"It's cancel culture!"
"It's out of context videos!"
"It's unsupported allegations!"
I've heard excuse after excuse about why Urban Meyer was fired from those that defend him, and frankly, they all fall flat. Urban Meyer has considered himself above the game for years - and frankly, got that way because he was treated that way by the same people trying to defend him today.
When Urban Meyer was hired by Jacksonville, I said on air it was going to be a disaster. Meyer works under the mentality that he can attack people to motivate them. We've heard from former players of his that's he willing to hold your mistakes or misgivings, or background, or anything else he wants, against you for his benefit. It's been his method of operation from Bowling Green to Jacksoville.
But, the reality of the NFL kicked him in the butt like, perhaps, a particular coach is alleged to have kicked his own kicker .. before getting fired from the team.
Urban Meyer was treated as a hero everywhere he's been, supported by the trophy cabinets he's filled with conference and national championships over the years. There's no doubt the guy knows how to win ... in college football.
But the NFL is a different animal. In college football, you hold the careers and playing time of players over their heads. In college football, intimidation works on players - or, used to, before the transfer portal, but that's another discussion for another time.
The NFL is filled with grown adult men, who have a greater grasp on what their value is. They have no interest in being bullied or belittled, and have much more power to make it stop it than college kids do. And, clearly, in this case, that power was used.
The stories of Urban calling his coaches "losers," and assaulting (let's call it what it is) his former kicker, and telling them all of it is ok because "I'm the head ball coach," is absolutely not going to fly in The League. Urban was a metaphorical god on campus. He could've kicked a puppy in Gainesville and they would've claimed the dog deserved it. He could've punched a kitten in Columbus, and they would've said the cat was stealing babies from Buckeye fans.
Urban thought that clout was going to carry over into the League, and a year after getting the job, he has now learned that it did not.
It wasn't just how he treated his team, but his off field behavior as well, that doomed the former Jags Head Coach.
After the video of Urban having a young woman dancing "close to his lap" (thank you, media members, for the most underwhelming description of an event I've ever read,) people got onto him for putting his wife and family into a weird situation.
I'm not here to judge anyone's relationship. I don't know what's ok and what's not in their relationship, or anyone else's. I know people who are fine with their partners sleeping with other people. It's not my business.
But what I do know is that when you're the coach of an NFL team, you stay with your team - especially after a loss. You talk with the guys on the way back about what went wrong. You start watching video. You start prepping the next week.
You don't claim that you stayed behind to spend time with your grandkids, and then let videos of you placing your hands on a much younger woman's body while she grinds in your lap start making their way around the internet.
(And before you tell me it was out of context, let me warn you: I'm going to ask you how. Get your creative writing hats on. Explain to me, in any way you want, how the context is any deeper than "Urb got caught being ... not a great NFL coach.")
There was the hiring of an openly racist assistant coach. There was the contract with a 33 year old player who hadn't been in the league in half a decade to play a position he'd never played before at the game's highest level. There was story after story after story of berating and insulting coaches (that he hired!) and players in front of their peers and colleagues.
This wasn't cancel culture, and those of you who HAVE good points about cancel culture should be mad at those who are claiming that it is. They're tying their bad arguments to your good ones and bringing the whole thing down.
You want to know what the biggest way to avoid looking like a jerk in the media and getting cancelled is?
Don't be a jerk. It's not that hard of a formula to figure out, I don't think.
You want to know what the best way to keep your job is? To do it, and do it well.
I think Urban Meyer has the football mind to have been a successful NFL Coach.
Unfortunately, he's proven to us that he doesn't have the temperament, the character, or the desire to do so. And he won't get a second chance at it.
This isn't cancel culture. This isn't "woke media."
This is a mean guy who thinks he's better than everybody else getting called out on it, while he also is, you know, bad at his job.
Urban Meyer is a victim. But only of himself, and nothing else.
