Do you believe Urban Meyer is sincere when he says that he didn’t lie to the media and he did not enable domestic violence?
Anthony W.
Shortly before answering this, I went back and read
the full transcript of Meyer’s news conference Monday. Because these were the two topics he addressed the most, and it’s clear his primary message in his interviews, statements and that news conference is he thinks he’s being unfairly portrayed on both issues.
In terms of Big Ten Media Day, what he said in Chicago falls somewhere between a “lie” (which implies a malicious intent) and, as Meyer put it, an “inaccuracy” (which implies he simply had wrong information at the time). He’s saying he got hung up on the “arrest” part of Brett McMurphy’s initial story on Zach Smith’s 2015 domestic violence investigation (which was based on an inaccurate incident report that the Powell police went back and changed after the fact). That’s what Meyer apparently was referring to when he said, “I got a text late last night something happened in 2015. And there was nothing. Once again, there’s nothing — once again, I don’t know who creates a story like that.”
But I was there, and nobody used the word “arrest”
in their questions to him about 2015. I went back and listened to the tape;
it was referred to as an “incident.” Clearly, he would remember there being a police investigation into Smith in 2015, not to mention that in a text exchange that morning he was advised to say, “there were no charges,” as opposed to “there was nothing.” At the very least, I think we can agree he was disingenuous.
In terms of “enabling domestic violence” — again, that phrase implies Meyer is some evil, win-at-all-costs monster who knowingly ignored serious accusations against one of his assistants. I think it’s more a case of him being naive as to what constitutes domestic violence. By his own admission, he thought at the time that if the police do an investigation and decline to bring charges, then, as he said, “domestic violence was not part of the situation.” Like a lot of people, he may hold an antiquated perception that “domestic violence” is only when a man hits a woman. As
Courtney Smith’s text messages and her
protective ordershow, Zach Smith inflicted abuse in many different forms.
As even Ohio State’s investigators concluded, it’s more likely than not that Shelley Meyer conveyed at least some of this to Urban. But what I’ve come to realize is that even if she did, he would not have known what to do with that information. To this day, he seems to view any spousal behavior that doesn’t warrant criminal charges to constitute “marital issues.” Which is why he continued to think his proper role in the situation was to help “stabilize” a troubled family rather than remove a troubled individual from his coaching staff.
Domestic violence is an extremely complex, extremely nuanced issue. Unfortunately, in the polarization of this story, it became very black and white for many people — if the police didn’t charge Smith, then Courtney must be lying; if Meyer didn’t fire him at the time, it shows he condones domestic violence. Nothing in this story is that simple. But the fact that a reporter asked him flat-out Monday, after everything that’s come out, “Do you believe that Courtney Smith was ever a victim of domestic violence?” and he replied, “I can only rely on what information I received from the experts,” tells me he still doesn’t get it.