Urban Meyer, for one reason or another, has had a lot of splainin’ to do recently.
A report from Fox Sports earlier this week accused Meyer of “turning in” a former Florida assistant for a secondary recruiting violation, an accusation Meyer denied relatively quickly. Of course, that was nothing compared to the heat Meyer’s been taking in regards to the Aaron Hernandez situation, to which Meyer’s had no comment.
Until now.
In text messages to multiple outlets, including Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch, Meyer broke his silence on his supposed role in the Hernandez case as an enabler. Any blame directed toward him or Florida, Meyer said, is “irresponsible.”
“He was an athlete at Florida 4-to-7 years ago and there are some comments being made that are not correct,” Meyer said. “Our staff, myself and our families worked very hard to mentor and guide him. Prayers and thoughts are with the family and friends of the victim. Relating or blaming these serious charges to Univ. of Florida, myself or our staff is wrong and irresponsible.”
Hernandez, formerly with the New England Patriots, was connected to a 2007 shooting when he was just 17 and a freshman at UF, but police later said Hernandez was not a suspect and he declined to speak to police on the right to have counsel present. When asked about that shooting, Meyer said he was informed by an assistant that the players were questioned as witnesses and “I didn’t think about it again until a couple of days ago.”
Still, there are many who question if Meyer did enough on his own to get to the bottom of the incident, and it’s a fair question to ask. Then there’s Meyer’s reputation for recruiting and playing athletes with questionable character during his time with the Gators. Add it up, and Meyer’s narrative as an enabler is as bad as its ever been.
That narrative doesn’t appear out of thin air. There has to be some reason for critics to believe the things they do. But the 2007 shooting, despite the release of the incident report, is still full of question marks as it relates to Hernandez. And it’s the only incident (that we know of) during Hernandez’s time with UF that even comes close to throwing up red flags predicting a future (alleged) murder.
Not getting busted for drugs. Not punching someone at a bar.
If Meyer knew more than he’s leading us to believe and there was some sort of cover-up for Hernandez, then that’s one thing. That’s not known for sure, though, and the rest -- the drugs and the fights -- doesn’t accurately predict an alleged homicide.
Until it’s proven Meyer knew more about the 2007 shooting, persecuting him for what happened to Odin Lloyd doesn’t make sense.