Upcoming Rolling Stone Expose: "Urban Meyer may have helped cover up" Hernandez crimes, drug use
• 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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August 27th, 2013 at 11:21 PM ^
August 27th, 2013 at 11:32 PM ^
August 27th, 2013 at 11:46 PM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 12:03 AM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 11:48 AM ^
That's Pro Football Talk, which has autonomy from NBC and regularly posts completely unsourced rumors. They were the ones a few years back who posted that Terry Bradshaw had died before checking to make sure, you know, that he had.
August 28th, 2013 at 7:50 AM ^
State College, and who knows where else. When football holds that much influence, something is sadly wrong.
August 27th, 2013 at 11:57 PM ^
I can see it now:
August 28th, 2013 at 1:36 AM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 12:08 AM ^
Meh, give me some concrete proof, and until then, this is a load of crap from Rolling Stones. Still, it wouldn't shock me if this were the case.
August 28th, 2013 at 12:09 AM ^
1. if this is true, it is in no way "good news." It would mean that a college coach covered up crimes, whose uncovering might have helped deter or render impossible specific crimes committed since then.
2. The wording "may have" could mean there are serious allegations that he did this, and the reason RS didn't word things more strongly is because, well, that's what journalists do when something is alleged but not established as fact.
3. Equally, it could mean that all they've got is insubstantial innuendo and the bullet point is there, cynically, to drum up hype for the upcoming story.
3. Right now we don't know which of these is true. I'm going to wait to read the story before deciding how compelling it is.
August 28th, 2013 at 12:53 AM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 2:46 AM ^
I always thought Meyer was a sleaze just like I think Brian Kelly is a petulant child. Tressel's misgivings were about OSU, as he coached there for a year. Meyer's lack of ethics are tied more to arrests and his affair during his tenure at UF - and now perhaps some cover ups / legal assistance given to athletes. In regards to OSU this is simply collateral damage you must deal with when you hire someone with a history of questionable ethics. Always be leary of those (Tressel/Meyer) that write self-edifying / promotional books about chararacter and leadership - especial while they are still coaching. The fact that he is at OSU makes it just a bit sweeter.
August 28th, 2013 at 2:35 AM ^
An expose here would be so right on so many levels.
August 28th, 2013 at 3:22 AM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 6:45 AM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 9:10 AM ^
For us, yeah, we'd like to hear the Urban part being the main part, but that doesn't seem to be the piece being written.
August 28th, 2013 at 7:14 AM ^
Should be a good read,but it seems like they're fishing for page views. Doubtful anything comes of this.
August 28th, 2013 at 7:53 AM ^
The issue hits newsstands Friday. I'll buy it on the way home from work along with a bag of popcorn.
August 28th, 2013 at 8:01 AM ^
Given what I know about OSU and its fans, I expect a PSU-like rally around the coach, with anybody offering even the mildest criticism of Meyer pilloried by the mass of fans.
August 28th, 2013 at 8:25 AM ^
Alot of people don't like Meyer, even the media. Probably because he is a douche#%!, plain and simple. I don't really care if this story is true or not, I just want to beat OSU on the field.
August 28th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
August 28th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^
It looks like the full story is up now:
http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-gangster-in-the-huddle
...and there doesn't seem to be any real, new info on Urban (unless I missed it with my quick skimming).
August 28th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^
The tease makes no sense in light of the full story. If anything they make him sound even more saintly. Literally:
Meyer had a rep for reforming players who’d had trouble elsewhere with the law. And he tried, God knows, to convert Hernandez; did everything short of an exorcism.
I don't...wut.
August 28th, 2013 at 9:40 AM ^
Unless there's more to it than what is mentioned in that article, it's a big dud and St. Urbz walks off scot-free
August 28th, 2013 at 10:25 AM ^
I'm just glad Urb is their problem, not our problem.
August 28th, 2013 at 10:33 AM ^
The full article is up - http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-gangster-in-the-huddle
August 28th, 2013 at 10:34 AM ^
The full article is up - http://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-gangster-in-the-huddle
August 28th, 2013 at 12:55 PM ^
Okay, I just read the entire article from start to finish, and there is really nothing new concerning Meyer. Evidently there are circumstantial reasons to believe Hernandez failed drug tests at UF and Meyer told the media Hernandez "wasn't ready to play." The article spins that as though this was some terrible thing on Meyer's part, but I don't have a problem with it.
Then there was an incident in which Hernandez assaulted a waiter at a Gainsville restaurant, and wound up not being charged. According to the article, the victim in the assault decided not to press charges after talking with Florida coaches. On that, I guess in retrospect maybe you can say that Meyer shouldn't have helped Hernandez out with that, but even then I don't see how Meyer is supposed to forsee that he's cultivating a serial killer.
In addition, the article makes pretty clear that Meyer did try to help Hernandez out by assigning people to guide him--or at least tried to have them keep Hernandez out of trouble. I guess you could say that's evidence of Meyer knowing the dude was a loose cannon, but I don't see how Hernandez would have become any less dangerous had Meyer booted him off the team.
Overall, I'd have to say that yesterday's Urban Meyer teaser is a pretty major fail on the part of Rolling Stone. It's too bad, because if was actually a pretty good article overall-it just wasn't what they represented it to be.
August 28th, 2013 at 2:21 PM ^
I largely agree, though I would argue that Meyer "trying to help" Hernandez seemed mostly focused on the public-side approach of good PR, not structurally addressing his issues. I don't think Meyer is the devil or anything silly like that, but it's not just Hernandez who had problems at Florida, and considering dozens of NFL teams passed over drafting Hernandez despite clear talent makes you figure there were/are issues that people won't talk about but clearly existed.
August 28th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^
expect a lot of destroyed head sets and "health issues" that conveniently and suddenly come out of no where.
August 28th, 2013 at 3:06 PM ^
Well, I also may have covered up Hernandez's crimes. Allegations and baseless assertions are just that. The article didn't read to me as a smoking gun of any sort, but it hits shelves on Friday folks so I'll reserve much judgment until then.