On Urban Meyer

What's the standard?  What do we want our legacy to be?  What do we want others to say about us?  How will this conduct -- or absence of action -- look if it makes the newspapers?  How would we feel if Courtney Smith were our mother, sister, daughter, friend?  How do we deal with colleagues who have significant problems?  Is having a criminal record or doing something criminal but uncharged or unpleaded or unproven enough to lose one's job?  What is the standard?  Is it that there was no cause under a contract to terminate a highly paid professional without paying him $40 million?  Was it that key players said they would sit out the season and transfer if the head coach were fired?  Was the school worried about losing an edge in recruiting were the coach to be terminated?  What does "deliberately lied" mean?  Isn't lying bad enough without having to qualify it with an adjective?  What is the significance of the cognitive impairment as to the employee's memory?  Does it mean that he gets a pass on this situation?  Or wouldn't the university be worried that this impairment negatively effects the employee's ability to perform the required roles of his job?  What about accountability?  Who, precisely, is accountable for what?  What about the employee's conduct?  Can he talk with his players with a straight face about their accountability?  What about his contrition?  How can he expect more from his players when he looked like someone who was forced to read something he didn't believe in, as if he were a hostage in a far away land?  What if the employee hadn't had the record of success that this employee has had?  What if the sport were tennis, one that few pay attention to and one that generates no revenue?  Then what?


These questions swirl and swirl and will continue to swirl.  There is an idolatry about college football and the men who coach it in certain bastions around the country -- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, State College, Pennsylvania, Columbus, Ohio, among others.  What is the brand that the trustees of Ohio State are trying to build, enhance and protect?  What is the message that they are trying to send?  Did Urban Meyer do enough?  And even if he didn't do enough, should he be fired for not doing enough?  Is he the first boss who kept a favorite on his team, a favorite with significant character issues?  Did those character issues affect that coach's performance?  To what degree does what one does outside the workplace read onto the workplace?  Are we holding Urban Meyer to a standard that many cannot meet?  Does it make a difference that what happened is in a college setting?  Does it make a difference that parents put their children into the stewardship of Urban Meyer and his coaching staff -- an autocratic, unforgiving environment in the best of times? 


Shouldn't it matter that Zach Smith repeatedly committed character violations?  Should it matter that he had problems dating back as far as nine years and that Urban Meyer gave him chance after chance after chance?  Did Meyer do it out of blind loyalty to Smith's grandfather, former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce?  Or did Meyer keep him aboard because Smith was a good coach and wanted to keep an eye on him and hope to influence Smith to be a better person, to get help, and to supervise him?  Didn't Meyer realize that lives were at stake and that one bad character can tarnish the reputation of the entire football program?  In two different locations?


Most importantly, what about Courtney Smith and all victims of spousal abuse?  Doesn't she matter?  Aren't there bigger issues at stake -- such as the safety of the entire university community?  And isn't that much more important than the brand of the football team and who is coaching it?  And wasn't the safety of Courtney Smith and her children more important than anything else the trustees of Ohio State can think of? 


The questions are swirling.  And they will continue to swirl.  This is not the easiest of situations, but after last night it seems that everyone lost.  Ohio State lost, the Ohio State football program lost, Coach Meyer and his coaching staff lost.  And, sure, no one wins in a situation with facts as ugly as the ones presented.  But last night you had an administration suspend a coach for three non-league games, suspend the athletic director (who seemingly has less power than his key employee, Urban Meyer) for six weeks.  They avoid a contractual dispute with Meyer to the tune of $40 million, they avoid players transferring and recruits avoiding contact with Ohio State coaches and going to play for rivals.  They will continue to fill the stadium.  The idolators will continue to wrap their identifies around the Buckeyes, the Horseshoe, their idiosyncratic rationales why the head coach remains on the job and their unchallengeable belief in the institution that is Ohio State football. 


And then there is Coach Meyer.  He won, didn't he?  He keeps his job, gets to pass go and collect his $40 million dollars.  He gets to keep one of the top head coaching jobs in the country, gets a chance to build on his number of national championships.  He gets to continue to do what he loves.  But at what price?  Many will not look at him the same way again.  Many will believe that Ohio State checked all the boxes on its investigation but that the trustees premeditated that it would come out this way.  Many will believe that he relied on a peculiar excuse to get a pass in a very serious situation.  And many will have linger doubts every time Meyer talks whether his memory is accurately or what he is saying comes from his mouth deliberately or in some other way. 


Urban Meyer thinks he did nothing wrong.  He fought for what he believed in -- which is himself, his legacy, his longevity, his contract, the $40 million dollars.  He can continue to believe and think what he wants. 


But so can everyone else.


Ohio State did not conclude anything here.  It just started a raging debate over the absolute control head coaches and football programs have over some boards of trustees and college presidents and what is or is not appropriate conduct by a head football coach. 


And does it have to be about laws, charges, what is proven or not proven, convictions, plea bargains?


Or can it just be about culture?  A culture of being forthcoming, a culture of accountability, a culture of doing the right thing regardless of whether law enforcement is involved.


Urban Meyer and his supporters won last night.


The question now is -- what did they win and who did they beat?