ORLANDO, Fla. — Cut your losses, Shad Khan.
Fire Urban Meyer.
That is my advice for Khan, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
As a billionaire businessman, Khan should treat the hiring of Meyer as he would treat investing in a bad stock. Perhaps Khan thought he was buying the next Google, but it’s already clear he’s ended up with the next ChaCha.
Cut your losses, Mr. Khan.
Dump the stock.
Admit you made a mistake, fire Urban Meyer and move on.
Meyer has lost all credibility with team management, his players, his coaches, Jaguars fans and perhaps even his own family. Over the weekend, Meyer, shamefully and foolishly, was caught on a viral video fondling an unidentified blonde woman with whom he had become way too intimate at a bar/restaurant he owns in Columbus, Ohio.
How bad was it? Let’s just say, if it had happened on the football field, Meyer would have been flagged for illegal use of the hands.
Meyer originally apologized Monday for becoming a “distraction” to his team, but he has become so much more than a distraction. He has become a total embarrassment to an organization — and it’s certainly not the first time (See Ohio State, Zach Smith). For years, ever since his days as a national championship-winning coach the University of Florida, I have been writing and saying that Meyer is the most disingenuous coach I’ve ever covered, and once again he has proven my point.
You see, Meyer’s apology on Monday came after an initial video from the bar showed the woman dancing suggestively right next to Meyer’s lap as he sat on a bar stool. Because of the angle of the video, you could not see what Meyer was doing with his right hand, and Meyer’s awkward public apology and explanation made it seem like he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“There was a big group (in the bar) next (to) our restaurant and they wanted me to come over and take pictures, and I did,” Meyer explained Monday. “They were trying to pull me out on the dance floor, screwing around, and I should have left.
“I apologized to the team and staff for being a distraction. Just stupid, and so I explained everything that happened and owned it. Just stupid. Should not have myself in that kind of position.”
Apparently, when Meyer apologized to the team and to Khan, he didn’t tell them the entire story. How do we know this? Because right after his public apology on Monday, another video surfaced showing Meyer crudely putting his right hand on the blonde woman’s rear end and grabbing her inner thigh.
Not surprisingly, Khan then put out a statement Tuesday morning in which he said, “I have addressed this matter with Urban. Specifics of our conversation will be held in confidence. What I will say is his conduct last weekend was inexcusable. I appreciate Urban’s remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now, he must regain our trust and respect.”
Stop it, Mr. Khan.
You really don’t think Urban Meyer is sincere, do you?
He has never been sincere, which is why he has earned his nickname of “Urban Liar” over the years. When he was at Florida, reporters would joke that Meyer would “tell you whatever he needed to tell you to get him through the next five minutes.” The man has never changed.
Meyer’s players, according to someone I know within the Jaguars organization, are “laughing” at him and there are reports that he has lost the trust of the locker room.
Seriously, how would you feel if you were a Jaguars player after losing a game last Thursday night at Cincinnati only to learn that Meyer — your head coach and supposed leader — has decided not to fly home with the team? In college or professional football, it’s unheard of for a head coach not to travel home with the team unless there is some sort of medical or family emergency. Especially a first-year head coach like Meyer, who has taken over a franchise that has lost 19 straight games and preaches team building and creating chemistry, camaraderie and culture within the locker room.
Nothing says “team building” like your head coach abandoning his 0-4 football team and not flying home with his players after another tough defeat. Meyer instead decided to remain in Ohio to, um, as he explained, “stay and see the grandkids.” This will go down with his much-lampooned explanation for resigning at Florida so he could “spend more time with my family” only to take the Ohio State job a few months later.
Obviously, Meyer wasn’t with his grandkids the entire time he was in Ohio. Instead, he showed a complete lack of judgment and comprehension of who he is. How could perhaps the most famous man in the state of Ohio be out at a crowded bar touching a woman who is not his wife? Did he really think nobody would take a cell phone video?
I’ll admit, as much as I dislike Meyer as a person, I thought he was a home-run hire for Khan and the Jaguars. I thought he would come in with his famous “Plan to Win” and renowned organizational skills and strategically and methodically turn the pathetic Jaguars into a well-oiled championship machine. Upon further review, Meyer has been incompetent as an NFL coach and made bad decision after bad decision.
Meyer has preached limiting distractions, but he has been nothing but a walking, talking distraction ever since he became the Jaguars coach. It started when he first got the job and inexplicably hired former Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle, who was fired months before after allegedly making racist remarks and belittling and bullying players while at the university. Because of the outrage that ensued from players within the league and racial watchdog groups like the Fritz Pollard Alliance, Doyle quickly “resigned” one day later.
Meyer then decided it would be a good idea to sign 33-year-old Tim Tebow as tight end even though Tebow had never, ever played the position before. More distractions.
The NFL then hit Meyer and the Jags with a hefty combined fine of $300,000 for violating the league’s non-contact rules during OTAs. Even more distractions.
And now you have Meyer, a 57-year-old married father of three, inappropriately fondling another woman in a public place when he should have been back in Jacksonville with his team. The distractions are now dysfunction.
Cut your losses, Mr. Khan.
Dump the stock.
Fire Meyer.
