Urban Meyer has failed those who charged him with authority, and he’s blaming everybody else for it. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
The NFL is many things, both good and bad. One thing is it for certain is a great equalizer: It will spit you out of its enormous mouth if you don’t pack the gear to serve within it, and even if you do, it will spit you out the second you don’t.
Urban Meyer proved much more quickly than most that he never packed the gear.
None of Meyer’s preposterous tenure with the Jaguars should have come as a surprise. During his time at Florida and at Ohio State, reams of scandals were covered up and ignored and passed on because of the talent of the players Meyer recruited, and because, for whatever reason, there has been a constant interest in holding Meyer up as a paragon of integrity when he has absolutely never met that standard. It is a common agreement between college coaches and those who mysteriously adore them, and never more so than it was for Meyer and his hagiographers, no matter the evidence against.
Urban Meyer’s biggest mistakes as Jaguars’ head coach
Perhaps it’s a desperate need in some for a more “innocent” time when players had no rights, and coaches were seen as Great Fathers when they were actually Great Oppressors. When things were far less complicated. When important questions were not asked of those in authority.
But the best thing about more complicated times is that’s when the most important questions are asked. What true responsibilities do those in authority have to those they govern in any capacity? How can those governed fight back in the right ways? And how long does it have to take before those singularly ill-equipped to lead others are removed from those positions of authority?
Last week, Meyer found out exactly how complicated the NFL is when the Jaguars cashiered him just 13 games into his tenure. It’s entirely appropriate that his abbreviated time in the league matched exactly that of Bobby Petrino, who laid waste to the Falcons in less than one full season in 2007. Because Meyer proved to be just as out of touch, just as cowardly, just as bullying, just as soft when he wanted to be thought of as hard, and just as ill-suited to be a leader of men, as Petrino ever was.
On Friday, Meyer spoke with Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network about his dismissal.
It went exactly as you’d expect.
