The Jacksonville Jaguars finally fired Urban Meyer on Wednesday night, ending a disappointing season in which the first-year head coach was accused of verbally and physically accosting players, demeaning assistant coaches, not being aware of what was happening on the field, and generally being disliked. Not to mention the time he skipped a team flight to hang out with a young woman at a bar, which caused a PR nightmare for the team.
At the center of most of the reports about Meyer was that the players on the roster simply didn’t like him or respect him. We heard those allegations play out lots of times and we even saw some of those issues come to light in recent days, including Marvin Jones confirming a verbal argument with Meyer and former kicker Josh Lambo saying that Meyer kicked him while he was warming up.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars went 2-11 on the season, rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence seemed to be regressing, and there was little hope that the team would improve under Meyer’s watch. And now he’s gone.
As for the players he leaves behind to clean up the mess, you wouldn’t imagine too many of them are sad to see him go. And that appears to be the case.
NFL Network reporter Mike Garafolo stopped by Good Morning Football this morning to discuss the firing and shared some reactions he heard about from current Jacksonville players.
From @gmfb: The #Jaguars’ players aren’t sad to see Urban Meyer go. A few of them this morning via text this to their agents: “✌️” pic.twitter.com/oGuRi26EN4
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) December 16, 2021
“I heard Shaun O’Hara say last hour, maybe that locker room is relieved. Shaun, I can tell you absolutely they are. I got an unsolicited text from an agent. I said I won’t use your name. I won’t say who the players are. But I think it’s important to relay this.
He said ‘our firm represents multiple players on the Jaguars. We texted them to let them know that he was fired overnight and we got the same reply back from all of them.”
Garafolo then holds his hand up with the peace symbol, to infer the peace sign emoji, meaning “peace out.”
“That. That was the reply. See ya later…that’s what that locker room is feeling right now.”
No surprise there, to be honest. Based on everything we’ve heard over the last few months, we’re only surprised the reaction wasn’t a little stronger.
