
Sam Saleh played football at Eastern Michigan along the defensive line. Upon graduation, Sam went undrafted and had a tryout with the Chicago Bears but was not offered a training camp contract. Eastern Michigan offered him a coaching job, but he instead went back home to Dearborn to join the family real estate business.
Robert Saleh played tight end at Northern Michigan. Upon graduation, he entered the business world as a loan officer at Comerica Bank using his degree in finance. He was making money and was content for a 22-year old, but was not happy.
Robert’s brother, David, was in one of the World Trade Center buildings on 9-11 in the second tower. Somehow, he made it out alive. It was this incident that Robert decided to follow his dream, ditch finance and the downtown corporate universe, and pursue a coaching career.
He knew he needed to be back on the football field.
Michigan State hired him as a graduate assistant in 2002. At the same time, Robert worked on his master’s degree in kinesiology. After two years, he got a job as the assistant DL coach at Central Michigan, followed by a year as the assistant LB coach at Georgia, where he made $900 a month.
In 2006, Gary Kubiak was named the new head coach of the Houston Texans. Robert interviewed and was hired as the defensive quality-control coach. In 2010, Kubiak fired the entire defensive coaching staff. For the first time, Saleh was unemployed, and his wife had just given birth to their first son three months prior.
He traveled to the...
