The Tennessee Titans just ended Urban Meyer’s NFL career
By Will Lomas
Even though Christmas is around the corner, that noise you hear isn’t the sound of the Whos in Whoville singing around the tree. That noise is the collection of cheers coming from Jacksonville Jaguars fans after the Tennessee Titans beat them so badly that they had to fire Urban Meyer.
Make no mistake, Urban Meyer would still be the Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach in a different scenario despite what he did off the field (more on that later).
Whether the Jaguars use this as an excuse to take the high ground, never forget that there were two big scandals in the Urban Meyer “era” in Jacksonville that led to him being fired.
The first was early in the season with the incident at the bar (you know the one). Who did the Jaguars play the next week? That’s right, they played the Tennessee Titans in a blowout loss that showed that the locker room was not going to rally around Urban Meyer in a time of crisis.
After that, the Jaguars actually bounced back going 2-1 over the next three weeks with wins over the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. The following month the Jaguars played close games with the Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons, but couldn’t get in the win column.
Before Week 14, rumblings started to emerge of players venting their frustrations to the L.A. Rams after their Week 13 loss in L.A. and stories trickled out about the massive divide between Urban Meyer and literally everyone else in the organization.
The crown jewel of those stories was the incident that will probably be called “losergate” where Urban Meyer forced his staff to go around the table and convince him that they were winners and not losers.
With his back against the wall, Urban Meyer once again had to look across the field into the eyes of Mike Vrabel as he took an absolute beatdown. Less than a week later he was unemployed.
Did the Tennessee Titans really get Urban Meyer fired?
Now, the title of this article may have you wondering whether the Tennessee Titans were really the reason why Meyer got fired. Ask yourself this, if the scores were reversed would he still be fired?
If the Jaguars had won 20-0 on the road and forced Ryan Tannehill to throw 4 interceptions while Trevor Lawrence looked in control the entire game, does anyone think that Jags Owner Shad Khan would have pulled the trigger with four weeks left in the season?
No, the off-the-field issues before Week 5 and Week 14 combined with the way he and the team responded to that pressure is what led to Khan being forced to fire him.
It isn’t the first time that the Tennessee Titans have shattered the hopes and dreams of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and it won’t be the last. However, this might be a situation where Jags fans are just glad to get this over with and put this behind them.
If that is the case, then please send your thank you notes to Nissan Stadium (1 Titans Way, Nashville, TN 37213) and rethink your fandom while you have the chance.