Brady Quinn defends Urban Meyer, blames NFL media
Two wins, 11 losses and a slew of controversy later, Urban Meyer was fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars in a move announced Thursday, after which Brady Quinn strung together a narrative that the media set Meyer up to fail in the NFL.
This offseason, Jaguars owner Shad Khan plucked Meyer out of pseudo-retirement to lead Jacksonville’s rebuilding effort, giving Meyer his first NFL head coaching job. Had it been anything like his collegiate career — Meyer went 187-32 in 17 years as a college coach at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State, winning three national championships and putting together one of the most successful modern-day coaching resumes — the Jaguars would have been well on their way to success. But instead, what ensued was Meyer’s abysmal 2-11 campaign, highlighted by a controversial hire, an unfortunate social media video and alleged mistreatment of players, among other questionable off-field storylines.
Despite all that’s transpired, Quinn was quick to defend Meyer. Quinn believes that Meyer is not to blame for the poor performance; instead, he thinks that media never gave Meyer a fair chance.
“There’s also been people who have been angling or trying to take shots and basically put out this story that it’s not going to work since day one, since Urban Meyer got there,” Quinn said. “That’s my issue with all of this. The media never gave Urban Meyer a chance.”
Meyer’s tenure in the NFL ranks has almost certainly come to a close after the Jaguars poor finish, which Quinn believes was destined to happen. As for what’s next, however, Meyer said that his future is still “to be determined.”
“From the get go, it starts with the fact that a lot of the media members who have no relationship with Urban Meyer, or any other college coach for that matter, hate the fact that they would have to one, develop a relationship with someone new again, and two, I feel like there’s this sentiment that college and NFL is like the minor leagues and big leagues. So when you have a coach that comes up like a Kliff Kingsbury, who’s done so much and been so successful and got better every single year, the media at the NFL level hates to admit it. They don’t like to admit the fact that it can be done,” Quinn continued. “There’s almost this sense of, ‘Well, we’re the big leagues and you can’t come up here and be successful, you can’t make your way work out up here.’ That’s not how this whole thing works.”
Meyer issued a public apology to Jacksonville Jaguars fans following his rough season, commending the city, fanbase, ownership and franchise — while adding that he’s “heartbroken” things went so poorly. Quinn seems to think that Meyer shouldn’t feel that way, given this narrative that the media orchestrated his failure.
“At every single chance, instead of hearing them out or seeing how it looks, (the media) is trying to push (Meyer) out before he’s been given a chance. I feel like the media has had it out for him in the first place,” Quinn said. “That’s how the media is now. They use the power of the pen basically like a vendetta because their personal feelings are hurt, instead of being professional about it.
“What I hate about this is two things: the media never gave (Meyer) a chance, and then now, you’ve got coaches who maybe are feeling pressure, but they’re trying to go for a life vest right now. They’re trying to jump off this ship and they’re trying to save themselves, and that’s how this stuff gets leaked out like that,” Quinn said.