Meyer releases statement:
Nothing in his statement shows he is not a piece of shit
Urban Meyer auto translate:
Oh, shit, listen - really I’m a good guy. And honest guy, really! Except that one time. But really, I care about women! I have a wife and daughters and they need not fear me! Maybe that guy who beats women that I kept around for years, but not me! I look forward to joining my team once my university buries it’s morals so deep they’ll never find them again.
Wait, did he not originally say he didn't know about the 2015 incident? Yet in this statement he says he reported it to the correct authorities?
"Tell the truth. . .it's the easiest thing to remember." Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross
Who on earth did he report it to? In other words, SOMEONE ELSE covered it up?
Says he told their AD, Gene Smith. Gene Smith said he told the police.
Not good enough within Title IX. University is required to conduct its own investigation and upon findings take action. None of that was done. Courtney must have a great attorney because she is playing them like fools.
And the Powell police are refusing to release the report. Some grade a bullshit here
I think you can see their strategy and they have Zach Smith on board as well
Reported by Police (first) to Gene Smith (University)
Urban when he hears about it also brought it to Gene Smith
There was no domestic abuse so nothing was done
Police will confirm above - and that is that
OMG!!!!..WHAT a SNAKE in the grass...How many different ways can he explain without using the word LIE.......lol "mishandled " his response..OH PUH LEEZE you LIED about it, you KNEW you were LYING and you still LIED...ANYTHING to win Urban ANYTHING
This is not an official OSU release. It comes from his personal Twitter account. So take it for what it is - just more lies. He is toast. OSU needs to shut him down quickly as he is implying OSU institutionally was the failure not him. The Title IX suit from Courtney could dwarf his contract buyout. There is a chance OSU is looking to terminate him for cause and this is his Hail Mary to thwart that.
This is going to be delicious to watch as it unfolds. Maybe better that it stays in social media where folks are going to fry him for the lack of sensitivity to the victim’s rights. Urban is out to lunch he needs to visit #MeToo
Why do stupid people keep spouting Title IX nonsense? Title IX is not in play at all in this case, why is this so hard for you to understand? Urban is not getting fired and you're mad so you're spouting untrue bullshit
You make a great point, Magnus. The fact that Meyer released the statement on his own, rather than via the university, suggests he's basically going rogue. He's angling against them. This won't end well for anyone there.
This whole scenario is such a fascinating lenses into how people digest information.
The truth is that no one really knows the whole story. When the situation is this gray, every inference will be taken as favorable to your underlying position. For Buckeye fans, every gray area exonerates Meyer and for a Michigan fan, every inference damns him.
I think if Michigan fans were super honest they would concede that almost no information will make them think that Urban is not lying. Thats how our brain operates whatever the situation.
I know I am not objective and cannot be due to my deep and enduring love for Ohio State. But I am hopeful that other fans, especially those on either side who have either exonerated or condemned Coach Meyer recognize that their biases shape how they connect the dots.
We know he lied man - he just admitted it
Your reply is sort of my point. You know because it fits the narrative. Buckeye fans know his innocent because it fits the narrative. Im truly not trying to defend Meyer, apologies if that did not come across well.
The same thing would happen if this was Harbaugh and OSU fans - don't expect rival fans to not jump to the "he must be guilty" opinion. That said, Meyer has a bit of a shady history so it is a little easier to get to that point.
He unquestionably lied in July when asked about his knowledge of the 2015 incident. But that by itself doesn't necessitate his firing.
I appreciate you raising the issue that you did. I have not taken the time to learn every detail of the Smith situation. And FWIW, I am not convinced that Meyer firing Smith would have accomplished anything. Firing him certainly sounds satisfying, but whether it would have improved anyone's life is another question. Maybe it would have. I don't know.
I see this sentiment a lot, but firing him in 2009, not hiring him in 2012, or firing him in 2015 would have improved one person's life -- Urban Meyer's. He would not have had to deal with this shitstorm.
That he didn't do so indicates he either didn't see anything wrong, is too stupid to see how this would catch up to him, or thought he could keep it hidden forever. Any of those options are bad.
Sure, but avoiding scandal for Urban Meyer is very much a lesser concern here. I was imprecise in saying “anyone’s life.” The important lives in question here are Ms. Smith’s, the Smith children’s, and then those of the people who might be hurt or helped in a fairly abstract way by the message you send re: DV. What Meyer’s decision meant for himself is almost beside the point.
What gray area?
What part of this could possibly not lead to the conclusion that he's a brazen liar, and a protector of a wife-beater?
He absolutely knew he would be asked at the BIG presser about Smith. He adamantly, repeatedly, arrogantly denied any knowledge of the 2015 incident. Dude, he had a week to prepare his answer.
Now he claims that sure, I lied - wait, misspoke - at the presser, but he reported the 2015 incident. C'mon.
There's NO gray area that he lied, openly and repeatedly.
There's NO gray area that he continued to employ a guy he knew was a repeated wife-beater for years.
Again I ask - what gray area?
The gray area is the credibility of the accusations and the level of information that was relayed to Meyer. I am NOT claiming at all the accusations of DV should not be taken with the upmost seriousness, but an allegation does not make truth.
Unequivocally, if the level of abuse (or frankly any) that Courtney Smith claimed is true, and Urban knew, he should be gone. But, the fact is that we don't know the context of those text messages nor the surrounding events over that nine year period. I am not advocating for keeping Meyer, I am frankly disappointed at his lack of candor last week and he must explain why. I simply think that there is more information out there, and both sides - Buckeyes and Wolverines are jumping to conclusions too quickly.
We know he lied; he just admitted to it. We know he knew about the 2009 incidents; he admitted to it. We know he fired Zach Smith because of these things. The only thing that's gray is why he fired him when he did. If he knew in 2015, why didn't he just fire him then? Or in 2009? Why bring him to OSU when he knew what was happening? Is passing the buck on this to the higher powers really enough? I mean, he's Urban Meyer, the guy in charge. Why did he not think then that he needed to get rid of Zach Smith?
He did lie to the media, that is true and punishment should be doled out.
The sad truth of why he hired Smith is that he probably put his faith in Earle Bruce. Likely there were conflicting accounts and he chose the side of his mentor. I cannot explain why he brought Smith over - it sure wasn't for his excellent coaching.
As for passing the buck up, I think that is a really tough question. Playing devils advocate, if Meyer sends the info up, and both the University and the Powell police say that the incident was not how it was first relayed to him, what is he to do? Not claiming this happened this way, but that is what he is claiming and I look forward to additional information being reported on
That's a pretty generous spot. I just keep asking myself, why lie? Also, I know this from having kids, if lying comes that easily once, it comes easily all the time.
I have no earthly idea why he lied. Maybe it was ego, men in powerful positions sometimes think that they can control a narrative themselves, but it was pretty dumb.
I will agree there may be some gray area regarding the actual DV events that occurred. That said, IMO the evidence seems damning that there was repeated DV over many years.
Where there is no gray area is that Urbs lied through his teeth at the BIG presser OR is lying through his teeth now. There's no getting around that. He's a liar.
I read so many buckeye fans say "I watched that presser, there's no way he could have lied, he was too sincere". Bullshit.
Where there is also no gray area is that he hired this idiot at Florida, and re-hired his ass at OSU, and continued to employ him despite many, many allegations/instances/reports of DV.
No gray area. He's a liar, and he's a protector/enabler of a DV scumbag.
100% he lied at the presser and he probably lies a decent amount, as do most College Coaches - they are not exactly the most moral cast of characters. But, lying at the Big Ten presser is not purposefully enabling DV. The more important questions is what he did with the info when he received it at the time and whether any of his actions put Courtney in risk of additional harm.
You raise a fair point about continuing to employ someone who is in contact with multiple allegation. I firmly believe that he was blinded out of his respect of Earle Bruce. I have thankfully never been privy to DV issues, but I would suspect that usually people don't want to believe that someone that they have known for a long time could be capable of such heinous acts.
Buckeye2745
Thanks for being at the very least semi rational. Being rivals its a bit easier for Michigan fans to jump to one conclusion and OSU fans to jump to another. I have been of the opinion that if Smith beat his wife and Meyer knowingly kept him around, he should be fired. DV hits especially close to home for me personally because I witnessed it firsthand as a kid. I probably have been a little quick to judge, but I stand firm that if Smith did indeed beat his wife and Meyer kept him around, he should be fired immediately. Another note: I wouldn't dismiss lying to the media about DV so easily. Lying about an injury or who your #1 QB is is one thing, lying about if you knew one of your coaches was beating his wife is another. Smith was around 18-22 year old kids and other coaches/staffs wives/family/children for years after the first allegation. If Smith beat his wife after that 2009 incident and did indeed stalk/harass his ex-wife for the last couple years, Meyer has every responsibility to make sure that that kind of character is not associated with his program, no matter whose grandson he is!
His performance at the presser has no bearing on his enabling a perpetrator of DV. Continuing to employ him despite a TON of evidence and many, many incidents = enabling.
Buckeye2745, please know this isn't personal; I'm just furious that yet again a school in our conference is involved in an awful scandal - your school currently has two!
This has got to stop. Athletics, especially football, has to be put in some perspective. The B1G conference has always held itself up as being about like-minded academic institutions working together to further academics and athletics. PSU, MSU, OSU - it's pretty embarrassing to have three prominent schools involved in awful scandals. I know this isn't on the level of the PSU/MSU disasters, but combined with your wrestling team mess, it's not good.
I would much rather this never happened, and we (finally) kicked your butt when you're at full strength; the sad fact is that it's happened. You knew Meyer had big red flags when you hired him.
Now, I sincerely hope OSU does what MSU didn't have the ethical standards to do - fire Meyer, fire Smith, and hire some people who will start doing the right thing, every time. Your football team will be fine.
Regarding lying, there are three possibilities: 1) he lied, repeatedly, at the presser; 2) he's lying in his statement today; or 3) both.
I've no doubt his respect for Bruce contributed to his "blind spot" with Smith. Urban's also had a pretty long track record of trying to be the savior of wayward souls (charitably, or using that as rationale for tolerating some pretty bad apples/behavior).
His biggest problem IMO is that this particular issue is happening now, in our current environment, with mandatory reporting responsibility and far less tolerance for "choosing not to see" horrible behavior toward women - and on the heels of the wrestling team mess coming to light.
It's just not acceptable to have a "blind spot", or to fail to act responsibly. Smith should never have been hired at OSU, or at least should have been long gone.
Bad timing, Urbs.
Actually well stated. And thanks for your discussion. We, especially fans, bring a strong bias in analyzing these details. It seems clear that if this was reported to Gene, the university had a duty to conduct an investigation and interview witnesses. Although I might be wrong on that.
I'd be full of shit to say that I understand the legal intricacies of Title IX. But, on a moral/ethical level I would agree with you. It would be shameful for a university to continue to employ a Coach that they knew committed DV.
Since every swinging dick there is probably a buckeye fan they are going to keep that 2015 case open for as long as it takes so they can legally have cover to not share details. This is about all we have:
The investigation resulted in no charges against Smith, a former Ohio State University assistant football coach fired last month for a string of domestic-abuse allegations dating to 2009. However, the cover pages of the report taken Oct. 26, which were released, note injuries to Smith’s wife, and that a kitchen knife, broken iPhone and two small USB drives were taken as evidence from Courtney Smith’s home.
You are not totally wrong, but having just been over at 11 W and reading the comments . . . no information is going to make them think that Meyer is guilty of anything.
They only care about any technicality they can find to let him walk, and they think they have now found it.
Everyone lives in their own reality bubble of their own choosing these days.
Yeah, he's a saint to them. Almost literally. They view him on an even higher pedestal than we view Harbaugh.
And the best part? They made fun of us for defending Rodriguez for too much stretching.
They are crazy. There are still folks on 11 W saying Urban didn’t lie and he should sue McMurphy.
We have our own share of lunatics, but the “moral arrogance” that other fans ascribe to the UM fanbase (yeah, it’s a trait that we have) also leads to a lot of internal arguing and critical thinking.
I just hope as a general group that we put our academic and ethical reputations above “win at all cost” because OSU has clearly lost that perspective.
Courtney was abused. Domestic violence is a Title IX issue. Urban now admitted he knew it and did nothing to fire his coach that was beating a women? These are all known facts. Now admitted to by all parties. The photos are f-ing proof which the Meyers had back in 2015. So is a Buckeye Nation strategy to smear her? The world will fry your dirt-bag institution. Just wait.
They will gladly take the PR hit and keep Meyer. The entire sporting world has already known that OSU will whore themselves for anything just to win at football. They don't care.
Dude get a brain and learn how to read a little. This is not a Title IX issue whatsoever, why do you morons keep spouting this crap?
All of that sounds pretty reasonable to me.
I’m a little shaky with the fact that Urban waited to fire Zach until it got brought out in the media. It seems like he should have fired him back in 2015 when he first found out.
It’s a terrible look for Meyer, and though he might keep his job, he’ll never fully recover from it.
Urban Meyer may be a complete shit bag of a person, however, if he did report this to his superior as he was supposed to then I’m not sure I agree that he should be fired over it considering the police And the prosecutor did not believe that charges were warranted. Obviously, this is not a good look for the University especially in this day and age.
He may be a complete waste of human being for choosing and continuing to choose to employ a known abuser, but legally, per his contract I’m not sure if this alone Is sufficient to terminate him for Cause unless there was some specific language regarding this type of situation .
It will be interesting to see what the University will do.
He's not going anywhere. This is setting up to sweep it all under the rug...
Will forever refer to this a-hole as Urban Liar.
You didn't already?
So doesn't this mean if he reported it to OSU, OSU did nothing about it? Isn't he just throwing OSU under the bus? Lack of institutional control? If this goes through and OSU didn't do anything aren't they in the microscope now? I'm reading it as he's covering his ass for a huge paycheck.
Yes, but what exactly will happen? What are the consequences to the school? NCAA surely isn’t going to come close to this, Jim delaney even less, no criminal charges so it’s just a matter of time before news cycle moves on to being outraged over chicken and satellite camps talk. Oh and how creepy Harbaugh is for a sleepover. DV enablers be damned, they win games so it’s all good.
That is a very lawyery statement designed to mitigate his liability while utterly fucking him from a PR/ethics point of view.
This is as good of a statement as could be written. There's no way to square the circle of saying you reported the 2015 incident and then denied knowing about the incident at B10 media days.
So he went with the option of saying he lied to the media. No crime there. And he'll keep his job.