First-year Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer found himself embroiled in a controversy over the weekend, when a video surfaced of him getting danced on by a young woman at a restaurant in Ohio.
The clip created a media firestorm and forced the 57-year-old to apologize to his team and his family for his actions on Monday.
“I just apologized to the team and the staff for being a distraction. It was stupid. So, I explained to everybody what happened and owned it. It was stupid. I should not have had myself in that position,” Meyer reportedly said Monday morning.
Meyer’s apology might be genuine, but two ESPN analysts feel like the damage that’s been done is irreparable and called for the Jaguars to fire their first-year head coach just four games into the 2021 season.
On Monday’s episode of NFL Live, former NFL players Marcus Spears and Dan Orlovsky unloaded on Meyer and both explained why they believe he should be removed from his role in Jacksonville.
“Shad Khan, you need to find you a new head coach,” Spears said. “It’s time for Urban Meyer to be dismissed and relieved of his duties. This is not the first distraction. This is not a visceral reaction to what Urban Meyer did, even though there needs to be one to that as well. He brought in a strength coach that had a racist history. He brought in Tim Tebow to play tight end, which he never did in the NFL before. This is a pattern that we’ve seen go on since Urban Meyer took over in Jacksonville…
“I played football nine years in the NFL. Every head coach I ever had said ‘don’t be the guy to take focus off of what we’re doing as a football team as we try to win games.’ It was a message that resonated throughout every locker room I’ve been. Shad Khan, you on the clock bro. It’s time for you to find a new head coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars.”
Orlovsky followed Spears and took on the perspective of rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence to get his point across that Meyer should be removed from his position as head coach.
“Marcus you mentioned Trevor Lawrence, the young quarterback, I want to put myself in his shoes and talk to Urban Meyer as the coach: ‘It’s hard for you to lead me, when you can’t lead yourself. How can I sit here in the locker room and listen to you preach about culture when you do things like this. My success is completely dependent on your ability to lead our organization. If you can’t lead yourself to consistently make the proper decision, then how can I trust my career with you? … I agree I don’t want you as my head coach anymore’,” Orlovsky said from the perspective of Lawrence.
Marcus Spears and Dan Orlovsky call for Urban Meyer to be fired on ESPN Live over lap dance video pic.twitter.com/cbjTmGBSPS
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) October 4, 2021
Jaguars leadership has not indicated that they plan to fire Meyer in the immediate future, but time will tell if that changes in the coming days. Jacksonville is off to an 0-4 start and won’t want to continue having additional distractions for the rest of the year.
Meyer will now be under microscope this entire week as the Jaguars prepare to return to the field next weekend against the Tennessee Titans.
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