This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
I’m one of the many people who thinks Urban Meyer, who was recently named the head coach of the Jaguars, will not be successful at the NFL level.
But I didn’t think he would lose his team in early February of his first year, which he most likely did on Thursday. Because let’s face it – that’s pretty hard to do. Even for someone who has such a controversial and gross past as Meyer.
What Meyer did on Thursday, however, was so stupid and awful that it should cost him his job before he even runs his team through a single warmup.
He’s done. D. O. N. E. Done.
Jags owner Shahid Khan should just step in, admit he got this wrong, and send Meyer out of town.
If you missed it, Meyer announced a number of hires to his coaching staff on Thursday. One of those names was Chris Doyle, who was the longtime strength and conditioning coach at Iowa until he was let go last June after a number of ugly allegations against him surfaced.
Why was he let go? Because a number of players, including a lot of Black players, accused him of using racist language while bullying them and treating Black players differently based on their race.
What did Meyer say about this? Welcome to the NFL, Chris Doyle!
What a joke.
As my pal Chris Korman pointed out, this hiring just showed how toothless the NFL’s anti-racism campaign is.
Meyer was instantly and rightly crushed for this hire by just about everyone on Twitter. I don’t know how he didn’t see any of this coming by making such a hire but he made the move and then tried to defend it with this empty statement:
“I vet everyone on our staff and, like I said, the relationship goes back close to 20 years and a lot of hard questions asked, a lot of vetting involved with all our staff. We did a very good job vetting that one.”
Oh, you’ve know him for over 20 years, Urban? And you asked a lot of hard questions? That all must have been so difficult for you!
I’m sure the players on the Jaguars, who are young, professional men working a job and not some college players who sadly don’t have much of a say in anything that happens around them, are not going to want to hear any of that. They are only going to want to hear one thing – that Meyer has decided to not bring on Doyle, which would be the right move but a move that is already way too late.
Meyer added this:
“I met with our staff and I’m going to be very transparent with all the players like I am with everything. I’ll listen closely and learn and also there’s going to have to be some trust in their head coach that we’re going to give them the very best of the best, and time will tell.
“The allegations that took place, I will say (to the players) I vetted him. I know the person for close to 20 years and I can assure them there will be nothing of any sort in the Jaguar facility.”
Yeah, good luck with that. Here’s a wild idea – maybe you should have spoken with some players before making this move. I’m sure they would have had a different take than you and your staff.
Meyer apparently didn’t get the input from his players and now things in Jacksonville are a mess and there’s only one person to blame for that – Urban Meyer.
What a joke.
Quick hits: UCLA gymnast’s awesome routine… NBA All-Star votes… The Weeknd sharing memes… And more.
– UCLA gymnast Margzetta Frazier put on an incredible floor routine that was inspired by Janet Jackson and went absolutely viral.
– Mike Sykes looks at the four most surprising things about the NBA’s All-Star voting so far.
– The Weeknd is just like us now – he’s sharing Super Bowl memes.
– Bucs TE Cameron Brate said his catch of the Lombardi Trophy on a boat the other day was the best catch of his life.
– Rafael Nadal had an awesome reaction to an Australian Open fan who gave him the finger.