An NFL coach has been fired. Not a big deal as it happens several times a year.
He is fired during the season. OK, not as common, but still not a huge deal.
His team’s record was 2-11. All right, now it makes sense.
Not so quick, as he was fired in the first year of a 5-year contract. Wow, that’s unusual! There must be a lot of money left on that contract that the team is going to have to pay to a guy not to coach their team.
Nope. The team has no intention of paying him anything as they claim he was fired for cause.
Welcome to the mess that is Urban Meyer.
Meyer was fired by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan this week. It all began to unravel for Meyer after the Week 4 loss at Cincinnati when Meyer decided to not travel home with the team after the game, which is unheard of for an NFL head coach. Things quickly escalated because of a video that surfaced that evening showing Meyer in a bar with a woman (not his wife) dancing suggestively near his lap as he sat on a bar stool.
It was after this incident that Khan said he wasn’t going to fire Meyer, but that Meyer had to re-earn the trust & respect of the organization, players and fans in the weeks & months to come.
Unfortunately for Meyer, as well as everyone else, things continued to get worse, not better. Not only did Jacksonville continue to lose games, but Meyer berated his players and coaching staff in public causing dissension in the locker room.
Meyer just didn’t appear capable of adjusting to the NFL and coaching men after his long tenure coaching in college. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the #1 overall pick in the 2021 draft and the future of the franchise, was regressing, not progressing as the season went along. He also went public pleading for Meyer to play running back James Robinson more as he was the Jags best offensive player.
If that wasn’t enough, the story came out last week that Meyer had kicked kicker Josh Lambo back in August. While stretching, Lambo claims Meyer said “Hey (expletive), make your (expletive) kicks” and then kicked him. After Lambo told him to never do that again, Meyer said “I’m the head ball coach. I’ll kick you whenever the (expletive) I want.” Way to motivate your team Urban!
Perhaps the most surprising part of the Meyer firing to me was the venom with which he was attacked by several ESPN reporters. Louis Riddick claimed, “This is the biggest failure of leadership, on part of a coach, probably in the history of the NFL.” Heather Dinich said the firing “Wasn’t a surprise to anyone. His bad decisions were longer than my kids Christmas list and I have 3 kids. He is just a dishonest person.”
Paul Finebaum added “He is a liar and a fraud. He can’t handle professionals.” Dan Orlovsky chimed in with “He’s a bad dude. A bad coach. He’s obsessed with power.”
In all my years of following sports I have never heard reporters and analysts attack a player or coach as severely as these 4 people did and I didn’t even note everything they said. Their comments had little to do with his coaching, as they all acknowledged his success in college where he won 3 national championships. But they clearly painted the picture that as a human being he was a liar, a fraud, a cheater and just not a good person.
I have never met Urban Meyer, but he always struck me as a very smug, arrogant and power-hungry person who felt he could do no wrong.
Riddick, Dinich, Finebaum & Orlovsky all said Meyer’s behavior while at Jacksonville shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone based on his antics in college. While at Florida he covered up the shenanigans and arrests of multiple players. His only concern was making sure they were on the field on Saturdays. At Ohio St. he covered up the alleged assault by assistant coach Zach Smith of his wife.
And one of his first hires for the Jaguars was that of Chris Doyle as Director of Sports Performance even though he had left the University of Iowa in 2020 under a cloud of racism and bullying allegations. Doyle resigned 1 day after he was hired.
Meyer’s firing continues an unfortunate trend of high-profile coaches being terminated in 2021. Florida Panthers coach Joel Quenneville resigned back in October after his role in helping cover up the sexual assault by an assistant coach of a player while he was coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.
Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden also resigned in October after a series of racist, misogynistic, and homophobic emails from 2011-2018 were made public.
Being a professional coach isn’t an easy job, hence the long-time phrase “Coaches are hired to be fired.” But that primarily relates to the winning or losing of games. The recent off the field transgressions is a disturbing trend for people who are supposed to be the leader of men.
Will a professional team or college give Meyer another chance to coach? Who knows? Maybe a mid-major college program will roll the dice with him based on his success at the college level. Personally, if I were a college Athletic Director I would look elsewhere as the bar to hire someone has to be higher than the bar Urban Myer has set.
