A married coach has reportedly only dug himself a deeper hole with his players after being caught on camera partying at a bar with women.
The Urban Meyer controversy keeps growing — so much so, apparently, that the Jacksonville Jaguars’ owner had to step in and say something.
After a video of first-year NFL coach Meyer partying with multiple women who were not his wife went viral over the weekend, Jacksonville owner Shad Khan released a statement admonishing his head coach.
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“I have addressed this matter with Urban,” the statement began. “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. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver.”
It’s unusual for a team owner to rebuke a head coach like that, but Khan clearly felt compelled to respond to the controversy.
Meyer, whose Jaguars have started the season 0-4, apologised for being a “distraction” during his weekend outing, which involved a woman dancing on his lap at an Ohio bar.
He said he had also apologised to the whole team, though according to the NFL Network’s Michael Silver, the team did not take the apology particularly well.
In a series of tweets, Silver reported the relationship between Meyer and his players was on shaky ground as a result of the incident, which took place after the coach didn’t return home on the same flight as the team.
“The Urban Meyer situation in Jacksonville has reached a crisis point, especially in the locker room,” Silver wrote. “One player told me, ‘He has zero credibility in that stadium. He had very little to begin with’.
“Players were particularly put off by the fact that Meyer cancelled Monday’s team meeting, as he dealt with the uproar over the videos of him and a young woman getting cozy in that Ohio bar. ‘He even cancelled the team meeting. He was too scared’, a player said.
“Instead Meyer ‘only apologised to position groups individually’. He portrayed the woman in the videos as a random person who was ‘just there dancing’. Suffice it to say, his audience was highly sceptical.
“Said one player: ‘We looked at him like, WTF? Right when he left everyone started dying laughing. And he knew it’.
“Bottom line, said the player: ‘It’s bad. I don’t know how he’s gonna function’.”
Addressing the media earlier this week, Meyer said the players had accepted his apology and were looking ahead to this week’s game against the Tennessee Titans.
“They were good. They were focused on Tennessee,” Meyer said. “I apologised again for being a distraction. A coach should not be a distraction.”
Meyer joined the Jaguars this year after a successful and controversial career in American college football, which saw him win three national championships in 2006, 2008 and 2014.
However he has struggled to make an impact so far in Jacksonville, with the team going 0-4 to start the season.
Former NFL star Pat McAfee said Meyer needs to be completely honest with his players because there’s no way he can hide the truth from them, given what photos and videos exist of his night out.
“This is the difference between college and pros. This is the men’s league. He’s staring men in the eyes as he walks into that team meeting,” McAfee said on his popular podcast
“The guys have seen the videos, OK, the guys know everything. In the NFL, guys know everything.
“It’s much harder to potentially lie to an NFL locker room than maybe a college locker room that’s maybe a little bit younger, and also their entire futures are controlled by the person that’s talking.”
With staff writers and Jenna Lemoncelli, Jeremy Layton of the New York Post
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