One reporter whose story contributed to Urban Meyer’s firing by the Jacksonville Jaguars detailed on Monday what the final day of Meyer’s tenure looked like.
We were aware that Meyer was part of game-planning for the Jaguars at the beginning of last week. He left the practice field some time on Wednesday afternoon, leaving his assistant coaches in the dark.
During that time, Meyer and the Jaguars apparently worked to prepare a response to the report they knew was coming.
The Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud published a story in which former Jags kicker Josh Lambo accused Meyer of kicking him in August.
The story contained enough allegations and negative information about the already-embattled Meyer that the Jags fired the coach later that evening.
Stroud was a guest on “The Rich Eisen Show” on Monday and talked about what went on prior to the story being published. Stroud described the Jags and Meyer as being in “crisis mode” as they prepared a response. Stroud even said he got a threatening letter from Meyer’s attorney, who was aware of the damaging accusation from Lambo.
“All I can say is when I did the story, they were in crisis mode in Jacksonville. I had a lot of conversations with them. They begged me to hold the story until 4 o’clock. I got a statement from their legal counsel first. I got a threatening letter from [Urban Meyer’s] attorney about publishing the story without certain information. We waited for their statement,” Stroud said.
Stroud said that Meyer’s side wanted to offer off-the-record sources to Stroud who would dispute the degree to which Meyer kicked Lambo.
“They reached out and they wanted to offer up a couple of players, but only off the record … to corroborate not that he didn’t kick [Josh Lambo], but the degree to which he kicked him,” Stroud said.
The details on Urban Meyer's final days as Jaguars head coach are FASCINATING — Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) told us what he was dealing with behind the scenes before his story with the Josh Lambo news dropped last week:#NFL pic.twitter.com/mg2efYWyjp
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) December 20, 2021
Stroud also expressed great skepticism over the Jaguars’ insistence that they had made the decision to fire Meyer on Sunday night.
It’s not unusual for an attorney to try and threaten a reporter as Stroud alleges. We have received similar legal threats, and they typically come from people trying to protect damaging information from being published about their clients.
Ultimately, no letter or threats prevented the story from being published, and Meyer lost his job. The only question is how much of his remaining contract he will be paid.
Photo: Matt Pendleton-USA TODAY Sports
