Indefensible
[Eric Upchurch]
Big mood today:
I thought Urban Meyer would skate away from the Zach Smith thing largely unscathed, and he has. But I'm still shocked this morning because OSU released a report that provides details of Smith's employment and Meyer's actions. First and foremost, Meyer's first action after the Brett McMurphy report that set this chain of events in motion was to delete all text messages older than a year off his phone. If your first reaction to a media report is to destroy evidence, that's a firing offense.
It goes on, pointlessly, detailing years of Smith's very very obvious issues and Meyer's continuing enablement of them before getting into OSU's response post-McMurphy and the lies Meyer told in an effort to make it all go away. It concludes with a burst of stunningly inane pretzel logic in the service of keeping Meyer in his job. Nicole Auberbach:
I now see why it took so long to go through *this* report and somehow figure out a way to justify a suspension, not a firing: https://t.co/ZNJMwcZCpn
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) August 23, 2018
The 12-hour meeting was about inserting the pretzel logic. Meanwhile, this was the guy who Meyer kept in his program for a decade:
(b) At 7:35 p.m., Shelley Meyer conveyed, in a text to Coach Meyer, that “I am worried about Zach’s response. He drinks a lot and I am just not sure how stable he will be. Afraid he will do something dangerous. It’s obvious he has anger/rage issues already.” Meyer did not respond to the message.
In response to this, a slap on the wrist and a warning that if Meyer covers for the actions of a serial abuser for another decade there might be Serious Consequences.
And I dunno, guys. What's even the point anymore? Michigan's main rivals are both proven loathsome institutions. They beat Michigan on the football field, so no one cares. Meyer will face no real consequences for his behavior. Mark Dantonio has faced no consequences for bringing Auston Robertson to campus. Both have enabled abuse, in full view of the public, and nobody cares because they win games. Michigan State tried not to care about Larry Nassar and even when forced to by public outrage still gave Lou Anna Simon a golden parachute; they continue to lie to this day.
No real consequences for anyone for anything except losing football games. No shame. Michigan will go down to Columbus in November and very probably lose again and all will be forgiven, except all is already forgiven. Except there was never anything to forgive in the first place.
We need to stop looking at the NCAA as an organization that is supposed to check these behaviors and start looking at it as the primary cause of them. Every big time school looks at their bylaws as a joke to get around. Every major recruit is getting paid under the table. There is a giant see-no-evil culture across the sport. To some extent this is fine because the evil that people aren't seeing is people exchanging labor for money, but once you have a sport-wide code of silence it can easily be extended to wife beaters. Or rapists. Or anything, really.
And then how are you supposed to care?
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:28 PM ^
You mean the ones where many people are still mad at Chris Webber 25+ years later?
August 23rd, 2018 at 2:05 PM ^
I can't agree with that one.
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
Not much of anybody was defending it. We had a federal criminal court case ongoing, with Chris Webber (by then long gone from Michigan) barely avoiding his own criminal indictment.
There was some reasoned discussion, largely around the fact that the Main Scumbag was Ed Martin, who was not a Michigan coach, or staffer, or alum. Martin was a "booster" under the NCAA's hyper technical rubric. Michigan got hammered largely because Martin's wrongdoing was imputed to Michigan via his technical "booster" status.
Martin deserved no defense, and the Martin-influenced players mostly deserved no defense.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:42 AM ^
Yup -- yesterday had the same feel for a lot of us. It was -- "wow, ok, so they aren't even going to try to act as though it isn't all about football anymore? alright. ok. cool."
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
Hey but amateurism, right guys?
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
This country is a shithole.
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:35 PM ^
Um, no.
yes, we have moral failings. Often major ones. But when I woke up this morning, drank clean water out of my tap, didn't have to worry about the government or resident warlord trying to kill or capture me or my family members, and had good food available, I thought things were okay.
August 23rd, 2018 at 2:07 PM ^
You don't have to worry about those things in most of the rest of the world either, outside of a small percentage of war torn countries. Should we look at why those countries are war torn?
Better not...
August 23rd, 2018 at 3:54 PM ^
True, but there are more common, lower-intensity struggles that plague even developed countries that we don’t have to deal with. There are no local warlords in Italy, but there are definitely still mafia provinces.
Or the Balkans. The countries are poor, and have to rely on foreign investment to prop up their economies. But nobody wants to invest, because when the opposition party wins an election, they do things like revoke permits for already existing buildings.
In huge swathes of the world, something as fundamental as property rights is not considered sacrosanct, but are changed, stripped, or modified for political reasons.
America has its problems, and they aren’t small. But it’s a country of laws, and we don’t realize how rare and important that is.
August 23rd, 2018 at 4:54 PM ^
All true, but not what I was really getting at. The example that I was replying to made it out like the rest of the world is a flaming shit hole, which it absolutely is not. We have laws, yes, it is important, yes. We have also contributed to a lot of the problems that exist in impoverished countries, in major ways, and continue to do so even today. That's the main point I was getting at, but this is not the place to get into the weeds on that topic.
August 24th, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^
I took your point and granted that what you said was all true. I’ve just recently spent some time in Eastern Europe, which I love, and was surprised to find how many problems their societies have that we never even have to consider.
Didnt mean to imply anything about your points, just sort of rambling about my own experiences out there.
Of course, we also have problems that they don’t.
August 23rd, 2018 at 3:03 PM ^
That is good that you don't live in Flint or have the wrong skin color and have to worry about being murdered by the police or abducted by the gestapo. Others are not so fortunate.
August 24th, 2018 at 12:24 PM ^
Boy the clean water out of the tap thing is pretty tone deaf huh.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:45 AM ^
The last sentence captures my state of mind too. My tolerance for people allowing those in power to behave badly in a realm that effects me whether I like it or not is exhausted daily. But I can choose to distance myself from college football, which is half a farce. And I am leaning unhappily in that direction.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
i know the circumstances are TOTALLY different but when tom brady destroyed his cell phone before NFL could get their hands on it for deflate gate, most people's opinions were 'good, NFL would have leaked private communications not relevant to the investigation to embarrass brady and or NE'
could that excuse ever be used for meyer?
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^
You've hit on something that's been needling me since the revelation that Urban Meyer deleted his text messages.
I'm not sure that Tom Brady's actions were all that distinguishable. The severity and nature of the underlying allegations were different, but Brady's destruction of his phones and texts is fundamentally identical to Meyer's deletion of his texts. I am not sure Brady's actions were more defensible than Meyer's. There was an ongoing investigation that Brady impeded.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:54 PM ^
True, but on the other hand we're talking about deflated footballs vs domestic abuse. Context is important
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:17 PM ^
yes i agree the circumstances of the investigations are very very different but the action of deleting or getting rid of text messages are the same.
if anything i would argue one was being investigated by the NFL (not really pro-brady pro-NE) and the other by a university which in my eyes would have (and had) done EVERYTHING to spin it for meyer.
August 23rd, 2018 at 10:06 PM ^
But Brady had legitimate reasons for not wanting to give access to his cell phone to someone he doesn’t trust. Think tabloids, his wife, and so on. He’s an international celebrity, unlike Meyer. You can’t make the same kind of assumptions about Brady’s reasons for refusing to provide access to his phone that you can make about Meyer’s decision to delete his texts.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
I've never anticipated upcoming GameDay signs more than right now.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:05 PM ^
I can’t be in South Bend but I would love to see something like:
Meyer/OSU - 1
Integrity - 0
of course you could replace integrity with: Justice, Ethics, Victim etc.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:08 PM ^
100% guarantee they'll stop any overtly Urban-related sign on the way in to the fan holding area. They have security people whose job it is to clear anything going in, and they're pretty heavy-handed with the censorship.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:30 PM ^
Urban Meyer deleted my other sign
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:49 AM ^
I hope this thing isn't going away. Karma has to take hold of OSU at some point and give them what they deserve. I think Urban Meyer won't coach another game at that school. If the season was starting this weekend, maybe he survives but we have another week for reporters to keep digging.
Urban looked deflated last night. His reputation is tarnished forever after all this. One thing I found interesting in the report was the mention of ZS taking high school coaches to a strip club in Miami. How is this not some sort of recruiting violation? Even if he used his own money, this just seems like some sleezy way to influence a recruits decision through his high school coach.
The tide has to turn. Things always balance out in life. Ohio has enjoyed enough success while turning a blind eye towards things they shouldn't have. I just find it hard to believe they will be able to use this as motivation for a successful season. This is the beginning of the end of their reign. Our guys just got even more fuel to whoop their asses this year. Go blue!
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:27 PM ^
Karma isn't real. Evil wins. That's the lesson of this millennium
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:43 PM ^
on a related note, the report indicated findings outside the initial scope of the investigation, thus went unreported. i would love to know what those were.
August 23rd, 2018 at 6:23 PM ^
Yeah, they definitely shoved a microscope up that programs ass. I'm honestly shocked that they didn't find anything even worse. Apparently they don't pay recruits after all (bagman theories and all as some here assert) because it would have surely came out in this whole shit show
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^
The Big Ten I grew up watching is dead and gone, and it's painful to see what's taken its place. Woody Hayes (before he got old and lost his grip on things) was no saint, but I have to believe even he would be absolutely disgusted and appalled at what OSU is doing right now.
After this year, it might be time to consider letting the season tickets go and finding another way to spend Saturday afternoons in the fall. I'm starting to realize that I won't be able to raise my kids with Michigan and Big Ten football the way my Dad did, and it doesn't have anything to do with the wins and losses. The old sport I grew up watching just isn't there anymore, unless you look to the Ivy League or Service Academies.
I realize none of this is Michigan's fault, but for some reason after yesterday all of my excitement for the season opener in South Bend just evaporated. What is even happening anymore?
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:16 PM ^
Totally agree. Every year coaches do more sleazy, dirty and inhumane things to gain edge or recruits. The intrigue takes a back seat when its always Alabama winning...cuz you know recruits getting payed, or at worse, football teams doing worse things than just monetary compensation to keep things rolling.
Sad.
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:19 PM ^
Woody Hayes (before he got old and lost his grip on things) was no saint, but I have to believe even he would be absolutely disgusted and appalled at what OSU is doing right now.
I don't know. Domestic abuse didn't get a lot of attention in his day. I could picture him complaining that this was all a witch hunt.
Meyer actually seems very much from the old school when it comes to discipline, preferring to keep things "in house" and sweep ugly behavior under the rug.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:52 AM ^
This is so brilliantly written, and captures exactly how I'm feeling. I'm starting to feel guilty about even watching this stuff anymore. So many top programs are dirty to the point of criminality and yet nobody will do a damn thing because the money train is unstoppable. The thing that really sickens me is that our once proud conference is now proving to be one of the dirtiest.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
I hate the NCAA...it is worthless..but can't they step in here and force a firing. I usually wouldn't advocate for such things..but the balls that Urban Meyer must have to step up to a podium and give an apology that never mentions the actual person that got hurt in this situation. It is insane. How OSU or OSU nation can live with themselves this morning is beyond me. If this was Jim Harbaugh, I would be at the U of M this morning protesting for his firing. With everything in that report, maybe the Ohio Highway Patrol can step in an fix this miscarriage of justice?
I know if is wishful thinking...but my lord...how can we live in a world where Urban Meyer still has a job this morning.
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:55 AM ^
Speaking of MSU, did the whole ESPN expose thing on Dantonio and Izzo just fizzle?
It was this big thing regarding the "pattern of denial, inaction, information suppression;" Austin Robertson, Travis Walton, et. al. ...did that just all dry up and blow away?
August 23rd, 2018 at 11:58 AM ^
While the legal proceedings are over, I think the effect of this ruling is only beginning.
First, recruiting is going to suffer. The negative recruiting will reach a likely all time high. I believe the days of a top 3 class are essentially over. Yes he will still get his share of 5 stars, but not as many as before. This will take a toll eventually. Conversely the wall around Ohio will get higher as Urban will need to fill his classes with fewer elite kids and get some higher ranked Ohio kids who may have slipped through the cracks. A ripple of this will hurt sparty for sure as the buckeyes will take some of their recruits.
Second is the reaction from rival fan bases. When OSU has a gameday on the road, the signs will be absolutely epic. The public shaming will continue as long as he is a coach, and it could effect his "heart" again over time. When the buckeyes have away games in the B1G, I have to believe he will be roasted time and again. This will wear on him, and it should.
Third, is Michigan could easily win this year. They have been painfully close the last two years and probably should have won both. Lets watch their fan base react when their savior isn't beating UM on the regular.
At the end of the day, the OSU community has to live with this forever. Most are delusional for sure, but the shaming has just begun. Personally I think Michigan is going to beat the bucks this year and I see Harbaugh turning the tide. Karma is a bitch and Urban Liar is about to feel the wrath tenfold compared to what happened in Gainesville.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:09 PM ^
Just stop it. There is absolutely no way this has any long-term effect on recruiting. At worst, they might lose a recruit or to the cycle. Even that as a stretch. They will look at the program and noticed that they win a lot and they put a lot of guys in the NFL. That is all they care about. You and everyone else that thinks this is going to affect the recruiting or delusional. It is simply not going to happen.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^
First, recruiting is going to suffer.
No. No, it's not.
The kind of recruit who would go to OSU in the first place is the kind of recruit who would buy into the narrative that Urban Meyer was selling last night -- that he did nothing wrong personally, and that this is all a witch hunt from the media, spurred by jealous rivals.
The only thing that will hurt recruiting is losing.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
"You owe it to every man, woman, and child in the state of Michigan to beat the buckeyes and silence their fans. Now go out there and make it happen"
Urban sold his soul long ago and the only way to purge him from leading young men to evil is to beat him every year.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
Anyone else seeing Meyer step down maybe after the season due to "health issues" again in order to save face, what little that may be!
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
I could. When the going got tough at Florida ...
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^
We will win in November. A blue wave ? is coming 〽️.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:01 PM ^
I don't understand the last sentence.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^
"I'm sorry we're all in this situation."
Let's forget about a football for a moment. Let's talk about things that matter more: domestic abuse, integrity, humanity. Let's ignore the "did not deliberately lie" rhetoric and other distractions. There are two unassailable truths here:
- Zach Smith perpetuated an abusive relationship with his wife. He did so physically. Did he hit her? Who knows. But he certainly physically assaulted her. And maybe she made that choice difficult for him--maybe she was a "crazy bitch" and got in his face and said nasty things. Maybe she even hit him. But isn't it time we gave the physically dominant sex the responsibility to take themselves out of those situations, rather than reacting in violence? We chastise and minimize women for putting themselves in bad situations as it relates to sexual assault and even rape, so shouldn't we also criticize men for putting themselves in a position to be abusive? It's 100% clear that Urban Meyer, despite the farce that was on display yesterday, was aware of the toxic nature of Zach's relationship with his wife, and instead of firing Zach, he waited for the bomb to go off. Until society is ready to say--even and especially to people of power--that we will not tolerate men physically abusing their wives (or any women), even if the women are being unreasonable, this stuff will be perpetuated. Yesterday was a giant defeat for the anti-domestic violence movement.
- This whole discussion about whether or not Meyer intentionally lied is just a distraction. Here's the reality: when asked about a case of domestic violence, Meyer's first reaction was to try to protect the reputation of the alleged abuser. THAT is problem here. Meyer's inclination is nepotism, rather than care for the victim. That is the culture OSU just decided to keep on campus, and that is the culture that sports has tolerated for too long. Who cares if he lied on purpose or not? Meyer's full-throated objection to the story about domestic abuse--on completely semantic grounds--was his first reaction, as opposed to considering the victim.
It's a credit to many 11W posters that they believe Meyer should have been fired. But it's a disservice to the progress of humanity that Meyer is still the the coach of the Buckeyes.
The evidence--even the evidence gathered by OSU itself--makes the claim that Meyer didn't know completely implausible. And, if what Urban says is true (it's not), Shelley Meyer is just as guilty of enabling an abuser.
It's time to move beyond semantics and legal speak and make a clear declaration: Urban Meyer cares more about nepotism than he cares about respect for women. Time to put that at the top of the wall.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^
Well, PSU showed that football fans emphatically supported child rape as long as football wins came with it, so everything after that was kind of a foregone conclusion.
The richest irony is when we'll get the guilt by association taunts that, "You're no better; you'd be all for Urban Meyer if he was your coach." B1G fans are pro-child rape, pro-domestic abuse, pro-molestation but they want their buy-'em-from-the-devil wins and smug moral superiority. The weird dances that go on in people's heads, replacing empathy with denial bit by bit until there's nothing left but unhinged delusion.
Meanwhile Harbaugh pays the price for actually walking the walk. So many of our QBs got killed in part because one of our LTs was kicked out of the program and another was taken out by a cheap shot.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:11 PM ^
Not a cheap shot.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:45 PM ^
It was a legal but dangerous hit.
Should not be legal though.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^
. . . the weird dances that go on in people's heads, replacing empathy with denial bit by bit until there's nothing left but unhinged delusion.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
Dangit we have football in less than 10 days and this is all I'm thinking about. I hate this. Why can't anyone seem to do a noble thing?
August 23rd, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^
I think a lot of it is the proliferation of moral relativism and using denial as a coping mechanism. It's so common it's basically a normal, socially acceptable way of dealing with issues. Self-awareness, humility, atonement, and redemption are all inconsequential to immediate emotional health. "It's not that I'm bad, I just made a mistake! We all do bad things now and then. There's no point dwelling on the past; I need to love myself and live today like it's my last!" This was essentially Meyer's take on the whole affair.
Problem is, you don't become a better person by convincing yourself you're already as good as it gets.
August 23rd, 2018 at 12:07 PM ^
Brian, your post is so spot on. I have learned that as a Michigan fan, I have to look past the sport of football for being a "super fan". Ohio state will probably beat us again. But you know what, I am proud of us.
I have learned that it is not just about football. I love everythnig about the great state of Michigan. My family and I camp in the U.P. every Fourth of July. We explore Michigan to the fullest!
I am a Michigander danmit! I hate Ohio, I hate their university and their stupid obsession with us. I want my son to go to the best University in the world, and that is in Ann Arbor.
Thanks Brian.
#hail
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