Urbie might be available sooner than we thought...

[CrazyFan]

Look Beaker..if you're going to be all articulate and well thought out in your arguments...well...you can just get the hell off the internet right now

Yah!! To counter this, I think we need another "Fire Jinx" thread.............

[Lord_Byron]

Payday from who? I love it when people start blaming the victim. She only let him hit her, so she could sue years down the road.

I know someone who was in a situation where a female tried to antagonize him to the point he'd hit her. Luckily, he recognized what was going on and was able to get out before that happened. Had he not, the police would have been called, etc, just like the person before him. There is a lot of crazy in this world.

So, no, not blaming the victim. Just saying that sometimes, there's more to a story than meets the eye.

Sorry, but no. It's a binary choice:

1) Hit a woman
or
2) Don't hit a woman.

There is only one correct answer, no matter what the behavior of the woman is. No gray area.

[pdt1081]

Payday from who? I love it when people start blaming the victim. She only let him hit her, so she could sue years down the road.

I know someone who was in a situation where a female tried to antagonize him to the point he'd hit her. Luckily, he recognized what was going on and was able to get out before that happened. Had he not, the police would have been called, etc, just like the person before him. There is a lot of crazy in this world.

So, no, not blaming the victim. Just saying that sometimes, there's more to a story than meets the eye.

Sorry, but no. It's a binary choice:

1) Hit a woman
or
2) Don't hit a woman.

There is only one correct answer, no matter what the behavior of the woman is. No gray area.

All choices in life are binary. But, there are millions of scenarios, influences, and life lessons that make humans arrive at the choice they make.

As for your "no gray area," I wish I still lived in your bubble. When presented with fight or flight, and flight is blocked, you will do what you have to to survive. It's human nature.

[Lord_Byron]

In my bubble, men don't hit women for any reason.

There's plenty of room in that bubble for you if you'd like to enter.

[Falconfreak90]

In my bubble, men don't hit women for any reason.

There's plenty of room in that bubble for you if you'd like to enter.

Smith is a total scumbag a**hole.

[pdt1081]

In my bubble, men don't hit women for any reason.

There's plenty of room in that bubble for you if you'd like to enter.

You see, you use that word "any." If she's got the door blocked and coming at me with a knife, you better believe I ain't going down without a fight.

[Falconwriter]

James O'Keefe tweeted some undercover videos from discussions with former players at Florida. At worse....the reinforce the notion that Urbie is a guy who's subject to violent outburst who is also callous and indifferent with respect to the suffering of others.

From what I recall from Dr Kumler's abnormal psych class, he's the classic narcissist

Narcissists typically get where they are though by having these traits.

As for Urban, he's certainly in trouble. Tressel was canned for far less worse and the optics here look awful on both Urban and the university. I'll never understand why people will choose to cover and protect others. Had Urban reported this to the school, he'd have washed his hands of it.

I'm late to this discussion, but Tressel was fired for overtly lying to the NCAA and breaking one of the NCAA's harshest rules.

Meyer is ACCUSED of not following proper procedures in reporting a possible domestic violence situation (not an NCAA issue OR a Title IX issue). Hardly the same level. at least from an NCAA perspective.

We now know that there were a lot of accusations from a woman whose own mother describes her as a liar and vindictive, and someone who has said many times she wanted to take down her ex-husband and Meyer.

Lots has come out since the original lie was posted by this so-called reporter (he alleged their were charges of domestic violence in a 2015 incident, but we now know that is not true.)

This should be resolved no later than Friday, and I am expecting it to happen sooner than that after the Board of Trustees meets tomorrow. If there's any justice in the world, Meyer will not face any sanctions for what has happened...and I'm basing that on everything we now know to be true. Unless there's some smoking gun that has not been revealed yet (unlikely since the primary "reporter" on this has been throwing as much mud out there as possible).

[gmartin]

My gut tells me Meyer will be suspended for 2 games by OSU. Meyer did lie about not knowing certain things when indeed he was aware. He was aware Smith was receiving personal items shipped to campus offices although I doubt he was aware they were sex toys. Meyer needs to receive some penalty for failure to control so I'm guessing it will be 2 games. He won't miss the TCU game.

[gmartin]

My gut tells me Meyer will be suspended for 2 games by OSU. Meyer did lie about not knowing certain things when indeed he was aware. He was aware Smith was receiving personal items shipped to campus offices although I doubt he was aware they were sex toys. Meyer needs to receive some penalty for failure to control so I'm guessing it will be 2 games. He won't miss the TCU game.

Suspended for THREE games. Will miss the prime time TCU game. Also Gene Smith suspended for 17 days without pay.

[mbenecke]

I think this punishment is fair.

[jpfalcon09]

I think this punishment is fair.

Meh, it's a swing and a miss. There's a lot of inconsistencies in the investigation that raise more questions than what were answered. If Urban worked in any capacity outside of Ohio State football, he probably loses his job. But the Buckeyes had already known what the outcome was going to be before they launched the investigation. Three of the six people who completed the report were Trustees, others had ties to Ohio State directly.

Urban covered for Zach Smith several times and the report outlines more than seven instances where he threatened to fire Smith for his behavior. That's a major oversight and as someone who instills treating women with respect as one of his core values, Meyer walks away looking like a massive hypocrite out of all this, and to be like a total scumbag. I've lost whatever respect I've had for him and this whole situation confirms what most outside observers of Ohio State already know, that they care more about winning football games and making money than doing the right thing.

[pdt1081]

If Urban worked in any capacity outside of Ohio State football, he probably loses his job.

If Urban was middle/upper management at any private company there isn't even an investigation, let alone a punishment.

[jpfalcon09]

If Urban worked in any capacity outside of Ohio State football, he probably loses his job.

If Urban was middle/upper management at any private company there isn't even an investigation, let alone a punishment.

Highly doubt that. Private companies aren't going to take on liability of someone knowing about abuse and refusing to do anything about it. Almost everyone has code of conduct policies that include reporting sexual abuse/assault. That'd be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The biggest thing out of all this that caught my eye was Urban deliberately deleted text messages over a year old on his phone, which would be obstruction or tampering of evidence in any criminal case.

[Flipper]

HEAVILY doubt that...apparently Urbie takes meds that allow him to credibly say "I don't recall"..... They need to start figuring a way to ease him out in the near future. Maybe not this year...but by the end of 2019...

[Falconwriter]

If Urban worked in any capacity outside of Ohio State football, he probably loses his job.

If Urban was middle/upper management at any private company there isn't even an investigation, let alone a punishment.

Highly doubt that. Private companies aren't going to take on liability of someone knowing about abuse and refusing to do anything about it. Almost everyone has code of conduct policies that include reporting sexual abuse/assault. That'd be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The biggest thing out of all this that caught my eye was Urban deliberately deleted text messages over a year old on his phone, which would be obstruction or tampering of evidence in any criminal case.

No way. A company is not going to tell employees they are responsible for reporting anything they might believe is happening to people they supervise or work with. This is an unrealistic and unattainable standard. Yet that is what the panel said Meyer should have done. They didn't find him culpable in covering up any domestic violence situation (which was the original reason for the investigation)...so they changed the rules and came back with a "he should have known about" explanation for his suspension. It's baloney.

Here's an excellent summary of how this entire report should be released, so we can see exactly what the committee based this on. It's written by author and journalist Jeff Snook.


The following is a column, including opinion and analysis.

So let me get this straight: Ohio State’s six-member panel investigating whether Urban Meyer covered up domestic violence by one of his former assistant coaches spent 14 days, day and night, interviewing 40 witnesses, accessing more than 60,000 documents, and thousands of text messages and emails.

And the university releases a 23-page report of its findings?

TWENTY-THREE PAGES?

This won’t pass.

Only an institution like Ohio State can screw up something so serious so badly.

The university has had a football program that wins plenty of games and championships for decades and yet has a solid, consistent history of losing the public relations game.

And here, they committed PR suicide by throwing its athletic director and head football coach under the proverbial bus in a superficial, white-washed report to appease its national critics. There is no other way to dissect this mess.

The public deserves to see every email, text, transcript of every interview of all 40 witnesses, every nook, cranny, and dirty detail of this “investigation.”

In the wake of receiving a three-game suspension, and if Meyer is to be vilified nationally and have his name sullied for the rest of his life, then the public deserves the right to read EVERYTHING and judge for themselves.

Because after I read this so-called report – it took about the time in which you can drink a fast cup of your morning coffee – it is nothing but a brief, lopsided, sculpted version of what has taken place. With this report, the public is being duped.

It’s not only just a part of the story, it’s not even one-tenth of the story.

The report chooses to ignore any validity or even mention the mountain of evidence that the original accuser, Courtney Smith, had credibility issues when claiming her husband, then ex-husband, receivers coach Zach Smith committed domestic violence against her, specifically in October, 2015, the incident which set a match to this entire firestorm.

I have become privy to much of the testimony to the panel over the past two weeks – and I can tell you first-hand that none of it appears in this report. The Powell police department, the accuser’s own mother and ex mother-in-law, Zach Smith, and at least two others detailed to the committee how the accuser followed through with a well-planned take down of her ex-husband for being unfaithful. All, to a tee, stated her claims of domestic abuse didn’t occur.

And yet, the mention of “sex toys” does appear.

And despite the flimsy report stating there was no evidence of domestic violence, the entire nation still believes there was. Worse, they believed Meyer covered it up.

From the report:

“We have found no evidence of further arrests or any criminal charges filed against Zach Smith for domestic violence during the period 2010 – present, although a domestic violence civil protection order was issued against him ex parte1 on July 20, 2018, which he is contesting. Other Conduct: There is, however, extensive evidence during this period of misconduct and other problematic, or at least questionable, behavior by Zach Smith while he was employed at OSU, only some of which was known to Coach Meyer, AD Smith, and/or others in the Athletics Department. …. The investigation has not discovered evidence in connection with Zach Smith’s alleged commission of domestic violence suggesting any Title IX violation. And we note that the designated Title IX Coordinator for Athletics (Miechelle Willis) was the first person in the Department to learn of the 2015-2016 law enforcement investigation. Gene Smith ensured that Ms. Willis remained apprised of the relevant facts as discussions relating to the investigation continued. … We have found no other facts giving rise to violations of policy, rules, law, or contractual obligations by Coach Meyer or AD Smith in connection with alleged domestic violence by Zach Smith.”

Hello?

That’s the lead to the story, folks.

What’s crucial here is that addresses the core findings of the original focus of this entire investigation to begin with, back when it started Aug. 2.

The report then goes into lurid detail of Smith’s drinking, trips to strip clubs while recruiting, purchase of sex toys, and the most damaging item of all – having an intra-office affair with a staffer (who was re-assigned when Meyer discovered the affair).

It acknowledges Meyer once warned Smith that one more trip to a strip club while recruiting and he would be terminated.

Hey, everybody gets it now: Zach Smith has character issues. He did not represent the university well once daylight turned to darkness, whether on the road or at home. He drank, womanized, selfied his nether region and strip-clubbed.

He probably shouldn’t have been hired when Meyer accepted the job in December, 2011, judging from his arrest for domestic violence in 2009 as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Florida. That is where Meyer’s blind loyalty to the grandson of Earle Bruce enters the picture.

But the university owes the public a clearer explanation of Meyer’s suspension, and the reasons for it, as the country still believes it relates to domestic violence, thanks to ESPN and other national outlets which still choose to ignore the facts.

And OSU President Michael Drake, perhaps thinking of his next job already, has now enabled them to do so.

Perhaps Drake should have stated the causes for Meyer’s discipline this way:

“Urban Meyer is suspended one game for not knowing an assistant coach carried on an affair with a staffer. Urban Meyer is suspended a second game for not knowing said assistant coach was arrested and charged with operating a vehicle under the influence in 2013; lastly, Urban Meyer is suspended a third game for not realizing said assistant coach visited strip clubs while recruiting and ordered sex toys delivered to the football facility … “

Because in a nutshell, that’s what happened here.

That's the real story.

That's the truth.

And it would have been much more effective and accurate.

The report also details how Meyer had communication issues during his annual Big Ten media appearance July 24 in Chicago. It’s clear he did and stumbled over himself that day, instead of issuing a “no comment,” which would have been the better play-call in that situation.

Because sometimes, as a coach who wore a sweater vest often said, when you are facing third-and-23 from deep in your own end of the field, it’s just better to run a draw and then punt rather than throw an interception.

Now the entire university and Drake specifically, through its shallow 23-page report, just trumped him in way of massive communication failures with the public.

Twenty-three lousy pages?

Let me ask you the million-dollar question: Now who is covering up something?