FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — New York Jets coach Robert Saleh has added Steve Scarnecchia, who has ties to two NFL videotaping scandals, to his staff.
Scarnecchia is listed on the team’s website among the coaching personnel as chief of staff. He spent the last six seasons in Atlanta as Dan Quinn’s assistant head coach.
The New York Post first reported Scarnecchia’s hiring by the Jets.
Scarnecchia was fired by Denver in 2010 after an NFL investigation determined the team’s video operations director illegally filmed a San Francisco 49ers walkthrough practice in London and presented it to then-coach Josh McDaniels. The league fined the Broncos and McDaniels $50,000 each for not promptly reporting Scarnecchia’s actions.
Scarnecchia was considered by the NFL a repeat offender because he also had ties to New England’s “Spygate” scandal, during which the Patriots were caught videotaping Jets coaches’ signals in 2007. Scarnecchia was working for New York at the time, but New England was found to have also been illegally videotaping opponents’ defense signals in the early 2000s — when Scarnecchia was a video assistant for the Patriots.
New England and coach Bill Belichick were each fined $500,000 by the league and had a first-round draft pick taken away.
Scarnecchia, the son of former Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, was Syracuse’s director of football operations before being hired by Atlanta.
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