We’re continuing to monitor the Richard Sherman case, but it isn’t the only legal situation developing around the NFL on Wednesday. The Jaguars and their head coach Urban Meyer have been subpoenaed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Garry Smits of the Florida Times-Union reports.
The subpoena is for “documents, electronic transmissions and other evidence related to the hiring and subsequent resignation of former University of Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle by Meyer in February.” The evidence they’re seeking is regarding a “$20 million racial discrimination civil lawsuit filed against Iowa on Nov. 12 by eight former Iowa players.”
Doyle was a former assistant at Iowa, who left the school last summer with a $1.1MM separation agreement after he was accused of making racist remarks and belittling players. Meyer subsequently hired him for his inaugural Jaguars staff, which drew a lot of backlash.
Meyer initially stood by Doyle, but eventually Doyle resigned shortly after joining the team. The Jaguars issued a curt statement denying that they’ll be of any use in the investigation. “We respect and will cooperate with the legal process as required,” it read. “However, the Jaguars have no information that would be relevant to the lawsuit between student-athletes and the University of Iowa.”
That might turn out to be true, but it’s another unwelcome distraction for Meyer as he prepares for his first season as an NFL head coach. We’ll update with any further developments.
Summer time in the NFL is still chocked full of stories!
it’s mostly rural out here in iowa, we don’t need any urban crap come out here.
Evidently the English language is “urban crap” these days.
I like that you twisted what I thought was an obvious knock at Urban Meyer into something it wasn’t. You are a cool person.
whay information could they possibly have that’s relevant?
Perhaps Meyer is keeping secrets about a corn talking cult existing in America’s heartland.
As someone who lives in iowa. You’re dumb.
Two in a row…?
Iowa. You live in Iowa, not iowa. Just FYI.
I also live in Iowa. And yep you’re dumb lol
You don’t start a sentence with “And” just an FYI….
Meyer is off to a wonderful start in his NFL career.
You hire a sh*t bag and sh*t bag-related things will happen. It’s a simple formula.
Can there be any bigger scum bag of a coach than Meyer? Everywhere he goes is followed by carnage and then he resigns for a “ health reason”.
Much harder to coach when the players you coach find out that you consider them subhuman, it seems.
So bad he got kicked out of the urban league
I don’t like Meyer, but I don’t see how this really falls on him. The subpoena probably just is for Meyer to give a statement about Doyle’s hiring process-whether or not Doyle mentioned anything about a potential suit, any of the specific players named as plaintiffs, any players overall at Iowa, his attitude towards players in general, or racial descriptors of any kind.
$20 million does seem like fa lot or verbal abuse, though. In order to get anything of value, those players will have to demonstrate that they were at least in some way monetarily damaged by their time at Iowa, by policies in place or an enumeration of employees. So their accusations (accusations, bear that in mind) must be more than just verbal abuse. Even then, $20 million is a good bit. Doyle would be an element that goes toward proving that environment, but the suit doesn’t seem about him himself. I doubt Meyer thought it would be relevant to his coaching of the Jags, but the fact that Doyle resigned immediately could say differently. Or it says that Doyle himself realized how much trouble he was in. In any case, Meyer at best looks inexperienced and at worst clueless at vetting people. I doubt this has practical consequences other than hurting his already murky reputation in the end, however, especially because he-or someone in Jacksonville-already made Doyle resign.