Site icon Side Action

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.


Welcome to the game outside the game! Follow us on our Sideaction Twitter handle, Instagram, and Facebook for the latest on sports and pop culture news across the web!