“You couldn’t get a job paying more than $15” Urban Meyer gets bashed by his former players for his ‘abusive’ coaching style
Follow Us
Urban Meyer
Urban Meyer came into the NFL with mixed opinions about how he would fare in the big leagues. When his short stint with the Jaguars came to an end, no one was surprised.
Meyer was the Jaguars head coach for 13 games and his team had a record of 2-11 by the time he was done with them. In his defense, there wasn’t too much quality on the roster but he surely didn’t help anything out. In fact, he did the exact opposite time and time again.
Earlier in the season, Urban Meyer was seen at a bar dancing with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Not exactly the best way to kick off his time in the NFL. After that, reports of Meyer kicking Josh Lambo surfaced and not long after that, he was done in Jacksonville.
As it is, that seems bad enough but a recent report by ‘The Athletic’ shows just how atrocious Urban Meyer was and how toxic the environment in Jacksonville truly was.
Urban Meyer called out by his former players
‘The Athletic’ revealed quite a lot about Urban Meyer and his time in the NFL. They reported that Meyer wasn’t aware of some big-name players across the league like Deebo Samuel, Jamal Adams and most notably, Aaron Donald. Reportedly, Meyer was quoted saying “Who’s this 99 guy on the Rams? I’m hearing he might be a problem for us.” It’s pretty ridiculous for a head coach to be unaware of the best defensive player in the league but it gets worse.
Receiver D.J. Chark was quoted saying “The way he was running the ship, it was impossible to succeed.” This quote was in reference to how Urban Meyer conducted himself with an example being a statement during the preseason “And do you know what would happen if I cut you guys? You couldn’t get a job paying more than $15 an hour.“
That statement left one of the veteran players in the locker room very upset and he told ‘The Athletic’ “I lost all respect for him after that.” Another staff member said “It was the most toxic environment I’ve ever been a part of. By far.”
Another example of his tyrannical approach was when he lost his cool with a player and was so harsh that he left him in tears. After doing so, Meyer slammed the door leaving the remaining people to console the player.
While none of these are ranked, one of the worst by far is what happened to receiver John Brown. He had recently been signed with the team and was spending some time with quarterback Trevor Lawerence after practice to correct a mistake. Upon seeing this, Urban Meyer insulted Brown based on where he’s from saying “Hey, Trevor, you’ve got to slow it down for him. These boys from the south, their transcripts ain’t right.”
Urban Meyer never took the fall for his actions
The one thing that could be seen as worse than someone always messing up is someone who never accepts that they’re messing up. Apparently, that’s exactly what Urban Meyer was. Receiver Marvin Jones was reportedly very upset when Meyer told the media that receivers had been running the wrong routes but Meyer denied this despite players having a video of him doing so.
Another example is when running back James Robinson fumbled on the opposing possession of a game resulting in Meyer wanting him to be benched for the remainder of the game. Since he is one of their best players and doing so left even Trevor Lawerence confused. Of course, when asked about it after the game, Meyer said “You’d have to ask Bernie (Running back coach), I don’t get too involved. I don’t micromanage that.”
Clearly, Urban Meyer did an atrocious job as the head coach of the Jaguars, and with this new report showing how toxic it was behind the scenes, it’s not hard to imagine why the players were relieved to have Doug Pederson as their new coach. With the toxicity gone, Jacksonville can now focus on becoming a real force in the AFC once again.
Stay Updated!
Roshan Anand
(278 Articles Published)