Urban Meyer addresses entire Jaguars team, apologizes again for viral bar incident
Urban Meyer met with the entire Jacksonville Jaguars team on Wednesday morning and issued a sincere apology, according to Ian Rappaport of NFL Network.
This is a new development since Meyer took the podium on Tuesday, explaining that he had previously met with various position groups and team leaders to apologize for the incident between the Jaguars head coach and a unnamed woman last Friday.
Clearly Meyer felt like he needed to issue yet another apology to his team. Here’s how Rappaport described Wednesday morning’s events:
“Urban Meyer addressed the entire team today in a speech a couple minutes ago to take responsibility for his actions at a Columbus bar involving a young woman who was not his wife,” Rappaport reported Wednesday morning on Good Morning Football. “
“This weekend, from what I understand, he was honest and pretty forthright,” Rappaport added. “He expressed remorse and asked for forgiveness from his team and basically took responsibility for what he did.
Rappaport said that Meyer had a distinct message for his team on Wednesday, focused on two core values.
“He told his team he believed in them, he loved them and he cares about two things, really, football and family. And he said he embarrassed them both, some pretty strong words from Urban Meyer.
It all comes in the wake of owner Shad Khan offering a rebuke of Meyer in a statement, saying that Meyer must earn the trust back of the team, of the owner, of the players. Perhaps Urban took a step toward that goal this morning.
Jaguars, Urban Meyer at a ‘crisis point’
Various reports have surfaced painting a bleak picture of the situation in Jacksonville which may have led to Meyer taking an extra step to win his team over again on Wednesday.
The Jaguars are already 0-4, but the incident with Meyer adds a whole additional layer of problems within the organization. Sports Illustrated’s Mike Silver painted a chaotic picture of what is happening in North Florida.
“The Urban Meyer situation in Jacksonville has reached a crisis point, especially in the locker room,” Silver tweeted in a five part thread. “One player told me, ‘He has zero credibility in that stadium. He had very little to begin with.’
“Players were particularly put off by the fact that Meyer canceled Monday’s team meeting, as he dealt with the uproar over the videos of him and a young woman getting cozy in that Ohio bar. ‘He even canceled the team meeting. He was too scared,’ a player said.”
Silver went on to say that players were skeptical of Meyer’s “apology” to the team.
“Instead Meyer ‘only apologized to position groups individually.’ He portrayed the woman in the videos as a random person who was ‘just there dancing.’ Suffice it to say, his audience was highly skeptical.”
After Meyer spoke to the team, Silver reports that one Jaguars player said that the entire team started laughing after his apology once he left the room.
“Said one player: ‘We looked at him like, WTF? Right when he left everyone started dying laughing. And he knew it,’ Silver tweeted. “Bottom line, said the player: ‘It’s bad. I don’t know how he’s gonna function.’”
Meyer and the Jaguars will look for their first win of the season vs. the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how the team plays given how this week has unfolded.