Urban Meyer shocked the college football world when he announced Saturday evening that he was stepping down as the head coach at Florida. Meyer cited health reasons for his resignation and that got people worrying about his well-being. We know that Meyer was hospitalized after the SEC championship game, that he’s dealt with chest pains and a cyst in his brain, and that he’s endured incredible amounts of stress in his job. But what was the kicker that really made him reconsider his future and his current lifestyle? Meyer explained in his news conference on Sunday:
It’s something that started about four years ago. It’s chest pains — it became rather significant two years ago. Whether it was stress related I was very concerned. I know there was a great basketball coach that lost his life at Wake Forest. I started to become very alarmed with that.
Skip Prosser was the Wake Forest basketball coach who died because of a heart attack following a typical afternoon jog. Prosser was only 56-years-old, 11 years older than Meyer, but the sudden nature of the death no doubt had Meyer worried. I respect Urban’s decision to reorganize his priorities, but if his health is so bad that he needs to take time off, then why is he going all out to coach the Sugar Bowl? Shouldn’t he be taking his leave of absence immediately? It really makes me wonder how serious his issues are and how serious he is about managing them. Separately, I might not agree with the way Urban disciplines his players, but I never want to see anyone succumb to health problems. Hopefully he takes care of himself and then maybe we’ll see him coaching Tim Tebow in the near future.
