There is a guy out there who calls himself the Reputation Doctor and I can think of at least two prominent veterans of the football coaching trade who could use his services right now. A sort of surgeon specializing in character repair, his name is Mike Paul, who has been praised by BusinessWeek as “The Master of Disaster;” by Sports Illustrated as “Mr. Fixit;” by various political leaders as “The Crisis King.”
And if there ever were public figures in need of esteem convalescence, we could start with Jon Gruden and Urban Meyer, a couple of fellows who appear to consider themselves apart from polite society. Judging by recently revealed emails and videotapes, Gruden and Meyer seemed to assume the job bestowed unlimited access to power and privilege, a free pass to belittle and badger whomever they pleased.
I once spoke to the Reputation Doctor while reporting on an embarrassing transgression by some accomplished sports star or other. Of course he spoke only in general terms, since he was not working with that athlete, but a central tidbit he did offer was that “if they were my clients, I’d say, ‘You don’t want people to doubt your word.’”
Which gets right to the problem with Gruden and Meyer. Gruden, after detailed revelations of racist, sexist and homophobic emails he had authored over several years, insisted he had “not a blade of racism in me” and claimed he “never meant to hurt anyone.” He resigned as Las Vegas Raiders coach under pressure—amid the high probability that not a soul believed his weak mea culpa.
Meyer called evidence of him canoodling with a young woman in a suburban Columbus, Ohio bar, after he had skipped his Jacksonville team’s flight home from its loss in Cincinnati, proof only of “a bad decision…stupid.” Jacksonville owner Shad Kahn called Meyer’s behavior “inexcusable” but kept him around for the Jaguars’ fifth consecutive loss the next weekend. Meyer’s questionable conduct aside, losing five straight games in his first NFL job is not a good career look.
Meanwhile, character witnesses have not exactly rushed to either man’s defense and subsequent reporting not only reinforced unsavory qualities in both coaches, but raised the question of whether they represented a decidedly low standard among their peers.
Writing for Slate, Alex Kirshner called Gruden “a spitting image of the worst stereotype you had in your head of a meathead, authoritarian football coach” and concluded that Gruden’s attitude toward Blacks, women and gays “wasn’t an affront to the NFL as much as an embodiment of it.”
New York Magazine’s Will Leitch contended that it is “becoming increasingly clear” that the Gruden’s emails were “about the entire culture of the NFL….You want to know what the NFL is really like? The Gruden emails—again, sent by one of the most powerful figures in the league, without the slightest worry of reproach, to top-ranking NFL officials at their corporate email addresses—are the opening pages of the entire story…”
William Rhoden of The Undefeated argued that the “reality is that the NFL, for all its attempts to move forward, has been revealed as a regressive organization populated by white men who hold views about race and power that are antithetical to progress and enlightenment. Trust me, Gruden is not the only person who holds these beliefs. He’s the only one stupid enough, or emboldened enough, to express them via email.” At The Atlantic, Jemele Hill declared that “the NFL is full of Jon Grudens.”
Urban Meyer has not been similarly cast as reflecting league-wide boorishness—not yet, anyway. But shortly after he took the Jacksonville job, there was a published reminder that one of his first hires was strength coach Chris Doyle, who had been forced out at the University of Iowa over allegations he had made racist statements and had bullied players. (Doyle resigned months ago but denied any wrongdoing.)
Sounds like the NFL needs more than a public relations medic.