There is a story I recall (I’m not sure it happened; memory’s
funny that way) that in 2006 Nick Saban repeatedly denied that he was going to
quit as head coach of the Miami Dolphins to take the head coaching job at
Alabama. Then, he did quit and took the
job at Alabama. When he was asked why he
lied, he said, “I didn’t lie; I said something that, in retrospect, turned out
to be inaccurate.”
Urban Meyer (and the panel that investigated the situation)
is exhibiting the same ability at semantics regarding his 3-game suspension at
Ohio State. He released
a statement concerning his suspension over his handling of an assistant
coach’s domestic abuse allegations, and in it he says that he didn’t lie at
media day. Indeed, the report says he
didn’t “deliberately lie” but that he did make false statements. Lie, false statement, potato, po-tah-to. The report states that Meyer said things at
the media day that were “plainly not accurate,” and Meyer cited this as proof
he didn’t “lie.” Meyer also claimed to
have ongoing memory issues, which I would think would be a liability for a head
football coach making millions of dollars for leading one f the highest-profile
programs in America.
I guess my biggest take away is this—why would anyone expect
Urban Meyer to care about a battered woman, any battered woman? He’s a college football coach, all he cares
about is winning football games. Oh, I
guess for a few weeks each year after the season ends he checks in and makes
sure that his wife and kids are still alive, but the rest of the year it’s
football. When he was coaching at
Bowling Green in 2001 I’m sure his first thought upon hearing about the World
Trade Center attack was, “I hope this won’t distract the team . . . .”
There is an old saying, “Never try and teach a pig to sing;
you’ll frustrate yourself and annoy the pig.”
Trying to teach Urban Meyer to tell the truth, care about other people,
and not hire people who beat their wives is trying to teach a pig to sing. The bottom line he’ll do whatever he has to
(within the parameters of what he perceives to be “the rules”) to win as many
football games as possible.
Monomania is often the key to success for some people. I knew Tiger Woods was done as a dominant force
in golf when I heard him say that before his little accident, if he had a
choice between hitting a bucket of balls or having dinner with his kids he’d hit
the balls, but now he’d stop and have dinner with his kids. Hitting those extra balls was one thing that
gave him an edge over those less devoted parents who went home to read to their
kids before tucking them in. You know,
the losers.
Urban Meyer wants to win; so does Nick Saban, Bill Belichick,
and for that matter Hue Jackson of the Browns (he’s just not as good as them). I am not saying Meyer should be absolved of
responsibility for not taking the situation of his assistant coach’s wife more
seriously; I am saying that people should not be shocked that he doesn’t and shouldn’t
expect him to behave differently. If Urban
Meyer ever made looking into domestic abuse allegations regarding his staff a
priority, Ohio State would fall out of the Top 25 on the NCAA rankings.
So stop being outraged about Urban Meyer’s three game suspension
and his lack of contrition over the events that occurred. Even if he was forced to go through some sort
of “sensitivity training” he’d come out the other end as the same man he was
went he went in, namely a highly successful football coach whose main priority
is to win games this year and recruit excellent players for next year. Nothing else will ever matter to him, not
global warming, not the plight of indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia, not the
prevalence of domestic abuse in America.
That pig will never belt out a chorus of American Pie no
matter how much you try to teach it.
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