We conclude our pre-Christmas Naughty List review and today we have one person who is on the Very Naughty List. That person is now former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer. The missteps, inanity and downright irresponsible actions taken by Meyer during his abortive less than one season with the Jags is not only one for the annals in National Football League (NFL) history but provides multiple lessons learned for the compliance professional.
Meyer was a very successful college coach winning national titles at two schools, Florida and Ohio State. But he was clearly out of his depth in the NFL, which of course is professional football and not college football. But the red flags were all there for any who cared enough to look. Clearly, they were ignored by the Jags owner, now to his shame and humiliation. It began almost immediately after Meyer’s hiring when he tried to retain a strength and conditioning coach who had been fired at Iowa for allegations of racial abuse.
Michael DiRocco reported, “In February, Meyer hired former Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle, who was accused of making racist remarks and belittling and bullying players while with the Hawkeyes. Doyle resigned a day later after the Jaguars were criticized for the hire by the Fritz Pollard Alliance.” Before the resignation, Meyer had claimed he had done his due diligence on Doyle with Meyer adding, he “did not consider the implications of hiring him.” Later in the summer, the NFL “fined the Jaguars $200,000 and Meyer $100,000 for excessive contact during a June 1 organized team activity. The team also must forfeit two OTAs during the first week of the 2022 offseason, meaning they will have only eight.”
Please note the season had not even started yet.
The Jags got off to an ignominious start losing to the pathetic Houston Texas and began the season 0-4. It was at this point, missteps turned into inanity. After losing to the Cincinnati Bengals to reach 0-4, Meyer did not travel back to Jacksonville with the team but went to Columbus OH to unwind, relax with friends and to visit with his grandchildren. Almost immediately, “a video began circulating on social media on Oct. 1 that showed a woman who was not Meyer’s wife dancing close to his lap at his Columbus restaurant. Meyer apologized in positional group meetings early in the week, then at a news conference and again in a team meeting later in the week. Khan also issued a public rebuke.”
As the losing wore on, Meyer’s true personality came out. Andrew Gastelum, reported that in November Meyer “was involved in multiple disputes with players and coaches over the last two weeks, including a heated argument with receiver Marvin Jones and that Jones was reportedly so angry with Meyer’s criticism of Jaguars receivers that he left the team facility. According to Pelissero, staff convinced the receiver to return only for him to get into a heated argument with Meyer at practice.” Moreover, “Meyer reportedly challenged assistants to defend their résumés individually during a staff meeting where he told his coaching staff that he was a winner and that they were losers.” Of added significance to this reporting was, according to Tom Pelissero, that the sources for this story came from the NFL office, not simply Jag players. Predictably, in an incredibly inane move, as reported by Jordan Dajani, Meyer denied both events ever happened.
Yet even Meyer was capable of achieving another low, moving to complete irresponsibility.
Enraged and wrongfully believing that the source of this latest escapade came from inside the Jags, he announced anyone that blew the whistle on him would be unceremoniously shown the door, as in immediately. Then last week, Ryan Glasspiegel, reported that former Jags kicker Josh Lambo accused of Meyer of kicking him at practice in August. Lambo said, “It certainly wasn’t as hard as he could’ve done it, but it certainly wasn’t a love tap. “Truthfully, I’d register it as a five (out of 10). Which in the workplace, I don’t care if it’s football or not, the boss can’t strike an employee. And for a second, I couldn’t believe it actually happened. Pardon my vulgarity, I said, ‘Don’t you ever f–king kick me again!’ And his response was, ‘I’m the head ball coach, I’ll kick you whenever the f–k I want.’”
Unsurprisingly Meyer denied this also ever happened. Yet this is where complete irresponsibility turns to the surreal. While Meyer was denying the event ever took place, he had his lawyers threatening the reporter who broke the story. But here is the surrealness, as the lawyers did not dispute that Meyer kicked Lambo, only how hard. So, Meyer’s lawyers admit there was an assault, it just was not serious.
Finally, even the Jags owner had enough and when the assault allegations broke, he fired Meyer that night. The owner, Shad Khan claimed that he had intended to fire Meyer after the latest loss on Sunday, but it took him several days to get his ducks in a row. Of course, while the owner was doing so, Meyer was still coaching the Jags. Me thinks something is rotten with that story.
What are the lessons for the compliance professional in all of this?
Let’s start with due diligence. Meyer was penalized in Columbus for his less-than-ethical behavior around an assistant coach accused of assaulting his wife. He somehow managed to lose or deleted multiple text message on the topic. He was suspended for three games by Ohio State for his conduct. All of this was in the public record and there for all to see. Think executive due diligence is not important? Think again (and while you are thinking about it call Candace Tal.)
Internal Controls. Yes, there are internal controls in football. One such control deals with player safety based upon amount of physical contact which can occur during offseason training camp (OTA). Meyer and the Jags were fined for having players engage in contact drills. In typical Meyer fashion, he had the Jags deny the team had done anything wrong as it was the players who simply could not contain themselves.
Discipline. Pro football has a Neanderthal governance structure (with the noted exception of the Green Bay Packers, who exist in a parallel socialist world). There is no public company, no Board overseeing the company. There is an owner and every significant employee reports directly to the owner. Clearly the owner, who did not do due diligence on Meyer’s character, was not going to discipline him. Although he belatedly claimed he was going to do so after the most recent loss, that seems like “Monday Morning Quaterbacking” to me. Do you really think that if any other Jag employee engaged in any of this behavior they would not have been sacked? Discipline must be delivered uniformly and fairly. That is called Institutional Fairness and is the responsibility of the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO). It is also a requirement of a compliance program. As was noted in the original FCPA Resource Guide, compliance has to apply from the “Board room to the shop floor.” Even in the recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement action involving JPMorgan, the SEC required “an evaluation of who violated policies and why, what penalties were imposed, and whether penalties were handed out consistently across business lines and seniority levels.”
Perhaps now you might understand why Urban Meyer is on the Very Naughty List. But you can use the lessons learned to help keep your organization off the Naughty List in 2022 and beyond.
