Urban Meyer is a snake.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you are aware that the Ohio State football head coach has come under fire recently for his handling of an assistant coach’s alleged domestic violence incidents. Meyer is on paid administrative leave pending a university investigation.
Let’s take you through the recent timeline. At the B1G Conference football media day in late July, Meyer was asked about domestic abuse allegations against his wide receivers coach Zach Smith. Smith was the target of a protection order on behalf of his ex-wife Courtney Smith, filed just prior to the media day. The Smiths separated and subsequently divorced in 2015.
Meyer denied knowledge of the allegations, a string of complaints which began with an alleged aggravated assault charge in 2009, when Zach was an intern under Meyer at the University of Florida, and continuing up to and past an alleged domestic assault by Zach upon Courtney in 2015.
Neither incident led to felony charges.
In today’s #metoo empowered environment, there was immediate uproar over Smith’s alleged assaults, and he was fired the next day. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of who knew what when and why was nothing done.
Texts have since come out that appear to indicate that all of the coaching staff wives were aware of the alleged domestic abuse and were in consistent contact with Courtney Smith. One text in particular between Courtney and Meyer’s wife Shelley Meyer in 2015 showed that she was aware and would “tell Urban.”
After denying knowledge, Meyer revealed in a statement that he was indeed aware of the incidents, and had informed his superiors.
It would appear that Meyer is counting on this revelation to absolve him of guilt. It may even allow him to escape the “fired for cause” morality clause which is present in most coaching contracts in college football now, as his only clear responsibility would appear to be informing his superiors. And this is aside from ramifications under the Title IX laws, which state that any form of sexual assault must be reported to authorities.
If that allows Urban to sleep at night, then he is more morally corrupt than I suspected.
Meyer, it would appear, has passed the buck. In throwing his superiors under the bus, perhaps he saves himself the bulk of his massive multiyear contract, which is valued at up to $39 million for the remainder of its term.
Do you believe that Meyer did what he should have? I do not.
Meyer found out about the assaults and subsequent stalking by Zach, either from his wife (the moment requiring reporting) or from prior to that (my personal belief). Anyone with a soul or at least whom has seen the pictures of abuse Courtney Smith has provided to the media would have immediately fired Zach Smith.
Smith was still employed under Meyer three years after he and his wife divorced, and only after the allegations were revealed to the public.
Cover up, anyone?
Here is what happened, as far as I can see. Meyer discovered the abuse. He is not only the head football coach at Ohio State University, one of the premier amateur football programs in the country, but is also himself renowned as one of the few elite coaches in the game. His name is mentioned along with the likes of Saban, Swinney, Harbaugh, and so forth.
He IS Ohio State football. What he says goes. If he wants to fire someone, that person is fired.
Zach Smith remained employed. So, despite knowledge of these disturbing incidents, Meyer kept Smith on staff—for years.
He not only made his athletic department and university look bad by making it appear he reported the incidents and they then did nothing, he himself clearly made the decision to keep Smith on. He didn’t draw a line in the sand. He didn’t make any announcements to the public. He decided football was more important than being a moral and good human being.
As a manager myself, I understand that there is a point at which allegations of any misdeeds need to be evaluated both for their veracity and their severity.
For instance, I have some employees whom I suspect use marijuana regularly. This isn’t even illegal in California anymore, but it is my company’s policy that employees must not abuse drugs, or certainly not in a way which affects their performance at work.
Does any one of them take a break, go to the car and light up a joint or a pipe? Likely. If I can’t tell from their job performance, nor can I detect it through observation, this is not a fight I am willing and able to take on. This is well short of the call for action on my part as a manager. So I understand to an extent the reasoning of some to question how far an employer must go to ensure their employees are not committing crimes outside of work.
Domestic abuse, however, is well beyond this line, and especially if presented with the proof provided by Courtney Smith. Meyer’s actions are inexcusable and disgusting. By all accounts, Zach Smith needs help. Serious help. He is a danger to society. The Ohio standard for protection orders is apparently excessive and difficult to reach. Nonetheless, Smith appears to have reached it, by the order of a state magistrate.
Meyer could have stopped this years ago. Instead, he waited until the media approached him to do anything about it.
This is not the man anyone should want coaching their young sons in football, or anything. Urban Meyer needs to go.