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The fastest way for an NFL head coach to lose their team is to lose respect in their locker room.
And right now, it looks like Urban Meyer has about as much credibility in the Jaguars’ locker room as Oscar Mayer.
Meyer – the former Florida and Ohio State college coach who Jaguar owner Shad Khan fell in love with because of his garish resume and popularity in North Florida – is just one of them. ‘four games into his NFL coaching career and he’s already made a mess.
It is difficult to determine which of Meyer’s recent transgressions was the worst:
- Failing to join his players on the squad plane to return home after a tough Thursday night loss in Cincinnati a week and a half ago.
I think the fact that this coach, while being paid $ 12 million a year and with first draft pick Trevor Lawrence on his roster, is not on the team’s plane to return to Jacksonville is the most unforgivable act among these calamities.
If Meyer needed to part ways with the team to deal with the serious personal family affairs of such an illness, it is quite understandable.
That was a pretty shaky excuse for Meyer to say he was staying to hang out with his grandchildren, because you know when NFL coaches can hang out with their grandchildren? During the off-season.
Also of note: the woman who grinded her ass into Meyer’s crotch at her bar appeared to be a little too old to be one of her grandchildren.
It all leads to how Meyer is now seen in the Jacksonville locker room.
“He has no credibility at this stage,” a Jaguars player longtime NFL reporter Michael Silver told, adding: “He had very little to begin with.”
I’ve covered NFL locker rooms that have lost respect for the head coach, and it never ends well. It is practically impossible to regain this respect.
I covered the Giants when Ray Handley’s players stopped taking him seriously. Ditto for the Jets and Rich Kotite, a serial delegator who spent less time than some secretaries in the team building.
The sanctity of an NFL locker room is a complicated place, where a player’s respect for their leader can be a delicate and complicated matter. It’s hard to believe Meyer will ever restore player respect… if he even had it in the first place.
Do you know what Meyer focused on last week?
Tap dancing to get out of the embarrassment he caused himself, his family and the Jaguars to be caught in this ridiculous bar video, not developing rookie quarterback Lawrence, as his team prepare to face the Titans on Sunday.
Khan got exactly what he deserved with Meyer, who earned the nickname “Urban Liar” as a college coach for a number of questionable transgressions at that level.
Meyer’s mess reminded me of a speech he gave to his Jaguars players at training camp, words that sound quite hypocritical now.
“Don’t look for excuses,” he told his players. “It seems like this whole world is full of excuses right now. No excuses.”
Khan, in his public flogging of Meyer, called his trainer’s actions “inexcusable”.
By keeping Meyer as his coach after all this, isn’t Khan excusing him?
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