Several media outlets, to the chagrin of some, reported yesterday that dehydration was not behind Urban Myer‘s hospital visit the day after the SEC Championship game loss to Alabama.
Rather, a 911 call placed from Meyer’s home revealed the Florida head coach was suffering from chest pains and was rushed to a Gainesville hospital via an ambulance. The original story also had Meyer admitting himself to the hospital in the hours after the conference title game.
This afternoon, in a press conference with media in attendance for the Sugar Bowl, Meyer said the fabrication was done so as to protect both his family and his football team. The coach also took the time to take a shot or two at the voyeurs who’ve brought this whole situation to light.
“I have three children that mean more to me than anything. I have a football team that means more to me than anything, and I didn’t want it to get out at all,” Meyer said. “We were very careful. I didn’t want alarm, and I think at some point, whether you’re a football coach or whether you’re a lawyer or whatever, you’d think at some point there would be a lot of respect for families involved and children and 11-year-old boys and 16-year-old girls and 19-year-old girls. [You] do what you’ve got to do to protect them.
“If that means not come clean with full details about something very personal -- if you can’t understand that then first of all you’ve got to re-check yourself. Second of all I think at some point you certainly will understand that.”
I understand wanting to protect your children in a case like this, but wouldn’t the fact that their father was, you know, carted away from their home in an ambulance be a sign that something might be amiss with their father’s health? They wouldn’t necessarily need to read something in the morning fish wrap to know, again, that there might be something going on when there are flashing lights outside the house and EMTs scurrying about inside.
Meh, what do I know. There just seems to be something “off” about this whole situation.