Urban Meyer Under Fire For Hiring ‘Alleged’ Racist Chris Doyle

Urban Meyer  is already making controversial moves in Jacksonville. The new head coach has hired Chris Doyle, who was fired at Iowa for making racist comments and bullying players. According to Lorenzo Reyes of USA Today, multiple Black former Iowa players alleged that Doyle said he would “send them back to the ghetto” if they didn’t perform up to his expectations, and that he was  very annoyed by the way players wore their hair. According to reports, Meyer vetted Doyle before he hired him to be the Jaguars director of sports performance.

Via ESPN:

“I vet everyone on our staff and, like I said, the relationship goes back close to 20 years and a lot of hard questions asked, a lot of vetting involved with all our staff,” Meyer said. “We did a very good job vetting that one.

“… I met with our staff and I’m going to be very transparent with all the players like I am with everything. I’ll listen closely and learn and also there’s going to have to be some trust in their head coach that we’re going to give them the very best of the best, and time will tell. … The allegations that took place, I will say [to the players] I vetted him. I know the person for close to 20 years and I can assure them there will be nothing of any sort in the Jaguar facility.”

Jaguars’ HC Urban Meyer said today that he has known new director of sports performance Chris Doyle for 20 years, he vetted his hire, and he is confident there will be no issues with Doyle, who left Iowa after numerous allegations of racist remarks and belittling players.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 11, 2021

People are not happy about the hire:

“Urban Meyer, what are you doing? We should take you for your word because of a 20-year history? Oh, a 20-year history that included a football team at the University of Florida that had multiple convicts on it, including 31 arrests in six years,” Twellman said.

“And what the hell have you been paying attention to over the last 12 months? Chris Doyle put 13 Iowa players in the hospital due to bullying. He also had multiple allegations from Black players due to racial bias against them. Do you know what that means? It’s called racism. Oh, but you vetted the hiring.”

📣📣📣
What are YOU doing Urban Meyer?!#NFL #Jaguars @Jaguars @SportsNation pic.twitter.com/5plWaZnWCi

— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) February 12, 2021

Marcus Spears also stepped up and blasted Meyer.

“How tone-deaf do you have to be to hire a guy, in this time in the country, in this league, with the things we’ve been dealing with. Who gets that pass outside of Urban Meyer and this coach Doyle that’s coming in with these things that transpire at Iowa? I’m not going to act like this is cool, because it’s not. I want to tell everybody, this is not cool.”

“How tone-deaf do you have to be to hire a guy in this time in the country, in this league, with the things we’ve been dealing with.”

Marcus Spears and the NFL Live crew were vocal and candid about their disappointment in Jacksonville’s hiring of Chris Doyle. pic.twitter.com/jdD1TUFcgn

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 11, 2021

Urban Meyer’s hiring of Chris Doyle is an example of why I praised Bruce Arians for the diversity of his staff. It’s more than ok to be accused of racism and bullying of college student athletes because as Urban said he’s “known Chris for close to 20 years”. Get mad. Don’t care

— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) February 12, 2021

Would love to know what his idea of “vetted” means. And this is the same guy who lied about whether he knew about his former OSU wide receivers coach’s domestic violence allegations.

So why does Urban Meyer’s word mean anything? https://t.co/KMO0Nnjomc

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 11, 2021

Here's Urban Meyer's answer about hiring Chris Doyle. Says he, GM and owner vetted him.

Translation: they know, they just don't care pic.twitter.com/2EcAuKmuJT

— Richard🇬🇾Johnson (@RJ_Writes) February 11, 2021

Urban Meyer already showing his willingness to go against the grain.

He’s either going to be very successful, or he’s going to fail miserably.

At the very least it should be fun to watch.

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