Former NFL receiver Laveranues Coles has a new calling.
The 10-year veteran, who played for the Jets, Washington, and the Bengals, now works for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
And he’s not the only former NFL player who works there. A new report from Kathy Park of NBC News spotlights Coles and former NFL linebacker Jeff Kopp, both of whom now work for the department. Nine former NFL players currently are employed by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
“This job allows me to feel like I’m a part of something greater than myself, like I was when I was in the NFL,” Coles told Park.
And the police academy was no picnic. “There’s a lot more running,” said Kopp, a detective. “We didn’t run as much in the NFL.”
But they love it.
“It’s a totally natural fit,” Kopp said. “The pay’s not as good as the NFL, but they’re working on it.” That prompted a chuckle from both Kopp and Coles. “He’s laughing harder than me because he made a lot more than me,” Kopp said.
Indeed he did. The 47-year-old Coles reportedly made more than $42 million.
Kopp spent six years in the NFL, from 1995 through 1999. Coles played from 2000 through 2009. He had three seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards, including two in excess of 1,200.
Coles is familiar with the other side of the criminal justice system. At Florida State during the 1999 college football season, he and Peter Warrick faced felony grand theft charges after a store clerk allegedly sold them $412.38 worth of clothing for only $21.40. Coles pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was dismissed from the team. Warrick, a Heisman candidate before the arrest, also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor but was allowed to remain on the Seminoles’ roster after missing two games.
Coles had a much more impactful NFL career than Warrick, the fourth overall pick in the 2000 draft.
The Jets appeared to be on the verge of a quarterback change in Week 8, but Tyrod Taylor’s knee injury left the door open for Justin Fields to remain in the lineup and he responded with his best outing of the year to help the Jets win for the first time this season.
Head coach Aaron Glenn declined to name a starter for when the team returned from its bye week, however, and the issue remains up in the air with Sunday’s game against the Browns getting closer. Taylor was a full participant in Wednesday’s practice and Fields said “we’ll see” when asked if he will be in the lineup.
“I just take it day by day, brother,” Fields said, via the team’s website. “I just go to work and work, that’s it. Control what you can control.”
It’s hard to imagine that the Jets are going through practice without an inkling about who is going to start at quarterback on Sunday, but that’s the party line so far this week.
Linebacker Kiko Mauigoa (concussion) and wide receiver Garrett Wilson (knee) were limited participants. Running back Kene Nwangwu (concussion), tight end Stone Smartt (quad) tight end Mason Taylor (quad), and defensive lineman Jay Tufele (knee) were full participants.
The Jets traded Quinnen Williams on Tuesday and they benched his brother on Wednesday.
Linebacker Quincy Williams has been a starter since the 2021 season, but he told Rich Cimini of ESPN that the team is moving him to the bench ahead of their Week 10 game against the Browns.
“My coaches told me I was underperforming, that I’ve been underperforming since training camp,” Williams said.
Williams told Cimini he’s “not thrilled” by the decision, but is also not mad about it because he plans to work his way back into the team’s plans. Williams missed four games with a shoulder injury earlier this year and has 22 tackles and 1.5 sacks on the year.
Jamien Sherwood and Kiko Mauigoa will likely be the starting linebackers for the Jets.
Quinnen Williams held his first press conference as a member of the Cowboys on Wednesday.
Williams was traded by the Jets in exchange for a 2027 first-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick, and defensive tackle Mazi Smith in one of their two blockbuster deadline deals. The defensive tackle joins the Cowboys after spending six-plus seasons losing seasons with the Jets.
The Jets have gone 33-75 since Williams joined the team and Williams admitted on Wednesday that it has taken a toll on him.
“They knew I was frustrated. I think the world knew I was frustrated being there so long and still losing,” Williams said. “But like I say, any ultra competitor, man, any guy who plays this game to win is going to be frustrated no matter if you win 100 games and lose that one or when I was at Bama, I went 16-1 and lost the national championship, I was frustrated.”
Williams said multiple times that he still has great relationships with Jets personnel and said he believes what head coach Aaron Glenn “is doing there is going to be great,” but made it clear that he’s losing patience with losing games.
“I’m hungry to win,” Williams said. “That’s the main thing. Like I said at the beginning, I’m an ultimate competitor, man. Everything I do is about winning. Everything I do, everything I work. When I wake up, man, I just want to win. That kind of forms my ego of I can do anything the coaches ask me to do if it’s going to get us a win.”
It remains to be seen if life with the 3-5-1 Cowboys are going to give Williams the taste of winning that he’s looking for and the Cowboys’ bye means he’ll have to wait until Week 11 to start finding out.
The Jets’ 1-7 start to the season pretty much ensured that the team’s playoff drought will hit 15 seasons and Tuesday’s trades of cornerback Sauce Gardner and defensive tackle Quinnen Williams for packages that included three first-round picks opened the door to more losing as they try to build a more competitive roster.
On Wednesday, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said at his press conference that it was an “intense day” around the facility and that they did not go into the season planning to part ways with either player. Glenn echoed General Manager Darren Mougey’s comments from Tuesday about the team getting offers that were too good to pass up and that he didn’t want to make “make too much of a deal about it because the players know this is a league of change.”
Glenn was also asked about his message to Jets fans who have been waiting a long time to see a winning team and think it may be further away as a result of Tuesday’s moves.
“I want this to be a team that the fans are proud of,” Glenn said. “But again, I’ve never said that we’re going to be proud of them right now. At some point, I want this to be a team that the fans are proud of. I still stick with that. I will still say that. This is a team that the fans will be proud of. I’m not going to get into the patience and all that type of crap that you always hear, but I will tell you this - our guys are working, we’re going to continue to work, and I’m going to stand by that statement. I want this to be a team that the fans are proud of. Don’t let go of the rope, you’ve heard me say that before, and just continue to watch us work.”
The next chance to watch the Jets work will come against the Browns on Sunday and a lot of observers will likely spend the day wondering what the team is going to look like in the next few years rather than focusing on the present situation.
