Urban Meyer was suspended for three games. He potentially could have been fired for cause based on the findings of the recently released investigation. Ohio State likely decided to keep him around not because they believe he is a paragon of virtue, but because he wins football games and makes the school money.
That is not important.
Ohio State decided to follow-up Meyer’s “misstatements” with – at best – misrepresentations of reality and – at worst – outright lies. To actually have written in the report that “Coach Meyer impressed us with a sincere commitment to the Respect for Women core value that he espouses and tries to instill in his players” while at the same time acknowledging that he coincidently asked staff how to delete text messages during the time period relevant to the investigation and successfully deleted them is quite the moral tap dance.
This is also – in the grand scheme of things – not important.
The part of the investigation that made my stomach turn was this:
Coach Meyer maintains that shortly after the 2009 arrest, both Zach and Courtney Smith met with him in his office at Florida to inform him that the arrest of Zach Smith had been based on incorrect information provided to the authorities by Courtney Smith and that, in fact, Zach Smith had not hit or otherwise been violent toward Mrs. Smith.
This has been glossed over because most people believe Meyer was lying about this meeting. After all, the report says that Courtney Smith contends the meeting never happened and that she never recanted her story. Zach Smith says the meeting was just between him and Meyer. Ohio State’s own report sides against Meyer.
But that’s not what bothers me about the story. If Meyer’s version is a lie, then obviously that reflects poorly on him, blaming a victim and challenging her credibility to save his own hide. But if Meyer’s version is the truth, then it’s even worse.
It seems like common sense that interviewing a victim in the presence of her abuser would not be the best idea. The New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice has a document online titled “Interviewing Techniques in Domestic Violence Cases.” The very first section of that document states the following:
Once officers have arrived at the scene of the incident, the officers should separate the victim and suspect as soon as safely possible and interview them separately. Take the victim out of hearing range and away from eye contact with the suspect. This will greatly decrease the likelihood that she will be intimidated by the suspect.
Even if what Meyer says is completely factually accurate, having Zach Smith in that room is completely unfair. Certainly one can imagine a scenario where if the allegations were true, Courtney Smith might have felt like recanting would be better than the beating waiting at home if she maintained her story.
The fact that Meyer thought this was an acceptable way to get to the heart of the matter is mind boggling. The fact that he would lie about it because he thought it advanced his narrative is equally galling.
Combine that with the fact that Meyer’s buddies are alleged to have leaned on her to not press charges in 2009 because it would get Zach fired and that text messages to wives of the Ohio State staff, including Meyer’s wife Shelley, did not cause any action and you can understand why Courtney Smith decided that Brett McMurphy was the only way to make it stop.
And that’s what I hope doesn’t get lost in all of the noise around Urban Meyer’s legacy and Ohio State’s moral compass.
Courtney Smith is who this story should have been about from the beginning. She is the person who felt like she couldn’t report her husband’s alleged abuse without him losing his job. She is the person who has pictures of bruises and police reports and text messages. And in light of this investigation by Ohio State, she’s the only person who seems to pass any sort of credibility test.
I can’t be sure that Zach Smith abused his wife. I know that the evidence presented by Brett McMurphy is compelling, but I also have to admit that I can’t be sure.
But whether you believe her or not doesn’t change this fact. Courtney Smith claims that she was abused repeatedly even after getting a divorce from her abuser.
And by their own admission, people who could have protected her bullied her to stay quiet.
Nate W
Well this sucks. Talk is cheap. Talking about respecting women is easy… If Urban put as much passion into doing the right thing as he does winning foozball he’d be a real hero. Not the kind that some Buckeye fans (and administrators) think he is. And Gator fans used to think he was… But you are who you decide to be… What’s sad is that it seems like he had a lot of chances to make the right decision but just couldn’t do it. But he sure does win a bunch of football games!!! How idiotic does that sound…
Kristopher
Ive never had any ill will towards Meyer. Even after the way he left the program and the way he admittedly “broke” the program I was thankful for the wins and 2 championships. It was tough to see him go after all the fun and feeling of invincibility when we were faced with a “third and Tebow”. Well, I guess there was that one time against Mississppi but I digress.
After all of the reports and laughable slap on the wrist (he can still coach, just not during a game) I have to say I finally feel the same as most Gators do about Meyer. The ironic thing is I called him “Urban Liar” when referring to him because it was silly and fun, not because I thought he was one…until now.
If I were him, I’d have a hard time looking in the eyes of a recruit’s parent and telling them that I’ll be a high character and moralistic care taker of your son for the next four years.