Urban Meyer’s legal battle with the Jacksonville Jaguars is over. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the team. Meyer loses, the Jaguars do not owe him the money he was after, and one of the longest-running disputes in modern NFL coaching history finally closes.
Meyer was fired by the Jaguars in December 2021 less than a year into his first NFL job. The firing followed a series of internal controversies and a video that surfaced of Meyer dancing at a bar with a woman who was not his wife while the team flew home without him. Jacksonville fired him for cause, which voided the remaining portion of his five-year contract.
Meyer filed a grievance that turned into a years-long arbitration process. He argued the team manufactured the for-cause grounds. The Jaguars argued Meyer’s conduct gave them every reason to terminate him without owing the remainder of his salary.
The arbitrator agreed with the team. The ruling was final. The dollar figure at stake was reported to be in the tens of millions. Meyer will not see any of it.
For the Jaguars, this is a clean ending to a chapter they have spent four years trying to close. Shad Khan brought Meyer in expecting a culture builder and got a disaster. The cleanup took the team years. The roster Meyer drafted for has now been rebuilt twice over. The current Jaguars front office under James Gladstone has nothing to do with the Meyer era except the bills.
For Meyer, the ruling is the latest in a series of public losses since he left college football. His Fox television contract did not get renewed. His commentary appearances dried up. His name does not come up in coaching searches anymore. The Big Noon Saturday speculation that was a fixture every coaching cycle has faded into nothing.
This was supposed to be the legacy capper. Three national championships at three different programs is a Hall of Fame resume by any measure. Florida, Ohio State, the BCS, the Playoff, the Sugar Bowls, the Heisman winners. Meyer was one of the most successful coaches of his generation in college football.
The Jaguars hire took the legacy and put a serious crack in it. The arbitration ruling cements it. Meyer’s coaching career, at any level, is functionally over. He is 61. He has been out of football for nearly five years. The path back is essentially closed.
The football side of the story will not stop being told. Meyer’s run at Florida produced two championships and Tim Tebow. The Ohio State years produced a championship and one of the best decades in college football. He won everywhere he went in college.
The NFL chapter is going to live alongside that, and now the legal chapter is going to live alongside the NFL chapter. The Jaguars won this round, and they have closed the book on the worst hire in franchise history.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
