During Sunday’s Dolphins-Jets game in the New Meadowlands Stadium, Dolphins gunner Nolan Carroll headed downfield to cover a punt. As he went out of bounds, Carroll crossed in front of a group of similarly dressed Jets personnel standing on the edge of the six-foot white border just inside the edge of the bench area.

As he was running, Carroll suddenly went down and was helped off the field. He missed several plays before re-entering the game. Several screencaps of the HD feed (via Timothy Burke; @bubbaprog) showed a person in a Jets rain suit allegedly sticking out his knee as Carroll passed by.

Thanks to @BlkSportsOnline (www.BlackSportsOnline.com), which posted a video of the CBS feed of the incident.

After the game, it was reported that Jets’ head strength & conditioning coach Sal Alosi was responsible for the action. Several Dolphins players were asked about it during postgame interviews and Jeff Darlington (Twitter feed) of the Miami Herald got some interesting reaction.

The Jets and the NFL are looking into the matter. If it is true that Alosi committed such an act, it would be just stunning, especially in this time of player safety emphasis by the league, that an assistant coach would act in that type of manner. The NFL’s discipline for conduct detrimental should be costly to both the coach and the organization.

UPDATE: The New York Times‘ Fifth Down Blog has a full timeline of the events surrounding the incident, including Alosi’s statement released by the Jets (via the NYT blog:)

“I made a mistake that showed a total lapse in judgment. My conduct was inexcusable and unsportsmanlike and does not reflect what this organization stands for. I spoke to Coach Sparano and Nolan Carroll to apologize before they took off. I have also apologized to Woody, Mike and Rex. I accept responsibility for my actions as well as any punishment that follows.”