Two months ago, free agent kicker Josh Lambo filed a lawsuit against his former team in Jacksonville for acts allegedly performed by the former head coach of the Jaguars, Urban Meyer. Jacksonville filed a motion this week to dismiss the lawsuit, alleging that the club is not responsible for the actions of Meyer, according to Daniel Kaplan of The Atheltic. 
In the 2021 preseason, Lambo missed a kick in each of Jacksonville’s first two games. Lambo alleged that, during a practice before the final preseason game, Meyer kicked him in the leg and said, “Hey dips—, make your f—ing kicks!” When Lambo told Meyer, “Don’t you ever f—ing kick me again!” Meyer replied by saying, “I’m the head ball coach. I’ll kick you whenever the f— I want.”
The Jaguars claim in their motion that, under the Florida Whistleblower Act, the team cannot be sued for retaliation since they didn’t instruct Meyer to kick Lambo. Their motion says, “Plaintiff’s case is predicated solely on the alleged criminal acts of Urban Meyer, not any policy, practice or activity of club.”
Lambo’s initial suit further claims that he notified his agent, Richard Irvin, of the interaction and that Irvin made the team’s counsel aware of the matter the following day. The allegations became public in December, shortly before Meyers was terminated, and, at the time, the Jaguars released a statement saying that the team immediately responded to Irvin’s query saying, “Counsel offered to speak with Josh, or to assist Josh in speaking with coaching or any other football personnel, if he was comfortable with her sharing the information. Any suggestion otherwise is blatantly false.”
According to Jacksonville’s new motion, they allege that they received no response to their offer to provide Lambo with counsel. The motion reads, “Plaintiff does not allege he or his agent ever responded to the inquiry made by Club’s legal counsel offering to follow up with Plaintiff, with Mr. Meyer and/or with Club management.”
Lambo is seeking damages for emotional distress and reputational harm as well as his full $3.5MM salary from 2021. He claims “the environment created by Meyer and the franchise affected his performance,” which suffered until he was cut after missing three field goals and two extra points in the team’s first two games.
Meyer has refuted the accuracy of Lambo’s description of events and Jacksonville’s new motion claims that, regardless of the accuracy, they hold no fault for Meyer’s “alleged criminal acts.”
NFL Lawsuit Rumors
Otherwise known as the period between the draft and preseason
Meyer was an employee of the Jags, so they have to be responsible for his actions. It would be the same if Meyer groped cheerleaders.
Didn’t lambos lawsuit allow Jacksonville to fire meyer with cause therefore saving Jacksonville millions of dollars on a train wreck, therefore wouldn’t the owners love him…..I am not a lawyer so I don’t know how that works
The law protects the Jags here. But Lambo can now file a civil suit.
My only question is did someone catch this on video.
Meyer’s tenure with the Jags makes Lou Holtz’s brief coaching stint with the Jets look like a smashing success by comparison.
Lambo is a garbage player with zero skill and looking for one last cash grab. No one cares!
Jaguars are not my team, but what gives a coach the right to kick a kicker in his leg knowing that’s his livelihood?
Yup and by all accounts the kick was more of a tap by other players and coaches
“No one cares!”
It appears you cared enough to not only click on the article, but also complain about it
Meyers proved to be a more accurate kicker than Lambo, so on that basis, every Jags fan has a case for emotional distress.
“Our supervisors kicking our employees on company property is NONE of our business!!!”
Does the same apply if an employee assaults a supervisor?
Culpability goes up the pyramid, but if they ignored obvious red flags in hiring them or if (as in this case) after it happened they were just like “whatever, get over it”, then sure.
Urban Meyer. The gift that keeps on giving.
‘The Jaguars claim in their motion that, under the Florida Whistleblower Act, the team cannot be sued for retaliation since they didn’t instruct Meyer to kick Lambo.’
Best line the article. The Jags don’t deny it happened!
There was a whistle blowing incident in the Bengals / Raiders playoff game last season. Apparently it’s an acquired skill.
Isn’t there an employee suing Tesla for being racially harassed? What’s the difference from this case?
One has to do with alleged racial bias and cars. The other has to do with alleged assault and football. I hope this helps.
Can the Jags sue him for missing his kicks and being a terrible kicker?
They paid for a kicker and got nothing but a person that missed. That was false advertising of a kicker in my book. That would be saying Watson is a QB haha
The dude should sue them for a careers-worth of salary. That might discourage owners from hiring those kinds of clowns.
When you hire a nutjob as your Head Coach you are responsible for his actions. Pay up, Jaguars.