Urban Meyer is the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, after setting a 2-11 record. One former player, Josh Lambo, said that Meyer kicked him and called his name.
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Urban Meyer is the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, after setting a 2-11 record. One former player, Josh Lambo, said that Meyer kicked him and called his name.
Andy Lyons / Getty Images
Urban Meyer’s tumultuous time as an NFL coach is over, after the Jacksonville Jaguars fired him on Wednesday night, 13 games of the season. Meyer posted a 2-11 record – and he was fired after a former Jaguars player publicly accused the coach of kicking him and calling him vulgar names.
“I’m really disappointed to have come to the conclusion that an immediate change is imperative for everyone,” said Jaguars owner Shad Khan said in a news release about the firing of Meyer, who won three national championships as a college coach.
Khan fired Meyer shortly after Josh Lambo, a former Jaguars, released the latest in a string of stories depicting Meyer as disrespectful and abusing his players and staff.
Lambo, who missed some kicks in pre-season games, told Tampa Bay Times that Meyer abused him during an extended training session in August.
“I’m in a swinging position. Left foot forward, right foot back,” Lambo said. “Urban Meyer, while I was in that tense pose, came up to me and said, ‘Hey Dips**t, do your f**king kick!’ And kicked me in the leg.”
When Lambo told him to never do it again, he said, Meyer replied that he would do it any time he liked.
Lambo, 31, was cut by the Jaguars in October. He’s the most accurate kicker in franchise history, done 91.6% of the goals on the field he tried for Jacksonville. Among the many Jaguars fans, Lambo is currently the being hailed as a hero for speaking out – and for helping Meyer get fired.
Meyer has been on thin ice in Jacksonville at least since October, when Khan chastised him for his behavior during a road trip for a game in Ohio. After Thursday night’s loss to Cincinnati, Meyer stayed in the area rather than go home to his team – and viral video surfaced that weekend showed Meyer sitting on a bar stool, with a young woman dancing very close in his lap. The second video shows Meyer apparently touching the woman.
Meyer apologized for that off-field incident. But his coach was also fiercely criticized, after Report appeared recently Meyer said in a staff meeting that his assistant coaches are all losers. Another report describes a heated argument with widely-received Marvin Jones.
“As I stated in October, it was necessary to regain our trust and respect. Regrettably, that did not happen,” Khan said when announcing his departure from Meyer.
Meyer was unable to win the NFL despite the arrival of quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the 2021 draft’s No. 1 pick, who was heralded as savior of the franchise.
In a sign of how eager Jacksonville was to move on from the Meyer era, Khan’s statement began not with news of the coach being fired, but by naming his replacement. Darrell Bevell will be interim head coach for the remaining four games of the season.
