Upcoming Rolling Stone Expose: "Urban Meyer may have helped cover up" Hernandez crimes, drug use

Submitted by orobs on

• In college his coach (then-University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer) may have helped cover up failed drug tests, along with two violent incidents — an assault and a drive-by shootout outside a local bar.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/five-revelations-from-rolling-…

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/five-revelations-from-rolling-stones-aaron-hernandez-story-20130827#ixzz2dDhsIP28 
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uofmdds96

August 27th, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^

When we were taught how read research papers, anytime you read "may" just insert "may not". Because that is how solid the evidence is. Any other comments on this until facts are solid are junk.

xxxxNateDaGreat

August 28th, 2013 at 12:49 PM ^

Yes, but going relatively easy on troublemakers does not automatically equate to "helped cover up assault and attempted murder." Wouldn't you say that is kind of a big leap?

Yeah, Urban ran a pretty loose ship at Florida, but think about this for a second: Rolling Stone has just not so subtley accused Urban Meyer of covering up an attempted murder for a former player.

I know we don't like the guy and most of us think his persona is some degree of acting, but that is a serious accusation for anyone, and one that, frankly, deserves more than an "anonymous source" in a hot topic sports article from Rolling Stone of all people.

bronxblue

August 28th, 2013 at 1:36 PM ^

I don't disagree that the implication is a bit extreme, but I'm only now reading the full article so I reserve final judgment as to the appropriateness of this comment.

That said, I do agree that people are trying to paint Meyer as a monster when he's closer to your average big-time coach.  But he's rubbed people the wrong way a lot of stops, and his record of discipline at Florida was pretty terrible.  At the bare minimum, it sounds like Meyer looked the other way for multiple drug offenses by his players, and while I am off the belief that busting college kids for weed is dumb and unnecessary, the fact remains that certain players got away with a significant number of infractions with little to no punishment.  That falls on the head coach to address.  My guess is the shooting accusation is based on limited evidence (I'm sure a "he said, he said" situation), but the fact that there is pretty clear evidence that Hernandez was a violent man prone to deadly acts certainly provides some credence to the notion that he showed such tendencies while in college.

mGrowOld

August 27th, 2013 at 9:10 PM ^

Common guys.  Writing "Meyer may have helped cover up...." is no different than writing "Meyer may have secretly cured Cancer, ended world hunger and brokered peace in the Middle East."

As much as I would LOVE for this story to be true I'll wait till there's a bit more facts in play than just wild speculation about what may have or may not have happened.   Cause for all WE know Brady (through Mattison's connections to Meyer) may have been involved too.......

EDIT: Beaten to the punch by three minutes.

 

m1jjb00

August 27th, 2013 at 9:51 PM ^

Creating more buzz/discussion about Meyer's lax responsibility, whether true or not, will be painful for OSU.  I'm not creating the story, so I don't have any guilt reveling in their pain. Screw him.  Screw OSU.

It reminds me of the (apocraphyl?) story of LBJ in the White House still worrying about rinky-dink local races in Texas.  He advised to spread a rumor about the opponent that he was (having sex) with pigs.  "Sir, no one will believe such a story."  LBJ replied, "Of course, but think how bad he'll look denying it."

LSAClassOf2000

August 27th, 2013 at 9:09 PM ^

This could be fun, of course, and although he has not offered much on his current feelings towards having Aaron Hernandez on his team back in the day (obviously, not knowing it would culminate in this), there was this article - LINK. It is from late July, but when pressed, he offered what will have to pass for an official opinion:

“It felt awful. It's a sick feeling,” Meyer said. “Your thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victims.” He said he'll never stop thinking about having Hernandez in his program and the realities of that.

 

WolverineHistorian

August 27th, 2013 at 9:50 PM ^

May have.  Meh. 

It would be nice to see OSU finally not be in a situation where Gene Smith can bail them out of their corruption.  But I just don't see anything major happening from this.  

And even if half of these rumors were true, I could still picture those morons in Columbus building a statue in Urban's honor.   

StephenRKass

August 27th, 2013 at 9:51 PM ^

I'm a Michigan fan through and through. I'll never root for Ohio. And yet, I dislike it when fellow Michigan fans always assume the worst about the coaches or players of Ohio or MSU or other rivals. I'm glad that Hoke is here at Michigan, and that Michigan players generally fit The Pattern of high character. But this doesn't mean that other coaches and teams are necessarily of low character.

I guess you could say I'm hopelessly optimistic and naive, but I'd rather wait until something is proven before throwing ANYONE under the bus. We don't like it when others pile on the miscues of Toussaint, or Frank Clark, or Braylon Edwards. What's even worse is when allegations are made without substantiation. (Exhibit A:  allegations made against Gibbons and Lewan.) We're fond here of talking about the high quality of guys at Michigan. One characteristic of high quality men is that they don't endlessly disrespect others. Until Urban Meyer is substantively shown to have covered up Hernandez crimes, I think it is irresponsible and unhelpful to assume otherwise.

KBLOW

August 27th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^

Exactly.  

And the earlier comparison to boys/young men who screw up is a strawman.  He is a full fledged adult in a position of great responsibility who made a choice to seriously cash in on his constructed image as a hard working, tough-love, Christain, football coach. Now, even if he is 100% innocent, he gets to pay the piper for making that choice.  

mGrowOld

August 27th, 2013 at 9:57 PM ^

Well that's why I hoped the story was true while still thinking the accusation is more bullshit than fact.  This is not dissimilar to the emotions I experienced when confronted with the "Santa isnt real" rumor as a child.

EGD

August 27th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^

I agree with this.  Although I was kind of semi-seriously defending Rolling Stone above, I think it's kind of dubious for them to throw "six revelations" out there like this without the additional material that would supposedly back them up.  I guess this is their way of selling more magazines, but if I was an OSU supporter I'd be pretty bent out of shape about it.  If they have sources who say "Urban Meyer did X to help Aaron Hernandez get away with [some crime]," then it's a story.  If they don't, then it's just more speculation.

KBLOW

August 27th, 2013 at 10:51 PM ^

^This^ 

Meyer has set himself up for this by purposefuly marketing himself as holier-than-thou.  He'd still be a scum bucket if it's true, but it'll be a lot more fun watching the media storm rip into his hubris.

Seth

August 27th, 2013 at 11:00 PM ^

Ungh. I haven't read it but I remember whenever the Rolling Stone got on about something outside of its wheelhouse during the entirety of my roommate's subscription, I'd just kinda hold the bridge of my nose and shake the ol noggin. It's like when your 15-year-old cousin comes to your side in a political debate at a family function. Just vote with me; I don't want to know how the sausage of your thoughts are made.

UMgradMSUdad

August 28th, 2013 at 7:56 AM ^

None of the allegations agains Meyer are new, though, and if RS doesn't have more evidence than some of the previous stories, it's just more of the same.  

I do find it interesting that in the latest scrape with the law for his players at Ohio State he went to the police to tell them not to treat his players different than anyone else--don't know how many winks and nods there were, but to me he had no business instructing the police how to carry out their investigation at all, and it just seems bizarre that he would do something like that.

LB

August 28th, 2013 at 9:20 AM ^

it would be for more bs to sell papers. I should have stated that at the beginning.

Is his visit to the local constabulary so unique, though? I'm not interested enough to try to dig it up, but wasn't it reported that he did the same thing in Gainesville? I could swear that it was mentioned in some of the Hernandez reporting, or during the reporting of the Hyde incident. I'm not disputing your last statement, just suggesting that it is business as usual for Meyer.

 

OmarDontScare

August 27th, 2013 at 11:20 PM ^

Obviously, Meyer isn't responsible for Hernandez's actions. That said, the media has seemed to skirt by the "alleged" violent crimes Hernandez was involved with while at Florida. No one cares about the drug tests but what hasn't been brought to much light is the '07 unresolved shooting where Reggie Nelson's black Tahoe was identified and a muscular "Hawaiin" man who fired 5 shots nearly killing two men. Between Meyers co-ed induced retirement and his knack for coverups it's clear he's the perfect HC for Ohio. I hope he's there for awhile - last thing I need is to respect Ohios coach