CLEVELAND — The great experiment of Urban Meyer in the NFL is over.
In the early morning hours of Thursday, the Jacksonville Jaguars fired Meyer as its head coach before he could even finish his first season.
For Meyer, it wasn't just that his team was 2-11 this season, although that certainly didn't help. Much of Meyer's downfall in Jacksonville had to do with the off-the-field headlines that seemed to pop up almost weekly.
In October, a viral video showed Meyer at his Columbus restaurant with a woman dancing on his lap. A second video surfaced, showing what appeared to be Meyer touching the woman's behind. It was revealed that Meyer stayed in Ohio after Jacksonville played in Cincinnati on a Thursday night, instead of flying back to Florida with his team.
More recently, Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo told a Florida newspaper reporter that Meyer kicked him during practice in August.
To get a perspective on Meyer and his future, I spoke with the man who literally wrote the book on the former Ohio State head coach, our own Ben Axelrod. We spoke about the timeline of terror that surrounded Meyer in his lone season in Jacksonville, whether or not he'll return to the college football coaching ranks, and what this will mean for his legacy.
Editor's Note: 10TV WBNS and the Associated Press contributed to this report
You can watch our conversation in the player above. Our colleague, Jay Crawford, has some additional thoughts below:
Previous Reporting:
- Jacksonville Jaguars fire head coach Urban Meyer
- 'They broke my heart a long time ago': Jaguars fans react to Urban Meyer's firing
- Jaguars coach Urban Meyer addresses viral dancing video
- Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer explains why he didn't fly home with team
- 'We all make mistakes': Urban Meyer's wife writes farewell post on Twitter following his viral video